Ash Grunwald

Emerging during the early 2000s from Australia's blues and roots rock scene, Ash Grunwald turned his solo performances on guitar and stompbox into regular fixtures at festivals nationwide. Drawing instruction from the Delta blues and the originators of electric blues, he applied a modern perspective to those traditions while deploying soulful and broadly expressive vocals, which secured him repeated ARIA Music Award nominations. After releasing his debut album Introducing Ash Grunwald in 2002, he first appeared on the Australian charts with the 2006 release Give Signs, an album composed entirely of original songs. His strongest chart result arrived with the sixth studio album, 2012's Trouble's Door, which entered the Top 30. The ninth album, Mojo in 2019, brought guest appearances from, among others, Terry Evans, Joe Bonamassa, and Kacey Chambers.

As a primary-school student in his hometown of Melbourne, Grunwald received lessons on guitar and bass from his grandfather. That experience ignited a lasting engagement with the blues, one that deepened into detailed knowledge through exposure to broadcasts on the city's community radio stations throughout his teenage years. By his early twenties he had moved through several bands, among them the Blue Grunwalds and the Groove Catalysts, yet ultimately favored solo work and arranged modest performances along the coast at any location offering worthwhile surf, even when that meant remaining largely unnoticed for hours in a restaurant corner.

Still independent of management, he captured a collection of originals and blues covers—including material by Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson—performed live and self-released the recording as Introducing Ash Grunwald in 2001. Soon afterward he encountered the later work of Tom Waits, particularly the experimental percussion that incorporated household objects and even a dumpster. In 2004 he recorded the follow-up album I Don't Believe, again live and alone in the studio, now employing spanners and hammers for rhythm while adding several Waits covers; the project also marked his initial use of samples and live loops. I Don't Believe earned an ARIA Music Award nomination for Best Blues & Roots Album. Material from the first two albums was subsequently compiled on 2005's Live at the Corner, which received an Australian Blues Award for Album of the Year alongside another ARIA nomination.

Meanwhile the blues and roots movement gained sudden commercial traction in Australia, allowing independent acts such as the John Butler Trio to reach the top of the charts, and Grunwald benefited from the surge. Radio station JJJ played a central role in advancing the style, and in 2005 Grunwald's earlier enthusiasm for radio programming came full circle when he took the helm of JJJ's Roots N All show, a role he maintained for 18 months. During that period he also prepared Give Signs, his first album consisting solely of original material. Issued on his own Delta Grooves Records label in mid-2006, the record earned a third ARIA nomination and became his first to register on the Australian album chart, where it reached number 84.

Through Mushroom Publishing's yearly songwriting workshop, Grunwald partnered with Count Bounce of the hip-hop group TZU to compose a song within a single day. Although the pair had previously shared festival bills, their workshop collaboration led to further work on Grunwald's 2008 album Fish Out of Water. That project represented his first experience recording with other musicians and in conventional studio conditions rather than capturing every element live; it reached number 43 on the Australian album chart and produced another ARIA Music Award nomination. The same year he also released the live recording Live from the Factory.

After the early 2010 release Live at the Fly by Night, he received his fifth ARIA nomination for Best Blues & Roots Album for Hot Mama Vibes that June. The album contained the track "Walking," featured on the soundtrack to the Bradley Cooper–Robert De Niro film Limitless, and climbed to number 31 in Australia. His highest chart placement to that point arrived with the sixth studio album, 2012's Trouble's Door, which he described as his most personal work up to then and which peaked at number 29 on the ARIA album chart.

Grunwald subsequently joined former cover-band colleague Scott Owens and drummer Andy Strachan (the Living End, Pollyanna) for a project mixing covers with two original songs. The resulting Gargantua contained renditions of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" and Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" and reached number 46 in Australia. He next appeared at number 52 with 2015's Now, an amplified blend of swamp rock, blues, and attitude. After ten years on Delta Grooves he made his first appearance on Bloodlines Records with the collaborative Mojo in 2019. Produced by Grunwald, Carla Olson, and Brian Brinkerhoff and featuring nearly a dozen guest contributors, the album returned him to Australia's Top 40.