Redgrave

***Chicago "sultry dirge" duo REDGRAVE release their debut National Act this summer via Lovitt Records. Vocalist/guitarist ANGIE MEAD and drummer STEPHEN HOWARD generate a massive sound thanks to Mead's powerful, soaring voice and sludgy open tuned guitar blasting out of multiple amps backed by Howard's refined rhythmic stomp. Redgrave's songs have the sort of smoldering intensity shared by PJ Harvey and Led Zeppelin alike that is hard to categorize, but immediately easy to feel. National Act was recorded by revered engineer GREG NORMAN (Russian Circles, Pelican). Mead started writing and recording Redgrave songs in marathon stretches beginning August 2010 from her home in Chicago after furniture was moved into storage and replaced with recording equipment, drums and guitars. She sent these demos to Chicago musician Stephen Howard, whose work she'd admired as baritone guitarist and drummer in PINEBENDER. A working musician since the age of 13, Howard had grown up playing local Chicago blues clubs; his teachers included Willie Smith, John Primer and Eddie Clearwater, his classrooms in music included stages across the U.S., Europe and Africa. Being a lefty, Mead has always played a right-handed guitar upside down—a backwards mimicking of Albert King that roughens up her sound. But through playing with Howard, she discovered a way of singing that made her voice crest above his gale-storm drumming. They've been playing together as Redgrave since January 2011.