Phil Gray - Phil Gray

Nothing Borrowed, Everything Blue: the latest album from UnclePhil

Phil Gray — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:46:25 +0000

Nothing Borrowed, Everything Blue: the latest album from UnclePhil on GratisFool Records is out now.

UnclePhil has bowed to numerous requests over the years to put out a blues album. Blues tracks have featured on all of his previous releases, but this is the first album to be wholly centred on the blues, with a couple of related diversions thrown in to leaven the bread, as it were.

The album is available to download from Amazon, iTunes and virtually every other digital vendor at 99p per track. It will also be available for you to listen to for no financial outlay on Spotify. If you wish to purchase an actual CD (our favourite medium, as it is the one that features design work and photography by grisgris, and liner notes by the artist, [and crucially, the only medium by which the artist makes any income whatsoever]), you can simply make contact by replying to this email or by any other means of communication that you and UnclePhil have in common.

We have struggled to keep our prices down, so the album will cost £8.00, plus £2.00 p&p: a nice round tenner, as has been the case since we started producing albums back in 2017.

Here is the link to the album on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/4rGsPZIANMy8oqXNtgL1B8

I hope you enjoy it – UnclePhil enjoyed making it.

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Nothing Borrowed, Everything Blue – new video

Phil Gray — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 08:09:42 +0000

Hello Supporters of UnclePhil

This is to connect you with the latest video of a track, Like Venice, from UnclePhil’s upcoming album Nothing Borrowed, Everything Blue, out on Monday 13 March on GratisFool Records.

UnclePhil decided that for this album he would play to his strengths (and his first love), so we have an album that is mainly full of the blues. And this track is no exception, despite it being about his favourite city, Venice, and featuring none of the usual blues tropes (but that is his way…)
A simple double bass and brushed drums backing, with a string section and an octave mandolin (like a mandolin but twice as long) are the only instruments. We hope you enjoy it.

The album will be available to download from Amazon, iTunes and virtually every other digital vendor. It will also be available for you to listen to on Spotify. Links for these will be sent nearer the release date. If you wish to purchase an actual CD (our favourite medium, as it is the one that has design work and liner notes by the artist, [and crucially, the only medium by which the artist makes any money whatsoever]), you can simply make contact by replying to this email. We have struggled to keep our prices down, so the album will cost £8.00, plus £2.00 p&p: a nice round tenner, as has been the case since we started in 2017.

Keep in touch!

UnclePhil and all at GratisFool

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UnclePhil: NEW ALBUM

Phil Gray — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 13:03:08 +0000

HELLO EVERYONE! UnclePhil has an all-new, big and bluesy album coming out on Monday 13 March.
Listening to all the tracks, it’s packed solid with great tunes and songs and every one of them sounds like a hit! Of course, we at GratisFool Records are biased with regard to our number one artist, but we think you will agree with us once you hear this album.

Nothing Borrowed, Everything Blue will be available to purchase as a download from Amazon, Apple, iTunes and more or less everywhere else. It will also be available to listen to on Spotify. You will also be able to purchase an actual CD directly from us through replying to this email, or by any other means you have of contacting UnclePhil! (This is our preferred option, because you then enjoy the beauty of the cover design and imbibe the detail and wit of the sleeve notes [and also, it’s the only way UnclePhil gets to earn any income from all his hard work])

As a taster to the album, here is a link to a YouTube video of the red-hot opening track Go To Hell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oz7XEzPWR8&list=PLjFMbPoHBYgsZmCTwZoKDcmVyiKSUa_uW&index=4

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UnclePhil’s TRAVELLING HOME ep RELEASED!

Phil Gray — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 09:05:12 +0000

Hey all! UnclePhil’s new EP, TRAVELLING HOME is now available to listen to on Spotify, or download from Amazon, or purchase as an actual CD (£5.00 all in) via contact through replying to this email, FB Messenger, carrier pigeon or any other method of communication that we have in common.

It features the Cajun-flavoured title track, plus ‘Cotton Through And Through’ a blues/ragtime acoustic guitar number about being from Lancashire; ‘Large Head George’ about my fictitious childhood (which is a follow-on to my Monster song of a few years back), and ‘Home’, a country-influenced reflective ballad on the nature of home and what it means to me and others.

I hope you like it!

And here’s the Spotify link for you https://open.spotify.com/album/5eEqInAoghlHlug1dmZYB8

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HIP DEEP – new UnclePhil album released today

Phil Gray — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 19:57:42 +0000

This missive is to inform you that UnclePhil’s latest album HIP DEEP is released today on GratisFool Records.

It is available for you to purchase as a download at Amazon.

It is available for you to listen to on Spotify.

Or (and my particular favourite) it is available to purchase from us as an actual CD! If you are interested in buying a copy, please let us know by replying to this email, or any other means of communicating with us that you have at your disposal. The cost, as ever, is £8.00 plus £2.00 p&p, a nice round tenner in total. The means of payment can be determined on an individual basis.

For this, you get sixteen brand new tracks of blues, funky dance tracks, yearning ballads and arrant nonsense, in roughly equal measures. Plus a finely designed album cover inlay, with copious sleeve notes and track details. UnclePhil at his best, we think.

Hoping to hear from you soon, and please send us any feedback on the music and lyrics on the album, as it is greatly appreciated. Cheers from UnclePhil and GratisFool Records.

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New UnclePhil track: Coco Mi No Coco

Phil Gray — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:42:25 +0000

UnclePhil’s sixth studio album, HIP DEEP, is released on 25 April, and here is a small foretaste for you.

Below is a link to a YouTube video accompanying the opening track from the album, Coco Mi No Coco. Caribbean rhythms, group harmonies and spiky guitar underpin a tale of love lost and regained. And you can dance to it!

The video is released at 12:00 on Sunday 10th April https://youtu.be/JyCsUMxy8fg

Hope you all enjoy it and will purchase, download or at least listen to the new album. All the best from your pals here at GratisFool Records.

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UnclePhil new release 8 November 2021

Phil Gray — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 08:44:36 +0000

UnclePhil has a new 7-track mini-album, SHERRY BOX SPECIAL, released on GratisFool Records on Monday 8 November.

This is an unusual release in that it is a collection of ‘field recordings’, purely instrumental, exploring the wonderfulness of UnclePhil’s self-built ‘Sherry Box Special’ guitar. All seven tracks were recorded onto his phone, with only minimal digital processing thereafter, and some of them have accidental sonic additions, such as the radio on in the next room, the back garden water feature and next door’s chickens.

It will be available to download from Amazon and all the other digital providers, as well as to listen to on Spotify. Those of you who prefer an actual CD may purchase one direct from us, via UnclePhil, at the giveaway price of £5.00 plus £2.00 p&p. This can be facilitated via return email or exchange of blood samples/everlasting and unbreakable vows etc.

We have attached a link to a Sneak Peek – a SoundCloud track featuring short extracts from all the tracks, plus a voiceover from U.P. himself – at the bottom of this email, so that you can bask in the sound quality that an ancient iPhone can produce.

Thank you for reading!

Your friends at GratisFool Records.

https://soundcloud.com/user5973199/sherry-box-trailer

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UnclePhil NEW VIDEO TRACK

Phil Gray — Mon, 24 May 2021 16:54:01 +0000

UnclePhil‘s latest video FRUITS DE MER! is now available for viewing on You Tube. A jumpin’ number out of the Louis Jordan bag, this most excellent track is from his fifth studio album A MILLION WAYS TO GET THE BLUES, to be released in summer 2021 on GratisFool Records. Watch this space for further info, cats. Here is the link to the video on YouTube.

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PLACES – New EP from UnclePhil

Phil Gray — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:49:34 +0000

Hello folks and supporters of UnclePhil.

His latest 4-track EP, PLACES will be released via GratisFool Records on Monday 26 April at 12:00 on Spotify and most other digital platforms to download and purchase should you wish so to do. You can also purchase the ‘actual’ disc directly from me for the princessly sum of £4.00 plus £2.00 p&p. Contact me via return email, Facebook Messenger or carrier pigeon if you want to buy in this format.

PLACES features four tracks, all new compositions: The Trope-O-Sphere; The Isle Of Man; Joe In The Future; The Unthank Road. They are (in turn) odd, sad, funny, gloomy. In other words, something for everyone!

For purchasers of the ‘actual’ disc, there is the usual bonus EP of an extra four FREE tracks, all cover versions of old songs, each with a ‘Moon’ theme. They are: Carolina Moon (1924), Blue Moon Of Kentucky (1945), Sugar Moon (1947) and Shine On Harvest Moon (1908), all treated quite disrespectfully. As ever, these cover tracks are NOT available via any digital platform: they are CD-only artefacts. (I do not profit from these tracks, which is why they are free gifts, as I do not wish to deprive the songwriters of any royalties).

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THE AUFENTICS New artist! New Release.

Phil Gray — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 07:34:54 +0000

We are proud to introduce to you the newest members of the GratisFool family, THE AUFENTICS, and have put together a sampler of their debut EP ‘TWENTY FOOT RIVER’, featuring 30-second clips of each of the four tracks: Strabismic Boogie, Steelin’ Your Heart Away Blues, Oh, Blow That Thing! and Twenty Foot River. We do hope you enjoy them and then order the CD from us! There is a link to the sampler’s Soundcloud file at the bottom of this message.

The Aufentics are:

Alec ‘Thumb’ Parnwell – vocals, keyboards, drums
Sitting Bill Murrow – vocals, drums, keyboards
Ronnie Chatteris – “Forty Foot” – bass, guitar, percussion
Martin ‘Lefty’ Warboys – vocals, guitar, dobro, harmonica, percussion
Big Finger Frank Thorney – guitar, lap steel, bass, percussion

A group of ex-farm workers, The Aufentics met through being outpatients at the Fenland Lost Limb Therapy Clinic, all five having survived agricultural accidents. Sharing a love of a wide variety of roots music, including blues, rockabilly, r&b and cajun, they traded influences and in some cases, re-learned their instruments in new ways to create an idiosyncratic approach to music-making. One example would be Alec and Sitting Bill’s teaming up to play the accordion, taking one side each. All the band are happy to try any new instrument that might add texture to their music.

A severely edited list of their influences and enthusiasms include Chicago blues (Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter), Memphis rockabilly (Sonny Burgess, The Rock’n’Roll Trio), 60s r&b (The Contours, Gary U.S. Bonds), string bands (The Memphis Jug Band, Milton Brown’s Musical Brownies) Louisiana Cajun and zydeco (D.L. Menard, Clifton Chenier), New Orleans r&b (Smiley Lewis, Alvin Robinson) and swamp pop (Tommy McClain, Johnnie Allen), along with early 60s surf and guitar instrumentals – these boys love a twangy guitar. They also love to mix-and-match any of the above, at any time, to create something unexpected.

This is a CD-only release, not being made available on any digital platform, which you can purchase via a reply to this email, via a Facebook message or any other mode of communication that we might share. the EP costs £4.00 plus £2.00 p&p, six pounds in total.

All the best from all of us!

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