The Blues Was Always In Me: An Interview with Nate Gross
Nate Gross is a blues musician from Oxford, New York. At the age of 35, he's arguably done as much as musicians much older than him. He has shared stages with acts like Dickey Betts, Anders Osbourne, and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He not only has toured solo, but also with a trio that includes his brother. He currently runs a studio and music instruction practice in Norwich.
TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL: Lots of musicians relocate to places like Los Angeles or Nashville. You've elected to stay in your home town of Oxford. In fact, you even wrote a song about it.
NATE GROSS: Yeah, you know, it's funny. I ended up moving. I did the New York thing and I did the San Francisco music scenes both and I found that I just was going to move back home and try it here. I figure it's okay to be kind of a big fish in a small pond in today's industry. But I tried all those different towns and stuff. I had fun doing it, but the industry's changing and the money's not there. It's hard to support yourself. I found it was much easier to do it here, especially when you have a support system of family and friends and whatnot.
TCC: You've cited bands like The Allman Brothers, and record labels like Motown as your primary influences.
NG: You know, I came from a great musical family. Neither of my parents played at all, but music was always really important in our house. None of us really watched TV much. It was always 'What albums are we going to put on today?' So, what happened was my dad was a huge Allman Brothers fan and blues fan. He was always exposing me to that whole family of musicians. On my mom's side, she was a huge Motown, R&B and funk fan. We listened to a lot of Graham Central Station and Earth, Wind & Fire. When you combine both of those things, you get the heavy guitar influence of bands like the Allman Brothers or any of those bands, but mixed with the grooves of the Motown thing, I try to bring that into every performance. If it doesn't have a groove, then I'm not really interested.
TCC: How and when did you start playing blues guitar?
NG: Oh, I got into blues really early. I started playing guitar and taking private lessons at age five. I took private lessons from age five until seventeen. And then when I went off to college I minored in classical performance, but the blues was always, always in me. Anything that I did, anything that I ever listened to, it always had this connection back to the blues. I remember, even when I started playing guitar in 1987, the whole hair metal stuff was so big, and it's funny - some of the stuff that I listened to [then], I listen to it now as an adult, and like, oh, wow - I can totally see why I liked this song or that song, because it did have those blues elements. There were some seasoned musicians in our area that would take me out to open mics at ten, twelve years old, and we would just play the blues! It's just always been something that I really, really enjoyed. I loved the freedom of the blues. I love the fact that you can get together with any group of musicians across the country and say, ‘We're going to play some blues,’ and everybody knows what to do. It's a language that's invaluable. I love it!
TCC: How did you form your band?
NG: My little brother Ben is my bass player and I've always loved playing with him. He grew up listening to the same stuff that I did, so when we're on stage, we're not even looking at each other or anything. We know exactly where we're going to go. And then, Robert Tousignant, our drummer, actually lives right down the road from me. That just happened by chance, too. Bob relocated to Oxford after he had a great run in the 1960s and 1970s. He's an older gentleman. He's actually in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's a drummer that played with the band The Music Explosion. They had a big hit in 1967 called “A Little Bit O' Soul.” They did huge circuits; they played the Dick Clark Show and American Bandstand and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it just happened. I was trying to keep it small, this time do a trio. Stages are getting smaller, venues are getting smaller. The money isn't there for live performers, so to keep it as a trio was important. And if bigger shows come with bigger budgets we can always add a horn section or whatever you want to do. But it just happened, it was just some people that I knew and they all had the same vision that I did, and it's going well.
TCC: You've shared stages with some pretty big names in rock and country. Which one of those gigs would you consider your best?
NG: Oh, man, we had a really good show playing at the Westcott Theater with a band called Blackberry Smoke. They’re kind of hot on that country-blues-rock-and-roll scene. The room sold out. I'm always trying to get in front of bigger audiences and sometimes we're just begging for those opening slots to get on some of those same bills. So, the Blackberry Smoke show was really good. We've played with Dickey Betts from the Allman Brothers. That was a milestone for me, to be able to actually share the same stage as Dickey, one of my heroes growing up. I'm sure for my dad sitting out there in the audience, who exposed me to all those Allman Brothers albums and then I'm sharing the stage, it's gotta be pretty cool as well!
TCC: You run a recording studio in Norwich. Would you like to tell us more about it?
NG: Actually, it's not a recording studio, it's a teaching studio. It's pretty much my full-time gig. I have a full schedule; I have a huge waiting list and I love all my students, young and old. I do everything from guitar and bass [to] banjo. I have rock ensembles and jazz ensembles and, yeah, it's a great program. I've been doing it now for almost ten years. It's been a great, great experience and I try to take my students out in public and get them to play at different clubs and just give them the experience they're going to need if they want to pursue music as well.
TCC: Thus far, your band has only played gigs in the immediate area (Upstate NY, Northeastern PA). Do you have any plans to tour regionally or nationally?
NG: We do. Some of the dates are starting to come in now for 2018. Touring is an interesting thing as we live in such a modern time. You know, the money isn't there for your traveling expenses and all that. So we're keeping the circle kind of small right now to stay working, but if the right opportunity comes up, we'll definitely take it. With my last band, Tumbleweed Highway, we did a lot of touring. We toured all the way up and down the East Coast, and have been back out to California doing solo shows and whatnot. But right now, touring is just not coinciding with budgets, not just with me but with so many people. So, we're keeping it small right now and we're just reintroducing my new project to the locals. But we'll definitely be heading out in the near future. I don't have any plans of stopping!
More on Nate Gross at musicbynategross.com.
