Grandpaboy serves as the alias for Paul Westerberg, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist who functioned as the main creative force behind the highly regarded yet disbanded Replacements. Far from a concealed project, this outlet allowed Westerberg to shed outside pressures and return to spontaneous, bare-bones rock performance. On every Grandpaboy recording he handles every instrument himself and adopts assorted quirky stage names to match the underlying idea.
Following two uneven and strained solo efforts, the small Monolith imprint released a Grandpaboy single followed by an EP in 1997. These short works featured inventive lyrics and simultaneously evoked the Replacements’ wild energy, prompting numerous fans and reviewers to call the EP his strongest material in years. Capitol Records then issued another, quieter Westerberg album titled Suicaine Gratifaction in 1999, yet a management shift at the company led to the immediate cancellation of his deal. Appearing frustrated with the industry, he vanished from view for several years, prompting devoted listeners to question whether he would reemerge.
With enough time elapsed, the mischievous and combative Grandpaboy project could have seemed like nothing more than a lighthearted detour during Westerberg’s period between major-label contracts. In early 2002, however, he reappeared under the same name with the album Mono, presenting fans a full-length collection of relaxed, Keith Richards/Faces-style rock & roll. Shortly afterward Vagrant paired Mono with his fourth solo release, Stereo.
The Grandpaboy identity enabled Westerberg to recapture the wild, all-or-nothing side of his character that had largely disappeared from his post-Replacements work, whether because of growing maturity, sobriety, efforts toward a more commercial direction, or simply the absence of his former bandmates driving the songs forward. Simultaneously the project refreshed his output under his own name, freeing him to emphasize his gift for confessional storytelling and yielding Stereo, his strongest solo album thus far. Recognizing the value of the approach, he issued another Grandpaboy record, Dead Man Shake, in 2003 alongside the fifth Paul Westerberg album, Come Feel Me Tremble, which carried the clear imprint of his close creative companion Grandpaboy.
