Blues and Bourbon Wednesdays: Proxy Moon

Proxy Moon’s music is rooted in jazz, blues, folk, country – fundamentally American music – with an emphasis on original songs with strong, interesting lyrics and melodies delivered with spirited musicianship.

They’ve been described as esoteric and poetic, deep while being entertaining, rootsy and “real, rainy, rich and relentless.” We make music for dreamers, pickpockets, somnambulists, poets, ne’er-do-wells, second-story specialists, free-thinkers, bums and tightrope-walkers.

Comprised of a core group of four multi-instrumentalist musicians with diverse backgrounds, the band is at home in virtually any genre, and delivers all with a bit of an edge, utilizing both traditional and non-traditional instruments, including one made up of a ball-peen hammer and heavy iron coupler, popularly known as “the junk.” The term is catching on. Aaron Davis of the Sacramento Bee captured a certain sense of the band this way: “Yes, ‘junk’ is a genre. Proxy Moon, a jazz-rooted sound that is sweet and smoky, with the perfect amount of rustic wear. It’s as if they refused to vacate a Chicago martini lounge when the wrecking ball tore through it, staying with the rubble all the way to the scrapyard and not skipping a beat under a desolate moonlit sky.”

The band has been compared to such artists as Tom Waits, Joe Henry, Jolie Holland, and Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks. Members include Patrick Grizzell, songwriting, guitar and vocals; Steve Bird, upright bass; Ann Wherry, vocals, songwriting, percussion and various eclectic instruments; and Ingrid Peters, violin, accordion, and saw.

A follow-up to their eponymous first cd release is in the works.