MadWhiskeyGrin, by God! profile picture

MadWhiskeyGrin, by God!

About Me

"This is Nancy," she said. "Nancy's a singer." Since gratuitous douchery is kind of my hobby, I sneered, "Yeah, well can you sing the blues while looking good in a red dress?" To which this Nancy chick reared up to her full height of (maybe) 5-foot nothing, Shot me a look which seemed to shift her eyes from blue to.. blood red, I guess, and growled, " What do you think?" Yeah, she's one of them

Since we share friends, she seemed to keep turning up. At some point, she invited herself on stage during my performance at last year's "Bud, Bourbon, and Blues Festival" (Held at Athens' magnificent Melting Point) and made herself at home.
Much to my surprise.
Also, to my surprise, it really, really worked. Damn, this chick could sing. Which kinda took some pressure off me - I can concentrate on playing the guitar without well-intentioned folk encouraging me to SING! SING!
I'll leave the singing to the singers.
Me? I'm Frank. I play guitar. There's other stuff too, of course. I'm a doctoral candidate, I'm writing a horror novel, a pop-up book on death, and a study of the blues in Japan. And I play guitar.
I played for 20 years before realizing that I'd been going in circles for much of that time. A few years ago I shook some calcification loose by switching to an open tuning and studying the art of Slide Guitar. To capture some more power, I cut a slide from the barrel of a 12 gauge that had once been issued to a prison guard in south Georgia. To reach for a deeper and more powerful sound, I switched to a 12 string guitar. When I'd ripped my right hand to shreds, I added fingerpicks. That's where we are now.
I don't sing much. I don't talk much. I Don't like microphones. I won't be dancing around at all. Give me a chair and a place to put my drink.
And that brings us back to Nancy. She sings. Talks. Jokes. Banters a bit. She doesn't seem to dance much on stage, but she's got this way of pacing that puts me in mind of a cat. Chipmunk. Whatever.
She's got a voice like oiled smoke.
Still haven't confirmed my suspicions about that Red Dress, though.
What people say:

If you think a 12-string is just a toy for guitar nerds, think again. In the hands of Mad Whiskey Grin, the 12-string acoustic is a palette capable of producing a variegated range of colors and shadings.

And it just might be a weapon.

---Robb Holmes, WUGA, 91.7FM

He plays a wonderful style of acoustic guitar reminiscent of the late John Fahey, and exhibits a blues influence that is strictly old school and along the lines of Robert Johnson and Elmore James. Very cool stuff, indeed.

---Gordon Lamb (The Threats and Promises Guy)

His unique brand of twelve-string instrumental music blends highland celtic strings and southern folk music into a product not far off the mark from zeppelins bron-y-aur stomp or black mountain side. ...i know of no finer twelve-string gunslinger in the athens-clarke county area.

---The pointlesswaltz guy

A blistering, 12-string, finger-picking slide-guitar assault....

Music to bash skulls in with.

--Nelson, Team Clermont

...so good it's just not fair.

--Phil Rossi, Rhythm on the River

Somewhat flaccid (think I'm kidding?--- READ IT HERE! BWAAHAA!)

---Mitchell Maddox, Southeast Performer



If you want to know more, drop me a line

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 19/05/2005
Band Members: I'm Frank. I play guitar.
Nancy sings.
That's what.
Influences: My best day ever
My fondest regret
My last dollar
Sounds Like: That time you saw her, and she flashed you a smile that you remember to this day. And you never even got her name.
Record Label: Dirty Bastards
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

5/16 Benefit at the Georgia Theater!

Together with Caroline Aiken and Kate Morrissey, The New and Improved Mad Whiskey Grin will be putting on a fundraiser for the Georgia Nature Center, which was just wrecked all to hell by the recent s...
Posted by on Tue, 12 May 2009 08:26:00 GMT

4/16 show at Rye Bar

Played with Bros Marler last night. Very good set they put on.  Some lunatic violinist joined them out of, like, nowhere, and played along with magnificent virtuosity. Nancy sang her guts out as usual...
Posted by on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:23:00 GMT

4/8 show

Flicker Theater, 4/8. Man.  Stereofidelics opened it up with a set that I can best describe as Blistering.  Melissa in rare Goddamn form. Chris tight; Powerful, powerful set.  Romanenko, Inestimable a...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:44:00 GMT

Mad Whiskey Grin, Live on WUGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzTN-wogj6U It's Friday! Live on WUGA! 9-26-200
Posted by on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:21:00 GMT

EXPLODING HEAD SYNDROME!!!!!

So, reading a back issue of Scientific American Mind, I read a Letter To The "Brains" in which a man complained of being awakened by the sound of loud explosions in his mind. Grabbed my interest right...
Posted by on Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Fickle, Fickle world....

Well, yeah, in general. Specifically, I'm bemused by protesters in Tehran burning Obama in Effigy today, and shouting, "Death to Obama."  I swear. Weren't they, like, singing praises yesterday?  I'm b...
Posted by on Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:57:00 GMT

Faint Praise Indeed.

I read this review with great initial interest that quickly faded into dull horror. But here you go:  As he claims in his modest press packet, Frank Williams, AKA Mad Whiskey Grin, doesn't sing, ...
Posted by on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:33:00 GMT

Bets I've Lost Today

Man, It's been a tough one.  I lost  a 50 dollar bet that Cheney would kill and eat a secret service agent on camera.  He shows up in a damned wheelchair.I lost 20 dollars betting that the sun would g...
Posted by on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:56:00 GMT

Dark Flow

Astronomers have measured a hitherto unobserved phenomenon known as Dark Flow. This refers to a cosmic attraction affecting galactic clusters, pulling them at a steady 2 million miles per hour towards...
Posted by on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:15:00 GMT

"Wasting my vote"

I get accused, every election, of throwing my vote away.  I voted for the first Bush (against that shifty Dukakis fellah....) and haven't supported a candidate since. I vote, every election, but ...
Posted by on Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:10:00 GMT