Ash Grunwald

Ash Grunwald (born Ashley Mark Groenewald, 5 September 1976) is an Australian blues musician.

He has released nine studio albums and has received five nominations for ARIA Music Awards.

The Groove Catalysts played a number of blues venues in Melbourne and at several festivals throughout 2001 and 2002.

Grunwald was trained as a secondary school teacher, which he left at age 26.

Grunwald drew attention as a solo artist with the release of his debut studio album, Introducing Ash Grunwald, a collection of blues standards and originals, including "Dolphin Song," which is based on a real life encounter Grunwald experienced with a shark and the pod of dolphins that came to his rescue.

The positive response to Grunwald's debut resulted in two Australian Blues Awards (The Chain Awards) for 'Best Emerging Talent' and 'Male Vocalist of the Year' in 2003.

In 2004, released his follow up album I Don't Believe, On the album, Grunwald emulated Tom Waits experimental bang and clang percussion using hammers, spanners and pots.

The album included six originals, two Waits compositions, "Going Out West" and "Jesus Gonna Be Here" and blues standards.

Grunwald received an ARIA Award nomination for 'Best Blues and Roots Album' in 2004, and the Victorian Blues award for 'Male Vocalist of the Year' (equal with Lloyd Spiegel) and in 2005 the MBAS Vic / Tas award for Solo / Duo of the Year (equal with Dave Hogan).

In June 2004, Grunwald recorded Live at the Corner, an album of songs from his first two releases.

Grunwald won the 2005 MBAS Vic / Tas and Australian Blues awards Album of the Year in addition to being nominated once again for the 'Best Blues And Roots album' at the 2005 ARIA Awards.

In May 2005, Grunwald was invited to take over as host of Triple J's Thursday night show 'Roots N All'.

In August 2006 Grunwald released Give Signs recorded on his own record label, Delta Groove Records.

The album received another ARIA Award nomination for 'Best Blues and Roots Album'.

In 2006, Grunwald supported James Brown at his Tasmanian concert.

On 21 December 2006 Grunwald finished his role as a Triple J presenter.

In September 2007 he was nominated for another ARIA award for Best Blues and Roots Album.

Five albums have charted in the ARIA Albums Chart top 50; Fish out of Water (2008), Hot Mama Vibes (2010), Trouble's Door (2012), Gargantua (2013) and Mojo (2019).

Under the guidance of his grandfather, Ash learned to play guitar and bass as a young child and together they recorded his first ever song – a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Going Down Slow".

Grunwald began listening to the blues shows on Melbourne's community radio stations as a teenager.

By his early 20s, Grunwald had been in and out of several bands including the Blue Grunwalds and the Groove Catalysts, as well as playing in a couple of duos.

The Blue Grunwalds, released the album Groove Cave, which generated some local interest.

Grunwald released his fourth studio album, Fish Out of Water on 30 August 2008, with the album reaching No. 43 on the ARIA charts.

The new album was greeted with positive reviews with many of the critics saying it is one of the best blues/roots albums of the year.

Several tracks gained significant airplay on the national youth broadcaster Triple J some of these included "Breakout", "Devil Called Me a Liar" and "Joke on Me".

Grunwald appeared for the first time in a Triple J Hottest 100 with one entry in the 2008 countdown, with "Breakout" reaching number 50.

Fish Out of Water was nominated 'Best Blues and Roots Album' at the 2009 ARIA Awards, Grunwald's fourth in this category.

In October 2009 Grunwald recorded a performance at Fremantle's Fly By Night club for a release as a live album in early 2010.

Grunwald's fifth studio album, Hot Mama Vibes was released 4 June 2010.

The Album featured contributions from Mr Trials, Countbounce, Chasm, Fingers Malone, Benny Owen and Kanchana Karunaratna.

Grunwald said "Mixing electronica with the blues was always a dream of mine. On the first album I was really trying to strip it back to raw elements, just be as soulful as possible. I guess every album since then has been a gradual move towards this point."

Hot Mama Vibes was nominated 'Best Blues and Roots Album' at the 2010 ARIA Awards.

By the end of 2010, Grunwald relocated with his family to Byron Bay and it was here he began recording his sixth studio album, the 2012 release Trouble's Door.

The album was well-supported by Triple J, particularly lead single "Longtime" which spent many weeks in high rotation.

Grunwald went on to win an APRA Award for "Longtime" for Blues Song of The Year.

In early 2013, Grunwald teamed up with Scott Owen and Andy Strachan (from The Living End) and recorded a version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" which was released as a free download through Grunwald's website.

"Crazy" was picked up by Austereo's Triple M network and lead to a live performance on the Seven Network's program The Morning Show.

The unplanned success of the single took the three back into the studio where they re-recorded some of Grunwald existing tracks; adding a driving rhythm section.

The collection of tracks was released in June 2013 under the title Gargantua.

The album peaked at number 46 on the ARIA Charts.