Songsmith Kris Gruen Confirms Bicoastal Tour Dates And CMJ Show In Support Of Sophomore Release

Oct. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Vermont -based singer-songwriter Kris Gruen (http://www.krisgruen.com) confirmed today that he is set to make his College Music Journal (CMJ) debut on October 23, in New York City at the Living Room.

Additionally, Gruen plans to tour both the East and West Coasts in support of his new CD Part Of It All. Confirmed tour dates include:

10/16  @ Lyndon State College Lyndonville, VT
10/23  @ Living Room (CMJ) NYC 9pm
10/24  @ The Jalopy Theatre (Steam Powered Hour) Brooklyn, NY
11/01  @ Mississippi Pizza, Portland OR
11/03  @ Linfield College, McMinnville, OR
11/04  @ Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
11/07  @ The Alternative Cafe, Seaside, CA
11/08  @  Rose's Landing Morro Bay, CA
11/10  @  Zoey's, Ventura, CA
11/11  @  Molly Malone's Los Angeles  CA
additional tour dates to be added

Released on April 20, 2010 via Mother West (http://motherwest.com), Part Of It All is a collection of songs about Gruen’s relationships, past and present, to his family, his partner, society and the world. Touching on the dark and light sides of competing career goals in a committed relationship (“Part Of It All”, “Euphoria”), childhood ghosts and influences (“Memoir”, “Red Doors”) and politico-social agendas (“Dunrovan’s Farm, “Activist”), Gruen’s storytelling is intimate yet universal.  “I want to be available in each song,” says Gruen. “Not just to a small group interested in a tiny piece of what I may have to say, but to everyone who may be able to relate to these experiences.”

Familial relationships helped serve Part Of It All, with Gruen’s half-brother JJ Beck taking on co-production honors alongside Charles Newman (The Magnetic Fields, AM, Soko, The Black Kids), while playing a few instruments and  bringing in some friends such as drummer Butch Norton(The Eels, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Wainright), bassist Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Dixie Chicks), Nashville’s Jason Goforth on lapsteel, and drummer Nick Brown from New York City’s The Dig.

A music video for the song "Red Doors" will be released this fall. In the song Kris reminisces about growing up in NYC as a child, and the video is sprinkled with unreleased photos taken during that period from rock photographer Bob Gruen’s personal collection.

ABOUT KRIS GRUEN
Born in New York, the son of legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen (the personal photographer of John Lennon and Yoko Ono) and rock film-maker and New York Dolls manager Nadya Beck, Kris Gruen spent his childhood in the mid-70s New York City rock scene being cooed over by the punks and freaks in CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City.

Gruen has toured the US, sharing the stage with Sean Lennon, The Avett Brothers, Bishop Allen, Jesse Malin, Nicole Atkins, Anais Mitchell, The Bowmans and more.  When not on the road, Gruen lives with his wife and two young daughters in central Vermont.