Gracious

In 1964 guitarist Alan Cowderoy and vocalist/drummer Paul Davis launched Gracious as an impromptu school project that covered current pop material for campus events. To provoke the strongest possible reaction from their Catholic institution, the pair initially performed under the name Satan's Disciples. Within a few years the core recording ensemble stabilized around Cowderoy, Davis (now focused solely on vocals), former road manager Tim Wheatley on bass, keyboardist Martin Kitcat, and drummer Robert Lipson. Rebranded Gracious (sometimes styled Gracious!), the group undertook a German tour in 1968 and tracked an unreleased concept album devoted to the cycle of seasons. Their ambitions nevertheless remained undiminished. After sharing a bill with the recently formed King Crimson, an impressed Kitcat promptly made the Mellotron his primary instrument. Kitcat and Davis supplied the original material, yet it was Kitcat who defined the ensemble’s signature texture by treating the Mellotron like a blues organ—delivering sharp, percussive single notes instead of the sweeping chordal washes other bands employed to mimic an orchestra. The band’s debut album reached stores in 1970; its lush vocal harmonies, pronounced progressive-rock drive, and religious motifs that echoed the members’ Catholic schooling placed it alongside contemporaneous works by King Crimson and the Zombies. Commercial indifference followed, leaving the musicians in financial straits. Friction intensified, prompting Lipson’s exit and then Kitcat’s departure in 1971. The remaining members limped through another German tour before dissolving. A second album had already been recorded, but disappointing sales of the first prompted the label to withhold it until a belated and perfunctory release two years afterward. Cowderoy and Kitcat soon accepted positions at major record companies and largely abandoned their instruments, while the others gravitated toward family enterprises, session dates, and studio engineering; Davis even appeared on Jesus Christ Superstar. Over time the scarce original pressings gained cult status among collectors. In 1995 Beat Goes On Records finally issued both albums on compact disc. The same year Wheatley and Lipson revived the Gracious moniker for the album Echo, issued on the Centa label.