GRAND PRAIRIE, whose roots are country rock, have been performing for 30 years. Regulars on the function circuit, they have played a number of times at Goodwood House in Sussex, Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Park Lane, the Red Bull party post the British Grand Prix, Twickenham Rugby Stadium, the Kennington Oval and many other venues.
Grand Prairie visit the US every August. They have appeared on several occasions in Monterey, California, San Diego, Phoenix, New Orleans, and many times on the East Coast in most of the New England states. “”
The band are regular performers at a festival in Alton, New Hampshire – a couple of hours drive north west of Boston – where, in the last few years, they have played two ninety minutes sets as the sole support act to Willie Nelson, Clint Black, Aerosmith, Alabama, Diana Ross and Trace Adkins.
The band also keeps a fairly regular number of London pub gigs going although, as a 6 or 7-piece, it is quite big for some of these venues, but fun all the same. These dates appear on the band’s website.
Grand Prairie is driven largely by Jenny Ormonde and Rob Wilson.Both Jenny, originally from Tipperary Ireland,Men’s Watches and Rob, originally from Auckland New Zealand arrived in London in the 70’s. They met soon after and have worked together ever since. They released a 12-track album of covers, “”Midnight Special”” in 2004.
Some nine years passed, until the release of Grand Prairie’s first album of largely self-penned material. “”This Ain’t Reno”” contains a collection of songs penned by Rob Wilson and producer Steve Elson, including “”A Little Bit of Nice Boy””, “”This Is What I Get For Loving You”” and “”Get Me On The Plane””.
Jenny who shares the vocals on the album with Rob also plays accordion, harmonica and flute whilst Rob plays bass but also a bit of guitar and piano on this CD. They are joined on the record by Howard Tibble on drums, Pete Terry on Piano, Andy McDonald on Sax and Steve Elson on ukulele and banjo.
Steve has produced a number of successful records going back to “”In Zaire”” and onwards. Steve and Rob have worked together on and off since the early seventies and formed the original “”Strolling Bones”” tribute band in 1983. Steve subsequently formed and still fronts the Counterfeit Stones.
Given the amount of time the band has spent motoring this way and that across the USA they think the road dust is genuine.
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