Biography

About KC:  An accomplished instrumentalist (mandolin, guitar, bass), vocalist and songwriter, K.C. Groves has been at the heart of many celebrated projects. As the creative center and bandleader of the popular group Uncle Earl for over a decade, she helped bring old-time music to a wider audience. The "g’Earls" played major festival stages in the United States and toured extensively abroad, gaining fans and musical cohorts such as Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, who produced their second Rounder Records album Waterloo, Tennessee which was the #1 album for the year on the Folk DJ chart for 2007.  

Residing in Colorado where she is at the forefront of the Front Range bluegrass scene, KC sings original songs with themes which range from dreaming of seeing the Northern Lights, of love lost and of letting go, something that she and her fellow residents of the flood-ravaged town of Lyons have had to do. 

Mentored as a young musician by bluegrass greats such as Sally Van Meter, Charles Sawtelle and Laurie Lewis, Groves has released two solo albums of original material and was a Telluride Troubadour contest finalist. Her first CD, Can You Hear It, (produced by Charles Sawtelle,) won the Detroit Music Award for Best Bluegrass Artist / Group in 1999.  She has teamed up with countless notable musicians, including old-time musician and craftsman Riley Baugus and Leftover Salmon’s Vince Herman.  KC has toured with Jeff Scroggins and Colorado on bass and vocals and also performs as a duo with vocal powerhouse Greg Blake.

Groves’ ability to assemble talent is also evident as a mentor and producer, her last project, the Free the Honey CD, Fine Bloom, reached #1 Album, #1 Artist, and #1 Song for October 2015 on the Folk DJ Chart, and she has just produced an outstanding project for Barbara Jo Kammer, One Song at a Time, with a stellar cast of musicians, set to release September 1, 2017.

 Along with founding the successful High Street Concert series in Lyons, K.C. has spearheaded the weekly bluegrass jam at Oskar Blues, one of the largest and longest running weekly jams in Colorado and is a member of the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society’s Hall Of Honor.


About the album:
Happy Little Trees, the 3rd solo CD by KC Groves, serves as a beautiful antidote to an over-stimulated world full of flashing images and sound bytes.  The 11 mostly original songs are personal in nature and showcase her ability to focus on the simple things in life while eliciting raw emotion.  The music is soothing, open and almost dream-like at times, with some energetic, rollicking tunes.  Happy Little Trees has a fresh, original sound, yet pays homage to the bluegrass and old-time traditions that have been such a prominent inspiration in her life and music. KC’s voice is reminiscent of her West Virginia heroines Ginny Hawker and Hazel Dickens while remaining unique, unaffected and original.  She sings with a clarity and earnestness that reflects time spent in West Virginia, attending The Church of Christ with her Grandma where only a cappella singing was allowed.

The cast of talented friends she’s assembled for the project read like a Who’s Who in the folk, bluegrass and old-time communities. The Lil Smokies’ Jake Simpson’s beautiful fiddle work stands out, (“Lyons Wedding Waltz”, “Annabelle”.)  Elephant Revival’s Charlie Rose plays jaunty old-time banjo (“Electric Peak”) as well as very dreamy pedal steel (“Northern Lights”, “Annabelle”). Erin Youngberg lays down a steady bass groove while Oliver Craven from The Stray Birds plays the Mule Guitar, a version of a National Steel Guitar (“I Can’t Quit You”) as well as some old time fiddle (“Electric Peak”.) Special guests include Tim O’Brien, Greg Blake, Jenny Hill (Free the Honey), Jordan Ramsey (national mandolin champion) and Sally Van Meter (Grammy award winner) among others.