Fifty Shades of (Joe) Gray
Versatile musician entertains at Tamarack Lodge on Friday and Saturday evenings.
If you ever wanted to know why they call it a “soul patch” – that patch of hair that grows under one’s lower lip – then come listen to pianist Joe Gray at Tamarack Lodge on Friday and Saturday nights. Not only does Gray sport a soul patch, he embodies it.
Some of you may know Gray as the pianist and vocalist for the local group “Avalon.”
“I’ve been waiting forty-five years for a gig like this,” Gray told The Sheet after a recent Friday performance. “People can romance each other here. They don’t have to yell.”
Indeed, Tamarack Lodge is the perfect, cozy, rustic atmosphere for a musician with an incredibly wide range – “the ‘20s to the present day,” he says – Gray’s repertoire is fairly boundless, and he puts his personal stamp on everything he plays.
Gray at his Baby Grand. Photo courtesy: Lunch.
Before he closed down for the night (he tends to play straight through from 6:30-9:30 p.m. without interruption … except for the storytelling. Joe can spin a tale and work a room), Gray played his rendition of Christopher Cross’s hit “Sailing,” and I found myself transported. It was wistful, melancholy … little did I realize that Joe had grown up on Catalina Island and in fact spent 12 years of his adult life there raising a family. He communicated the song to me in a way Christopher Cross never could.
So if you’re asking what genre he plays, the answer is Joe Gray, though he names some of his influences as Basso Nova (specifically mentioning two Brazilian composers, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ivan Lins) and ‘70s music.
On Avalon’s Mystique album, there are covers of Bill Withers’ “Use Me” and “Just the Two of Us.” He also cites “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as another one of his favorites.
Avalon’s other band members include/included Mike Hoover, Marty Burgenbauch, Howie Stern and Brian Ogawa. Various members of Avalon have made surprise guest appearances at Tamarack this season.
So how did he land the gig? In the usual, haphazard Mammoth way. Joe also drives a bus for the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority (seven years) and Lakefront Chef Bobby Brown takes the bus to work every day. As he and Joe became acquainted, Joe gave him a copy of an Avalon CD. Brown loved it, and kicked the idea up the ladder of having Gray perform at Tamarack.
As Levy Restaurants Asst. Director of Operations Jack Carter says, “It was such a great idea. There’s nothing like it in Mammoth. It’s a lot of fun.”
As Gray adds, “It’s the perfect elixir for those who have to wait for a table.” Because Lakefront is so intimate (the restaurant has just ten tables), the entertainment provides a nice buffer.
The restaurant and lounge area are separate and you don’t need to go have dinner to watch the entertainment. You can come, relax by the fire, have a hot toddy or cider and enjoy the show.
Gray has been performing in Mammoth since 1972, when he had a trio which played Whiskey Creek.
He lives in Crowley Lake with his wife Sylver. They have three children and eight grandchildren. Two of the children (James Gray and Windsor Czeschin) live locally.
