From their head-turning sets at SXSW to buzz-building local shows to an appearance at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, 2015 has been a wild ride for Boston’s Grey Season. This week, with shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Thursday) and Greenfest 2015 (Friday) on the immediate horizon, leading up to a September appearance at Boston Calling, the brazen folk-rock quintet is taking a quick time-out to give appreciation back to their growing fan base.
This morning, Grey Season released an album of covers, dubbed Undercover and recorded by Fitz Ross Productions and Brandon Hafetz, with selections ranging from classic rock staples and traditional Irish folk tunes to some favorite material “kicking around the living room.” The band takes on Bob Dylan, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, Father John Misty, Iron & Wine, and others, in the 11-track sampler, and you can download it for free by signing up for the Grey Season mailing list.
It’s also streaming on their homepage, and via Soundcloud below.
“This is a collection of cover songs we’ve been playing for the past three years, most of which our audience has heard live at our gigs, but never had recordings of,” Grey Season writes. “We’ve recorded them over the past five months in a basement for fun, but they ended up being so cool that we thought it’d be a good way to thank all of our fans for the crazy year we’ve had since we released Time Will Tell You Well back in April ’14.”
The covers album is divided into two sides, the first with some recognizable names, recorded plugged-in and amplified, while the flip is an acoustic collection that goes a bit deeper into what has influenced Grey Season’s unique sound. “It’s not very polished,” they write of the latter, “but that’s the point. Everything was recorded live so what you hear is how it sounded in the basement, and this whole thing is a pretty clear indication of the music we grew up listening to; our roots if you will.”
Check out all of Grey Season’s upcoming live dates below, as well as a video introduction from the band on the covers album, as well as track listing and Soundcloud preview.
Grey Season upcoming dates:
August 20: Boston, MA @ ICA, 6 p.m., free
August 21: Boston, MA @ Greenfest 2015, City Hall Plaza, 4 p.m., free
August 23: Chestnut Hill, MA @ The Street, noon, free
September 12: Cambridge, MA @ Firebrand Saints, Boston Scene Party Showcase, 9:30 p.m., $5, with Art Thieves, The Wolf Hongos
September 26/27: Boston, MA @ Boston Calling Music Festival
Grey Season Undercover track listing
Side 1
“Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (Bob Dylan)
“I’m Writing A Novel” (Father John Misty)
“Up On Cripple Creek” (The Band)
“Sweet Virginia” (Rolling Stones)
“Maggie May” (Rod Stewart)
“Back Door Man/Five to One” (The Doors)
Side 2
“Moonshiner (Traditional Folk)
“Mary and the Soldier (Traditional Irish Folk)
“Dark As a Dungeon (Merle Travis)
“Lakes of Pontchartrain (Traditional Irish Folk)
“Faded From the Winter (Iron & Wine)