A BLUES "FORCE OF NATURE" COMES TO BTE
Discover the majesty, softness, and whimsy of Gracie Curran & the High Falutin' Band!
Gracie Curran & the High Falutin' Band perform at The 2025 Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photograph by Erik Kabik, courtesy of Gracie Curran & the High Falutin' Band’s Facebook account.
Do you love blues, funk, and rock music? Then you need to see our next featured act in our Presented Event Series: Gracie Curran & the High Falutin’ Band on Saturday, June 6th! She’s an award-winning, internationally beloved, Briggs Farm Blues Fest headlining diva with a voice made for woe and celebration, high-times and low-times, parties and quiet hotel room pining. Are you curious? How could you not be? Lucky for you, here’s your chance to know more about Gracie Curran & the High Falutin’ Band before the big show!
Who is Gracie Curran and what is the High Falutin’ Band
Q: How did you find your way to singing? What draws you to the Blues?
A: My mother was a singer and the choir director at our little church but loved everything from Bette Midler to Gloria Estefan and Anne Murray. My dad was a Beatles fan and that was my earliest love- he introduced me to Janis Joplin, BB King, and Bonnie Raitt. The more I started playing and singing live, the more I was pulled into Blues—sitting in with guys like Monster Mike Welch, Ronnie Earl, Toni Lynn Washington, Ten Foot Polecats, and Roomful of Blues [while] coming up. It really gave me an education and persisting curiosity and love of blues. Blues is really the building blocks for all music and I love all the directions it's taken–from blues to gospel funk, soul, folk, and just all of Americana. It's the root of roots music.
Q: How would you define your sound?
A: Honest. And delightful, if I may say so myself, lol. But it’s a little bit of everything. My husband is from Mississippi and you can even hear that influence more recently, but its really an amalgamation of everything I love and when I write it just comes out. I don’t ever sit down and think, “I’m gonna write a blues song, or a funk song.” It’s the emotion I’m feeling and it has to be enough that it provokes me to write and, at that point, it just comes out. I don't want to make it sound like anything, it just comes out. The goal is to leave it alone. Have it be the most honest version of the feeling.
Gracie Curran and her bandmates. Photograph by Jim Hartzell.
Q: Can you tell me a bit about your band mates?
A: Sure! Geoff Murfitt plays bass and we started out jamming in Geoff’s attic and played our first show as The High Falutin’ Band in 2010…and we’ve been touring and playing together ever since. He’s really the heartbeat of the band and a great bassist. We write a lot of our original music together, and with our guitarist, Chris. Chris “Loaf” Hersch who is proudly, originally from the Lehigh Valley! Loaf joined the band in 2016 and really took our sound to another level. He’s a brilliant and beautiful guitarist! Our drummer Owen Eichensehr has been with us for about 8 years now but we go way back! Owen is just a beast-—such a versatile musician, killer guitar player, monster drummer and just can do it all. He is also probably one of the hardest working dudes I know. Barrett Anderson and I also go waaaay, waaay back! He’s awesome and been joining the band at different shows over the years and we’ve even recorded some stuff together, but he’s a great, great guitarist and performer and we really love playing with him anytime the schedule allows!
Q: You’ve been praised for your stage presence. What makes blues such a great genre to have that kind of energetic, engaging presence?
A: I think that comes back to honesty too. I remember where I was when I wrote “Rock & A Hard Place,” which has been one of our more popular songs. I remember how devastated I felt and ugly crying in my car [while] writing it, I remember every time I sing it, I’m back there and the audience comes with me. We make that journey together, but I owe it to them to be honest about it and not call it in, because they connect with that feeling, because they’ve probably been there too and for that moment, a moment which can feel lonely, now they are in a room with hundreds of people that have been through that same thing and they are sharing it, carrying it together and that’s a pretty awesome thing–to feel less alone. And that’s where the connection with music comes from, that's why music is so powerful I think. We all go through the same thing and we don’t always realize it! It helps give each other and ourselves more grace.
Q: During a previous conversation between us, you mentioned that your on-stage banter is all spur-of-the-moment. How do you make that connection with the audience that allows you to riff like that?
A: Just being present. Just being with them in the moment. It always bothered me as a fan when I would see multiple nights or shows from a band and all the banter and stage talk is rehearsed. What’s the point? I feel like it’s phoning it in. I change set lists on the fly if a vibe calls for it.I just feel like singing is a conversation and its nice to have the audience be part of it. I think it makes it fun for them. The nights where I can hear the roaring laughter and the band is losing it, I feel like I've done my job. And since I sing about some heavy shit, being able to find humor and levity is important. I want the audience to feel everything, heartache- but also tremendous joy. I want them to feel, and be inspired. I want them to feel lighter when they leave…
Q: On the website, one of your positions in the band is listed as the “Fun Captain.” Where did that moniker come from?
A: I really love playing live, LOVE! I feel like I get to set the mood for everyone; and if me and the band are having fun, I KNOW the crowd is having a good time. So I do feel like the fun captain. It’s my job to entertain you and engage you and make you feel something; but I want you to come away from our shows going, “damn that was fun!” It’s also what makes my guys so special as a band. They are GREAT musicians, but they are also GREAT people, and we have a ball. I’ve had to exit highways because I was laughing so hard while driving that it became a safety issue. We have a ball and I think thats contagious, the audience feels it!
Q: What do you hope people will experience when they see your show?
A: We used to write “good time guaranteed” on our show posters and I stand behind that guarantee! We really want our fans to have a good time and go on a journey with us. Maybe you’ll laugh, you may cry, you might cry from laughing or vice versa, but you’ll have a good time!
Photograph courtesy of Gracie Curran.
New Music and Writing
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the new music you have coming out this year?
A: Yes, I really am so proud of this new album. Working and touring with Grammy Award nominated producer Dave Gross has been magical. He really is a genius and the way he has been able to capture and elevate the music that has been on loop in my brain for years–I’m just so grateful to get to work with him. This will be our third release as a band and we wanted to create an honest, and beautiful piece of art that truly is an expression and reflection of our experiences, both collective and individual, but it embraces a lot of themes and nuance that we all encounter and navigate.
Q: What is your process for writing lyrics?
A: Most of my lyrics come from conversations I have with myself, like things I repeat to myself in my head. They usually have or develop a melody to their repetition. It actually kind of annoys me, until I can record it, or play it with the band and get it out of me!!!! And once I do, it's gone from my psyche. Like it will keep looping until I eject it. So being able to make and release new music isn’t even necessarily the motivator. It's more getting it out of my head. When we finished the tracking on our new album- I drove home and for that 20 hour drive I felt more peaceful than I had in the 10 years since we recorded our last album. My mind was finally quiet. Here we are a couple months later and already the new songs are starting to form, the plight of a songwriter, lol. I think I am a songwriter first though, before singer and performer and all that. At the core of it all, I'm just a writer.
Q: Do you have a favorite subject to write about? Is there a subject you want to write about but haven’t yet?
A: The topics vary, but its usually anything that moves me in a way or provokes a feeling consumes me or takes me out. It has to overwhelm me. I have trouble writing for the sake of writing. I have to be moved. A lot of it has been from heartbreak [and] frustration with myself or things I see play out. The new album has brought out some topics that have probably been the hardest things I’ve had to deal with–the loss of loved ones, the state of the world, growing up and adulting. And then there are those songs of triumph and overcoming and they help us be joyful and celebrate and dance and be inspired and in awe of all the goodness around us too!!! A little bit of everything!
Credit: Gracie Curran with her bandmates. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and the Whole Wide World
Q: I love Massachusetts as I went to school there. How has living in the state influenced your musical style?
A: Just being able to go to a local BBQ place on a Tuesday night in Boston and getting to see some of the musicians I mentioned above. Boston really does have so many world class musicians that call it home. Susan Tedeschi is a Boston girl, [and] Bonnie Raitt went to school here too. But [it] truly [has] world class artists–the late great Amadee Castenell, David Maxwell, Big Jack Ward, and guys still tearing it up like Shorty Billups, Bruce Bears, Sax Gordon, Eddie Scheer, Tomo Fujita–so many!!! I was so lucky to have the education that I did night after night.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your presence on the international music scene?
A: We’ve been super lucky with the amount of love we’ve received around the world. All these themes–love, loss, struggle, success–everyone can share in that. I self released our first album, [and] I spend hours on little gift packages and handwritten notes hoping that DJs would play our music and they did! We charted on international airplay charts from Australia to Belgium and England; Spain, Germany, Greece. We played a lot in Canada too. It was really lovely and unexpected. We were also a house band at the Legendary Rum Boogie on Beale Street in Memphis for years, playing Blues four hours a night, five days a week for people, lots of them tourists from around the world coming to visit Memphis and experience the amazing music history. Getting to be an ambassador for Memphis music, and then to go out on the road and be able to bring that music to them and the world, has really been an honor.
Q: You’ve previously played at the Briggs Farm Blues Festival. What do you like about performing in this area?
A: Briggs Farm is so special, and it’s not just the beautiful space, but also the amazing fans that come out every summer, the Briggs Family, and the phenomenal crew. It’s always so much fun and rowdy in the best possible way! To have so many music lovers all in one place, sharing in sunshine and good music, its special. I can’t wait!!!
Blues, Brass, and BTE
Gracie Curran & The High Falutin’ Band’s performance is a part of our Blues, Brass, and BTE Weekend! The day after their concert, the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra Billtown Brass Band will play a medley of classic Americana pops at 3:00 PM. Just listen to Gracie, she knows a good time when she hears it!
Q: Do you plan to catch the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra Billtown Brass Band’s concert the next day?
A: If we didn’t have to hit the road, we totally would! I love brass!!! That's going to be amazing!!!
Event Information:
BTE/Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau Presented Event:
Gracie Curran & The High Falutin’ Band
Saturday, June 6 at 7:30 PM
Admission is $25
Co-Sponsored by The Briggs Farm Blues Festival
