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Biography
"Greta Gaines is a true original and rocks hard at everything she does." - Sheryl Crow
Greta Gaines isn’t afraid of a challenge and she’s as courageous in her artistic life as she is in her professional life. Singer/songwriter, bandleader, adventurer and extreme sportswoman - Gaines is a woman set on living life to its fullest.
Gaines comes to her blend of sports and art honestly. Her father is novelist, screenwriter and outdoorsman Charles Gaines (Pumping Iron, Stay Hungry) and the inventor of the game of Paintball. Her mother is painter, sculptor and former Miss. Alabama, Patricia Ellisor Gaines. Hunter S. Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities were frequent visitors to her family’s rural farm growing up so pushing boundaries and living life to its fullest were part of her upbringing. “My parents wrote their own rules, so it didn’t seem odd to me to invent my life as I went along,” Gaines said.
Gaines attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, with friend Uma Thurman among other notable classmates, before graduating from Georgetown University and was riding a prototype snowboard from Jake Burton in 1982, years before they were on the market. She briefly considered studying law, but decided on the life of an artist instead. “I picked up a guitar and started writing songs late, when I was 22, but quickly became devoted to the craft of song writing, relieved that I had found my inner calling."
By 1992 Gaines was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming snowboarding all day and singing her songs in country and western bars at night. After taking the Woman’s Extreme Snowboarding World Championship - the only woman in a field of 19 young men - she moved to Nashville to pursue songwriting and performing full time and soon landed a deal with Giant Records. After several years a corporate merger left her with 40 master recordings and no record deal. She started her own label, Big Air Records, and culled the 12 tracks on Greta Gaines from those masters. Her song “Firefly” got considerable AAA airplay and the album rose to the tops of the MP3.com charts, landing her a slot on the Lilith Fair with Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan and gigs opening shows for Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette.
In 1997 Gaines’ snowboarding title led to a job hosting MTV’s Sports and Music Festival. Her song “Mikey Likes It” was used as the show’s theme song. In 1999 the Oxygen Network created Freeride with Greta Gaines. “It was a dream job and reflected my love of music, extreme sports, adventure, travel, lifestyle and the environment.” Gaines created the show’s theme song and wrote music for the show’s soundtrack. "Freeride" was on the air for three years and led to her current TV gig hosting for ESPN 2's "Basscenter" and "The New American Sportsman," Because Gaines owns her own catalogue of some 100 recorded songs, she has licensed her music freely for use on ESPN, MTV, VH1 and Oxygen Network while contributing to a dozen movie scores. She did the entire soundtrack for director Joe Maggio's "Virgil Bliss," (which was nominated for an Independant Spirit Award) and is currently recording music for Ethan Hawke's newest directorial effort, "The Hottest State" due out in fall of 2006.
It Was Hot, the second album for Big Air, was also a success and led to a month of dates supporting Sheryl Crow. “It’s scary as hell to stand up in front of an audience as an opening act with nothing but your guitar and your songs,” Gaines says. “It’s also fantastic. It did a lot for me as a performer, jumping in head first with no safety net.” At Farm Aid Gaines sat in with Willie Nelson, David Crosby and Neil Young and sang a dramatic rendition of “Pink Houses” with John Mellencamp that was broadcast on CMT.
Gaines’ new project – Can’t Kill The Flavor – is a seven song EP and a slight departure from the acoustic Southern rock of her earlier efforts. The compelling lyrics and heartfelt delivery remain intact, but the tracks were created electronically, using the studio as the main instrument. Gaines calls it "hick-hop", a Southern songwriter vibe married to the beats of modern urban music, produced by Gaines with the help of the Pengwinz - Kareem Devlin and Shelby Shook (her younger brother).
“This record is an experiment,” Gaines explained. “Instead of layering my vocals over band tracks as I’ve done in the past, the music was designed to wrap around my vocals, so there’s a more open, cinematic feel to the songs. I cut my guitar and vocals live, then a drum track was built around my groove. The rest of the instruments were laid on that foundation. The Pengwinz never heard the songs before I played them, so the three of us collaborated in the studio creating the music spontaneously with no preconceived notions about what a song should sound like.”
The music on Can’t Kill The Flavor blends acoustic balladry with today’s studio techniques to add a bit of radio friendly studio polish to the tunes without diminishing the heart and soul at the core of Gaines’ art. “Blindsided” the lead off track, has a spare, mysterious urban feel. Gaines’ poignant low-key vocal and her keening overdubbed harmonies make the raw emotion of the tune almost palpable. “I used a few cusswords, but I think they help the song cut to the essence of a universal truth,” Gaines said. “Everybody can relate to being gunned down by love, incapacitated, hit so hard it can literally feel like being blindsided by a truck.” A deep, dreamy, bass heavy groove introduces “Honeycomb,” a song about the joys and perils of pot smoking. The song’s seemingly carefree chorus is instantly catchy, but there’s a serious message in the music Gaines explains, “On one level "Honeycomb" is an anthem to youthful folly, but it is also a comment on the price we pay for our addictions."
“The Peach Thief,” cut with her regular touring band, is another dark exploration of human nature. Gaines delivers a bluesy, seductive vocal, but there’s a disturbing feel to the lyrics and the rousing chorus comes across sounding more like a rationalization than a celebration. “The lyric asks ‘Why'd you leave it out for me if I could not have a taste?’ I’m fascinated by the way some twisted souls get into that mind frame where they think women and girls are inviting exploitation. It’s one of the most menacing songs I’ve ever written; I’m still trying to figure out what it means.” Flavor also shows off Gaines’ romantic side. “Heavenly Body,” is an upbeat celebration of female sexuality while “Tender Hooks” is a slow R&B scorcher that details the delicious anguish of unrequited love. “The EP may use a new sonic vocabulary, but the lyrics remain full of love, lust, and longing” Gaines says. “Fans of my old stuff may see it as a departure, but I see it as liberating experiment.” Listeners will immediately recognize the music’s extreme emotions and understand that Gaines brings the same intensity to her music that she brings to her life as a sportswoman.
Can’t Kill The Flavor EP has been mastered and engineered to take advantage of today’s digital technology and expects most of the tunes to be sold as downloads on iTunes, MP3.com and other Internet outlets. “I’m a serious performer and writer, but my ego isn’t wrapped up in some idea of what commercial success is. I want everybody to have this music; fans, friends, strangers and pirates. I don’t care. I want to be in your iPod.” Gaines will be hitting the road to promote Can’t Kill The Flavor while continuing her duties as wife, mother (to 16 month old Cassidy) pro-sportswoman. She will be competing in and commentating on the first ever women's pro-bass fishing tour during the spring and summer of '06 for ESPN.
“I started out to show the world that women can represent in traditional sports such as snowboarding and fly-fishing and have a career singing and songwriting at the same time,” Gaines says in conclusion. “I’ve never been interested in the status quo. I’m not afraid to be bawdy and confrontational and brutally honest and put my story right into your lap. It took me 15 years to get here, before anyone saw the link between sports and music, but I got here.”
No matter what Gaines does, she does it with a passion that’s downright inspiring and she’s inviting us all along for the ride.
Greta Gaines isn’t afraid of a challenge and she’s as courageous in her artistic life as she is in her professional life. Singer/songwriter, bandleader, adventurer and extreme sportswoman - Gaines is a woman set on living life to its fullest.
Gaines comes to her blend of sports and art honestly. Her father is novelist, screenwriter and outdoorsman Charles Gaines (Pumping Iron, Stay Hungry) and the inventor of the game of Paintball. Her mother is painter, sculptor and former Miss. Alabama, Patricia Ellisor Gaines. Hunter S. Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities were frequent visitors to her family’s rural farm growing up so pushing boundaries and living life to its fullest were part of her upbringing. “My parents wrote their own rules, so it didn’t seem odd to me to invent my life as I went along,” Gaines said.
Gaines attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, with friend Uma Thurman among other notable classmates, before graduating from Georgetown University and was riding a prototype snowboard from Jake Burton in 1982, years before they were on the market. She briefly considered studying law, but decided on the life of an artist instead. “I picked up a guitar and started writing songs late, when I was 22, but quickly became devoted to the craft of song writing, relieved that I had found my inner calling."
By 1992 Gaines was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming snowboarding all day and singing her songs in country and western bars at night. After taking the Woman’s Extreme Snowboarding World Championship - the only woman in a field of 19 young men - she moved to Nashville to pursue songwriting and performing full time and soon landed a deal with Giant Records. After several years a corporate merger left her with 40 master recordings and no record deal. She started her own label, Big Air Records, and culled the 12 tracks on Greta Gaines from those masters. Her song “Firefly” got considerable AAA airplay and the album rose to the tops of the MP3.com charts, landing her a slot on the Lilith Fair with Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan and gigs opening shows for Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette.
In 1997 Gaines’ snowboarding title led to a job hosting MTV’s Sports and Music Festival. Her song “Mikey Likes It” was used as the show’s theme song. In 1999 the Oxygen Network created Freeride with Greta Gaines. “It was a dream job and reflected my love of music, extreme sports, adventure, travel, lifestyle and the environment.” Gaines created the show’s theme song and wrote music for the show’s soundtrack. "Freeride" was on the air for three years and led to her current TV gig hosting for ESPN 2's "Basscenter" and "The New American Sportsman," Because Gaines owns her own catalogue of some 100 recorded songs, she has licensed her music freely for use on ESPN, MTV, VH1 and Oxygen Network while contributing to a dozen movie scores. She did the entire soundtrack for director Joe Maggio's "Virgil Bliss," (which was nominated for an Independant Spirit Award) and is currently recording music for Ethan Hawke's newest directorial effort, "The Hottest State" due out in fall of 2006.
It Was Hot, the second album for Big Air, was also a success and led to a month of dates supporting Sheryl Crow. “It’s scary as hell to stand up in front of an audience as an opening act with nothing but your guitar and your songs,” Gaines says. “It’s also fantastic. It did a lot for me as a performer, jumping in head first with no safety net.” At Farm Aid Gaines sat in with Willie Nelson, David Crosby and Neil Young and sang a dramatic rendition of “Pink Houses” with John Mellencamp that was broadcast on CMT.
Gaines’ new project – Can’t Kill The Flavor – is a seven song EP and a slight departure from the acoustic Southern rock of her earlier efforts. The compelling lyrics and heartfelt delivery remain intact, but the tracks were created electronically, using the studio as the main instrument. Gaines calls it "hick-hop", a Southern songwriter vibe married to the beats of modern urban music, produced by Gaines with the help of the Pengwinz - Kareem Devlin and Shelby Shook (her younger brother).
“This record is an experiment,” Gaines explained. “Instead of layering my vocals over band tracks as I’ve done in the past, the music was designed to wrap around my vocals, so there’s a more open, cinematic feel to the songs. I cut my guitar and vocals live, then a drum track was built around my groove. The rest of the instruments were laid on that foundation. The Pengwinz never heard the songs before I played them, so the three of us collaborated in the studio creating the music spontaneously with no preconceived notions about what a song should sound like.”
The music on Can’t Kill The Flavor blends acoustic balladry with today’s studio techniques to add a bit of radio friendly studio polish to the tunes without diminishing the heart and soul at the core of Gaines’ art. “Blindsided” the lead off track, has a spare, mysterious urban feel. Gaines’ poignant low-key vocal and her keening overdubbed harmonies make the raw emotion of the tune almost palpable. “I used a few cusswords, but I think they help the song cut to the essence of a universal truth,” Gaines said. “Everybody can relate to being gunned down by love, incapacitated, hit so hard it can literally feel like being blindsided by a truck.” A deep, dreamy, bass heavy groove introduces “Honeycomb,” a song about the joys and perils of pot smoking. The song’s seemingly carefree chorus is instantly catchy, but there’s a serious message in the music Gaines explains, “On one level "Honeycomb" is an anthem to youthful folly, but it is also a comment on the price we pay for our addictions."
“The Peach Thief,” cut with her regular touring band, is another dark exploration of human nature. Gaines delivers a bluesy, seductive vocal, but there’s a disturbing feel to the lyrics and the rousing chorus comes across sounding more like a rationalization than a celebration. “The lyric asks ‘Why'd you leave it out for me if I could not have a taste?’ I’m fascinated by the way some twisted souls get into that mind frame where they think women and girls are inviting exploitation. It’s one of the most menacing songs I’ve ever written; I’m still trying to figure out what it means.” Flavor also shows off Gaines’ romantic side. “Heavenly Body,” is an upbeat celebration of female sexuality while “Tender Hooks” is a slow R&B scorcher that details the delicious anguish of unrequited love. “The EP may use a new sonic vocabulary, but the lyrics remain full of love, lust, and longing” Gaines says. “Fans of my old stuff may see it as a departure, but I see it as liberating experiment.” Listeners will immediately recognize the music’s extreme emotions and understand that Gaines brings the same intensity to her music that she brings to her life as a sportswoman.
Can’t Kill The Flavor EP has been mastered and engineered to take advantage of today’s digital technology and expects most of the tunes to be sold as downloads on iTunes, MP3.com and other Internet outlets. “I’m a serious performer and writer, but my ego isn’t wrapped up in some idea of what commercial success is. I want everybody to have this music; fans, friends, strangers and pirates. I don’t care. I want to be in your iPod.” Gaines will be hitting the road to promote Can’t Kill The Flavor while continuing her duties as wife, mother (to 16 month old Cassidy) pro-sportswoman. She will be competing in and commentating on the first ever women's pro-bass fishing tour during the spring and summer of '06 for ESPN.
“I started out to show the world that women can represent in traditional sports such as snowboarding and fly-fishing and have a career singing and songwriting at the same time,” Gaines says in conclusion. “I’ve never been interested in the status quo. I’m not afraid to be bawdy and confrontational and brutally honest and put my story right into your lap. It took me 15 years to get here, before anyone saw the link between sports and music, but I got here.”
No matter what Gaines does, she does it with a passion that’s downright inspiring and she’s inviting us all along for the ride.
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