Beaver Staff
The next instalment of Napanee’s Starstop Concert Series will feature a familiar name in Emm Gryner, who will take the stage at Ellena’s Café Aug. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Gryner is an award-winning singer, songwriter, actor and best-selling author. She sang and played keyboards in David Bowie’s band, and appears on numerous recordings, including his landmark 1999 SNL appearance, Bowie at The Beeb and Toy. Bowie’s acclaimed Glastonbury 2000 documents her performance in front of more than 100,000 fans at Worthy Farm. With her own band, she shared arena stages with Def Leppard, and she also helped bring the first music video recorded in outer space to the world.
Detroit radio formed the soundtrack of Gryner’s life and career and her forthcoming record is a celebration of that music. From Motown, jazz and pop, to Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and The Doobie Brothers, her latest album Business & Pleasure is infused with the sunshine soul and stellar playing of the late 70s and early 80s. These songs, written with poet Michael Holmes, and recorded with drummer Shannon Forrest (Toto), keyboardist Pat Coil (Michael McDonald), singer Catherine Russell (Steely Dan), and guitarists Tom Bukovac (Taylor Swift) and Pat Buchanan (Hall & Oates, Dolly Parton), embody a take on yacht rock that sails deep into the 2020s and introduce the world to a bold new character: a powerful woman whose passion, presence, conviction, humor and grace serves to unite the world in music, joy and love, once again.
Tickets for her show in Napanee are $30 and available at www.Starstop.ca.