Granville Automatic
Nashville, Tennessee, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | MAJOR
Music
Press
"Somewhere between a harvest moon and a soft bed. Gorgeous." - Daytrotter
"A shining example of some of the best and brightest women working in Music City today." - Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival Guide
"Haunting songs that spin Southern gothic yarns that resonate long after the music stops." - Jezebel Magazine (Atlanta, GA)
"Nashville luminaries who write songs about history and war with heart-wrenching narrative weight." - Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)
"Takes country back to its roots." - Destin (FL) Beachcomber
"Narrative arc songs that remind you of when alt-country was just country." - Fine Living Lancaster (PA)
"Captures the timeless spirit and character of the South." - Coachella Valley Weekly (CA)
"Makes history come alive." - Columbia Free Times (SC)
"Think Gram Parsons meets Willie Nelson meets Emmylou Harris when it comes to the Southern Gothic country tunes from this fine pair of lady singer-songwriters." - Santa Fe Reporter (NM)
"Think Gram Parsons meets Willie Nelson meets Emmylou Harris when it comes to the Southern Gothic country tunes from this fine pair of lady singer-songwriters." - Santa Fe Reporter (NM)
"Blazes creative trails miles away from Nashville's current crop of slick, cookie-cutter artists." - InSite Magazine (nationwide)
"A Critics' Pick. Pristine arrangements with no hint of excess; and their lyrics are pithy and interesting." - Nashville Scene
"A Critics' Pick. Pristine arrangements with no hint of excess; and their lyrics are pithy and interesting." - Nashville Scene
Blood once soaked the soil of battlefields that have since been covered up by strip malls in Nashville, skyscrapers and commuter train stations in Atlanta and farm fields and forests across the South.
Now, 150 years after the American Civil War, two musicians are trying to keep that history from being lost in the new landscape.
The women, who write about Civil War clashes and those who fought them, are recording videos on the battlefields that inspired their songs.
“The whole point is to make sure these stories are kept alive, that they’re not forgotten,” said Vanessa Olivarez, one of the artists.
She and Elizabeth Elkins, whose band is Granville Automatic, have worked with the nonprofit Civil War Trust, the National Park Service and others on the project. A key goal, they say, is to raise awareness of what happened during the war and to help preserve the battlefields, which some consider sacred ground.
The women shot one of the videos earlier this year at Glorieta Pass, N.M., the 1862 battle that became known as the Civil War’s “Gettysburg of the West.” Other battlefields that set scenes for their songs of soldiers, horses and ghosts include Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, Antietam in Maryland as well as nearby Franklin.
Some of Granville Automatic’s songs paint haunting scenes of sorrow, such as the time when mothers and daughters of soldiers used lanterns to search a battlefield at night for their loved ones who had just fought at Horseshoe Ridge near Chattanooga. The band drew inspiration from the hundreds of lanterns that lighted the mountainside to write “Lanterns at Horseshoe Ridge” about that page of history from 1863.
Other songs tell tales of perseverance. “Carolina Amen” recounts the story of a Southern bride who prays, “wedding band and her hand on her heart,” for her husband who is away fighting fierce battles in Virginia.
“We want to keep those real, personal stories alive,” Elkins said.
Elkins and Olivarez perform across the country and divide their time between Nashville and Atlanta. The Georgia city inspired their song “Copenhill,” about the Battle of Atlanta when the city was burned by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union army.
The song recalls how Sherman watched from Copenhill, the site of the present-day Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, as flames lighted the sky over Atlanta. Thousands died on ground now covered by a commuter train station in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood.
The project gained momentum in January 2012, when Elkins and Olivarez spent time at the Escape To Create artist residency program in Seaside, Fla. They also have developed a multimedia presentation for schools.
The band is named after a rare, vintage typewriter designed by Bernard Granville that dates to the 1890s, when it was produced by the Mossberg & Granville Manufacturing Co. in Providence, R.I.
The company’s typewriter production came to a halt in 1900 during a machinist union strike, and it declared bankruptcy shortly after that.
Adkins joins cause
Musicians have played an important role in raising awareness of Civil War history, said Mary Koik, a spokeswoman at the Civil War Trust.
Country music star Trace Adkins ended up joining the nonprofit’s board of trustees after calling the organization and speaking to a receptionist a few years ago, Koik said.
“He just called and said ‘Hi, my name is Trace Adkins and I’m a country and western singer,’ ” Koik said. “He said ‘I think what you guys do is great; how can I get involved?’ ”
Adkins has ancestors who fought in the war, Koik said. Elkins also has relatives who fought, and their stories have been passed down through generations of her family, she said. Those personal accounts, and a desire to save battlefields from being forgotten or lost to development, fuel Granville Automatic’s songs, Elkins said.
“To me, it’s so important that these stories get carried on,” she said.
- Associated Press
Discography
"Live from Sun Studio" (iTunes exclusive) - 2012
"Granville Automatic" - 2012
"An Army Without Music" - Spring 2014
"Dancing at El Mercado" - TBA 2014
Photos
Bio
Led by a modern-day Linda Ronstadt, Granville Automatic writes songs the Associated Press calls “haunting tales of sorrow and perseverance.” Horses, history and war are just some of the topics songwriters Vanessa Olivarez and Elizabeth Elkins prefer – all fitting subjects for a band named after a 19th-century typewriter. With sonic references such as Lyle Lovett, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson, Granville Automatic has created a quiet and lyrical sound devoted to telling stories from the past. After writing together first in the spring of 2009, the pair has more than 100 songs. Their albums include Live from Sun Studio, Granville Automatic and An Army Without Music (coming summer 2015).
An Army Without Music: Civil War Stories from Hallowed Ground is a collection of songs inspired by American Civil War stories from lands that have been lost or threatened by urban development or industry. From the haunting “Goodnight House” (about Dr. James Polk who tried to save wounded soldiers after the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky) to “Mollie Glass” (about a little girl who loses her favorite horse to the army) and on to “Salem Church” (inspired by Elizabeth’s ancestor who deserted on the first day of Gettysburg to walk home to his wife in North Carolina) and “Grancer Harrison” (about one of the most famous ghosts in Alabama) – the record is a throwback to the warm analog sounds of ‘70s country. Produced by Gary Maurer of the band Hem, the nine-song album was recorded at Saltlands Studio in Brooklyn. The band also traveled to the site of each song’s story, recording an acoustic version and video, which will be available online. The album was written when the duo was chosen as the Composers in Residence at Seaside, Florida’s prestigious Escape to Create program.
The girls are now writing their fourth album, Dancing at El Mercado - a collection of songs inspired by Texas and Vanessa's childhood in the Lone Star State.
Granville Automatic recently appeared on the PBS program Sun Studio Sessions and also taped a critically-lauded Daytrotter session. They’ve appeared on the PBS/NPR program WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour - as well as Nashville Public Radio's Live at the Bluebird Café (their photograph hangs on the wall at the famous venue). They have performed at SXSW, the CMA Music Festival, the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival, the 30A Songwriters Festival and the Key West Songwriters Festival. Their songs have been featured on ABC’s American Crime and ABC Family’s The Lying Game.
In 2015, a song they co-wrote was recorded by country superstar Billy Currington on his Summer Forever album. "Drinkin' Town With A Football Problem" became the album's second single.
The band loves the road – clocking as many as 200 dates across America each year, always visiting historical sites along the way. The duo has played at Hotel Café in Los Angeles, the Tin Angel and World Café Live in Philadelphia, the Bitter End and the Living Room in New York City, Momo’s in Austin, Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta and are favorites at Pappy and Harriet’s near Joshua Tree, California. They’ve played BMI’s Acoustic Lounge in Los Angeles and appeared on Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Thacker Mountain Radio and NBC Atlanta’s Morning Show.
The band was a finalist in Mountain Stage’s NewSong Contest and a semi-finalist in the Unsigned Only competition. They won third prize in Spin Magazine’s Next Great American Road Song contest, made the finals in the Maurice Small Town Sounds competition and USAA’s GarageBand Playoff and were in the Top 50 for the Wildflower Performing Songwriter Competition.
Both girls have a history in the music business: Vocalist/songwriter Olivarez wrote and recorded a Top 10 single in Canada, has three cuts on Sugarland records, including a song on their multi-platinum Enjoy the Ride album, and received a Dora nomination for her work in the Toronto production of Hairspray. She was also a top 12 finalist on American Idol. Guitarist/songwriter Elkins is a Grand Prize winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest who has showcased at the Billboard/BMI Acoustic Brunch at SXSW, at BMI showcases in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Nashville, and at CMJ. Elkins’ songs have appeared on more than 40 television programs from Smallville to Rescue Me, Jersey Shore to CNN and in the film Mean Girls 2.
Band Members
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