Liam Graham
Growing up in western Kentucky, just 2 hours from Nashville, electric and upright bassist Liam Graham has always been influenced by the fine, tasteful playing of the area's musicians. However, he found the need to explore widely diverging musical forms for a time, ranging from progressive rock to jazz to classical. In recent years, however, he has come full circle, back to the music of his youth, the bluegrass and roots country of his old Kentucky home ... with a goodly amount of fusion, world music, blues, goth and rockabilly thrown in for good measure. This "roots and beyond" approach serves him very well as the bassist for Nashville-based Scotch Hollow and The Brian James Band.
Along the way, Liam has performed and / or recorded with Chris Smith (Smile, Brian May bandmate), Andy Gurley (Nashville session musician, producer and lead guitarist for country group Blue County), blues singer / guitarist "Fast" Layne Hendrickson (Legendary Shack Shakers writer and collaborator), and a number of cover bands and jazz combos, as well as Seattle-area artists such as the power trio Childhood Zen, champion fiddler Stuart Williams, pan-celtic group Crooked Mile, Grammy-nominated Cake Records (Red/Sony/BMG) artist Holly Figueroa, fingerstyle guitar standout Peter Spencer and singer-songwriter-mandolist Susan Welch.
Since relocating to Nashville in mid-2007, he has appeared with Andy Gurley's fusion trio, country rocker Beau Braswell, and of course Scotch Hollow and The Brian James Band. In a previous life, Liam made his living (barely!) as a classical singer, conductor and composer. He still sings, loving to add his high tenor voice on harmonies. He is also an accomplished flutist, a talent which rears its ugly head from time to time, no matter how hard he tries to suppress it ...