Mississippi Grover profile picture

Mississippi Grover

A one-man travelling-medicine-show

About Me

Mississippi Grover is NOT from Mississippi, though he did ride a train through there once. Sometime during the late 1990s in Ottawa (Canada), local garage punk duo The Desecrators asked their friend Greg Watson to play some blues harp for a couple of songs. Since every blues harp player needs an appropriate name, “Mississippi Grover” was born. Grover eventually became the full-time organist for The Desecrators, in addition to playing harp, guitar and accordion.
Fast forward to early 2005: The Desecrators have long disbanded, Greg has moved to rural Ontario with his family and Mississippi Grover has been born again as a one-man band, playing swampy garage and primitive blues punk stuff, also known as rock 'n' roll. He has been driving around Ontario and western Quebec since then, playing for audiences of all sorts and dazzling them with his moonshiny gumbo of sound. That's right, he's a one-man travelling-medicine-show, and his tonic is SONIC, baby!
Greg "Mississippi Grover" Watson has also played with, among others: The Buzzards (Ottawa, 1987) Groove Serum (Ottawa, 1988-89) The 14th Wray (Kingston, 1990-91) The Minstrels (New Orleans/Montreal, 1992) The Deadbeatniks (Kingston, 1992-93) Thörax (Kingston, 1992-94) The Fiends (Vancouver, 1994-97) The Knurlings (Ottawa, 1997-98) Flecton Big Sky (Ottawa, 1998-99) The Slacks (Ottawa, 1999) Lustre (Kingston, 1999-2000) & The Orange Alabaster Mushroom (Kingston/Ottawa, 1991-2008)

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/22/2005
Band Website: myspace.com/mississippigrover
Band Members: Greg "Mississippi Grover" Watson: snarls, kazoo, yells, harp, howls, electric guitar, rants, bass drum, egg shakers, snare drum, tambourine, cowskull
Influences:

OUT NOW!
Attack of the One Man Bands!
International : Double CD Compilation Featuring 58 bands!

This Double-CD comp features a whopping 58 Bands from 18 States and 12 different Countries. Many tracks are unreleased songs or out-of-print rarities. Styles range from Rockabilly to Garage, Punk to Bluegrass... all tinted with various shades of eccentric genius. Many bands opt for the Lo-Fi approach, recording in one live take on a 4-track, while others offer fuller studio tracks. Nothing compares to the artistic purity and ingenuity of a One Man Band, whether it is engineering complex musical contraptions or clever set-ups, or just simply the ability to deliver songs with uncompromised personal character. All bands included here perform as One Man Bands on stage, and are currently active.


Bands Included:

Al Foul, Bloodshot Bill, Phillip Roebuck, Rollie Tussing, Lonesome Joseph, Slim Sandy, King Louie, "Haunted" George, Sachtrash, Fredovitch One Man Band, 1Man Banjo, Toothless George, Royer's One Man Band, Dead Elvis & The One Man Grave, Mr. Bonz One Man Band, Chuck Violence, Dennis Hopper Choppers, Bram Riddlebarger & His Lonesome Band, Trainwreck Washington, Ghostwriter, Esmerelda Strange, J. Marinelli, Big One Man Band, Long Boy Larsen, Mississippi Grover, Twang Tango, The Slow Poisoner, Stringybark McDowell, BBQ, Jeffrey Novak, El Paso Hot Button, Skip Jensen & His Shakin' Feet, Guitar Fucker, Reverend Beat-Man, John Schooley, The Fabulous Go-Go Boy from Alabama, King Automatic, Ottoboy the One Man Trash Band, Reverend J. Brennan's, The Feeling Of Love, Urban Junior, The Limbs, The Uncle Butcher, Junior Disorder, Sheriff Perkins, Scott H. Biram, Margaret Doll Rod, Almighty Do Me A Favor, Lone Bird, Pete Yorko, Johnny Lowebow, Reverend Deadeye, Rocket Craig, Mosquito Bandito, O Lendario Chucrobillyman, The Amazing Elephant Man, One Man Hand, Johnny Cancer


Sounds Like: Swampy garage punk / broken blues played by a one-man-band.

Zig took this here video clip of me performing "Pig Pole" at a house party back in April 2006 - check it out. Thanks Zig!

My friends The Midways asked me to play some harmonica during their set at the El Mocambo (also in April 2006), and it was all caught on vidyer for your listening AND viewing pleasure - I didn't even know this existed until recently - check it out!

These next two vidyuhs are from a gig I played in Toronto at Clinton's Tavern, in November of 2007. This first one is all about my (least) favourite type of vermin I've found in my ol' house in the country, appropriately named "Snakes In My House". SNAKES!

This one, also from the Clinton's show, is about a nightmare I once had in which I was walking through the woods and came across a rickety cabin, out of which stepped a zombie. This zombie introduced itself as "the living bride of death" and went on to tell me how it went away for awhile and when it returned, all its friends started dying. Needless to say, this scared the crap outta me, so I had to write a song about it: "The Living Bride".

If yer on the Facebook, then become a fan of Mississippi Grover, baby!



Record Label: Rock-N-Roll Purgatory
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

2006 Recap

In 2006, I played 22 shows: 11 in Kingston (elixir - 3, house parties - 2, royal - 1, artel - 1, legion 560 - 1, grad club - 1, clark hall - 1, yak church - 1) 3 in Toronto (bovine - 1, el mocambo - ...
Posted by Mississippi Grover on Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:33:00 PST