About Ash Grunwald
Ash Grunwald is an Australian blues musician. He has released nine studio albums and has received five nominations for ARIA Music Awards. Five albums have charted in the ARIA Albums Chart top 50; Fish out of Water , Hot Mama Vibes , Trouble's Door , Gargantua and Mojo .
Under the guidance of his grandfather, Ash learned to play guitar and bass as a young child and together they recorded his first ever song – a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Going Down Slow". Grunwald began listening to the blues shows on Melbourne's community radio stations as a teenager. By his early 20s, Grunwald had been in and out of several bands including the Blue Grunwalds and the Groove Catalysts, as well as playing in a couple of duos. The Blue Grunwalds, released the album Groove Cave, which generated some local interest. The Groove Catalysts played a number of blues venues in Melbourne and at several festivals throughout 2001 and 2002.
Grunwald was trained as a secondary school teacher, which he left at age 26.
Grunwald drew attention as a solo artist with the release of his debut studio album, Introducing Ash Grunwald, a collection of blues standards and originals, including "Dolphin Song," which is based on a real life encounter Grunwald experienced with a shark and the pod of dolphins that came to his rescue. The positive response to Grunwald's debut resulted in two Australian Blues Awards for 'Best Emerging Talent' and 'Male Vocalist of the Year' in 2003.
In 2004, released his follow up album I Don't Believe, On the album, Grunwald emulated Tom Waits experimental bang and clang percussion using hammers, spanners and pots. The album included six originals, two Waits compositions, "Going Out West" and "Jesus Gonna Be Here" and blues standards. Grunwald received an ARIA Award nomination for 'Best Blues and Roots Album' in 2004, and the Victorian Blues award for 'Male Vocalist of the Year' and in 2005 the MBAS Vic / Tas award for Solo / Duo of the Year .
In June 2004, Grunwald recorded Live at the Corner, an album of songs from his first two releases. Grunwald won the 2005 MBAS Vic / Tas and Australian Blues awards Album of the Year in addition to being nominated once again for the 'Best Blues And Roots album' at the 2005 ARIA Awards. In May 2005, Grunwald was invited to take over as host of Triple J's Thursday night show 'Roots N All'.
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