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 I met Brad Gray and Tony Carlson back in the mid-80's through an add that I had placed in the
"Skips Newspaper" a local music store paper. I was looking for a drummer and a bass player. They
came over and we jammed. I called Brad who was the drummer and told him that I wanted to have him
join the band but not the bass player. Well,un- beknownst to me, it turned out that it wasn't Brad who
answered the phone but Tony the bass player!
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Well he kinda snickered and said Oh-yeah, let me get Brad for you! So Brad got on the phone and
told me that he wouldn't join unless we took the Bass player too. So, me and this other crazed guitar
player named Steve Lanney agreed to do it. The name of the band was "Reckless".
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Now this guy Steve Lanney was a decent singer and he could sing Sammy Haggar Pretty good.
But after awhile he was just drivin' us nuts cause he was always shouting out "Oh Yeah" I mean we would
be at the liquor store buying some beer and he'd be screaming "Oh Yeah" at the top of his lungs just to
get some attention! So we ended up firing him and started playing some other gigs and one thing led to
another and Brad and Tony went their own way cause of some other Ego Maniac Guitar player.
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Well ten years later I was at a music convention with another musician friend of mine and spotted Tony
and I told my friend, "Quick Hide!", but it was too late, Tony spotted me! I was trying to cure myself of
"High performance Recreation" type things and was hesitant to talk to him. But we talked and he said he
and Brad had another Band they were putting together and wanted me to come over and Jam. So I did.
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It was right when the whole Country "Garth Brookes " phase was coming in and Brad who's father is a
well known Steel Pedal Guitar player, grew up with heavy country roots, playing drums for his dad's bands
at a young age along with his other brothers etc. We were playing George Strait, Bo Cephus, Alan
Jackson, Garth Brookes and so on. For me it was a nice change from the hard rock Deep Purple type
tunes.
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We played that for a few years and started playing more and more gigs. We all started writing our own
Songs right from the beggining which was nice. Brad would bring in a song and we would all sit down
and put some parts to it simultaneously. We got good at this system that we had going and decided we
were going to just play all originals. It was tough at first but towards the end, when I had to go my
separate way, we had a pretty good following and were playing our songs at some of the better known
clubs and had a pretty good following!
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We found ourselves a guy named Steve 4CA(forceir) who worked his butt off getting us gigs and
finnally getting us so we were in the studio recording our first and last CD (maybe) entitled (above) The
Gray Brothers "California Rain". We recorded it at the famous Paradise Studios. We started out playing
everything Live and then going back later to do parts. For a Recording nut like me it was a great
experience going into a studio like that and recording. But by the time we finished the Cd I think we were
burnt out on all the songs. We had developed a solid Americana Rock Sound, that we will be able to
upload onto this page as soon as I can.
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Around 97 my wife and I had our first child and I had to take a break after 18 years of constantly
playing three to four days a week. It was hard for me but it felt good to take a break. Even though I quit,
the Gray Brothers went on another 5 years getting a couple keyboard players on the way and opening for
some well known people. One of which was Lydia Pence. I got to sit in that night cause they were in
between keyboard players, which was a lot of fun!
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I will be filling this page up with some more pics of Brads Studio behind his house "The Gray Brothers
Shrine". Hopefully I can talk Brad into getting some more CD's duped and sell them on Cd Baby, and
even maybe we could put together another CD with new songs on it someday?
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The Gray Brothers Band Members on California Rain CD:
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Steve 4CA = Manager, Soundman, Equipment Guru
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Brad Gray = Lead Vocals, guitars, keyboard, percussion
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Tony Carlson= Vocals, Bass Guitar
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Jeff Carlson= Vocals, Lead Guitar
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Dave Medlo= Vocals,Keyboards, Guitar, Lead Guitar
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Bobby Faulke= Drums and Percussion
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Tanks for the Memories Guys! See ya at the GB Shrine!
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