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Feet on the ground, reaching for the stars. Mike Grutka is optimistic about his funky, modern, roots- rock and roll band's response from radio stations and online downloads. 'You try to keep working, you try to keep playing, you keep trying to get in front of new people.' PHOTO BY IRENE GREEN
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First person
A band's namesake knows he has the most to lose
MIKE GRUTKA PROJECT
Thursday, Dec. 20, 9:30 p.m.
Newport Blues Cafe
286 Thames St., Newport
No cover
(401) 841-5510
www.newportblues.com
BY OLIVIA SMITH
What kind of a person names a band after himself? Says Mike Grutka of the Mike Grutka Project, someone who is prepared to put his name on the line.
"They're my songs. My name's on the CDs. My name's on the band," he said.
Grutka has been playing his brand of upbeat folk music since graduating from The State University of New York in 1996. He appeared at local bars and coffee shops near the school as a solo acoustic musician before releasing his first CD, "Stay Awhile," in 2001 and followup "Reach" in 2004. Grutka wrote all the music and played most of the instruments during recording, but he wasn't content touring without a band. He met bass player Josh Radigan at an open mic night a couple of years ago.
"He was playing a solo bass, which usually is never good, and he was doing this really pretty song," Grutka recalled.
Soon he asked Radigan to join him for shows. He rounded out his "Project" with Greg Nash on drums, and the trio is now touring behind Grutka's third and latest CD, "Myself Again."
After a decade of touring, Grutka still considers life on the road quite unpredictable. "Sometimes you go and you play to literally two people and then sometimes you'll play to 1,000. There's always the, 'Why aren't there more people here? I wish there were more people here. I wish we were selling more CDs. I gotta pay my rent.' It's tough to try to be a full time musician."
And the responsibilities extend well beyond music. "All the other stuff mostly falls to me - booking the shows, marketing, going over the press releases, getting all the photos together, managing the Web sites, making the phone calls, sending out the press kits," he says. And occasionally after working 10 hours a day pursuing venues and radio stations, Grutka still won't hear back from anyone. It can be a thankless and frustrating job, which doesn't yield a regular paycheck.
"You really have to be passionate about it to keep going," he said. "Or you gotta decide you're going to be a wedding band and play corporate parties for thousands of dollars playing 'Play That Funky Music White Boy' every night."
Fortunately for fans of folk and pop music, Grutka hasn't gotten that desperate. He continues to play his original songs at clubs and festivals all over New England and lands at the Newport Blues Cafe for his first gig there on Thursday.
"I'm really excited for the Newport show because that's a well-known venue and I'm really glad we got in there. I take that as a compliment. We have a spot - someone didn't get that, we did. You start to play better places and it's like building your resume. Everything you do, hopefully it pushes you forward."
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