Just about a hundred miles from the middle of the state, sits Caruthers California. Caruthers is famous for the Caruthers District Fair, the famous bi-plane in the filling station, and soon, the home of country music's latest find - Gregor Ross.

Now, Caruthers is nowhere near the country music capital of Nashville, but it is a fairly good hop-skip-and a-jump to Bakersfield, which enjoys a country music lineage of its own.

Gregor's musical lineage runs deep. His grandparents were both singers and instrumentalists with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and they instilled the love of country music in Gregor. After years of watching the Grand Ole Opry with his grandfather, Ellis would opine that Gregor would get to play there one day.

"Ours is a big ol' rambunctious family," Gregor smiles. "They all recognized that I loved music, but no one ever really thought I would go down that road because I had 80% hearing loss in both ears”.

"We all worked hard, and as a teenager I felt I had to jump in and pull my weight." Gregor's uncle Rick taught him the skill of welding - to great success. Gregor is a Champion Welder having won skills competitions across the state. This is an art that is definitely not on the usual resume of a country artist. He's been a professional welder since he was a teenager, but during every break he always returned to his guitar.

When the cochleae in both ears were reconstructed at age 15 to restore his hearing, the music's magic became more of a siren song, and he began to play music in earnest.

Of course like all young men he dabbled in rock, but it was country that remained in his heart. And so every chance he could, Gregor would play and sing locally, expanding his realm to include Bakersfield and Buck Owens' Crystal Palace. Now Gregor's first commercial product will be released on June 3rd.

The six-song EP Turn Up The Noise, was recorded in Los Angeles at Daniel "Dr. Ford's" private studio, and is comprised of all original material written and performed by Gregor. He is backed ably by studio mates Dave Pearlman on Steel, Bruce Lawrence on Guitars, and Kara Britz and Zack Ford on Backgrounds. In addition to producing and engineering duties, Dr. Ford chipped in on guitars and vocals. Ford's award-winning work and approach to "Lyrical Mixing" has charted at #1 on iTunes, on the Billboard charts and gained him a featured position as a master educator on Pro Studio Live.

"Music to me is like a photo album full of memories," Gregor explains. Now that May is just around the corner - make sure you listen to some of those memories and catch him live when Gregor comes to a venue near you. And quick - check out "Don't Mean Maybe," you might just be humming that song all summer long.


Derek "D-$ign" Howell is an independent artist. He is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, audio engineer, music producer, festival promoter, talent buyer and stage manager. He also owns Stage and Studio Productions of Western USA. His music bridges the gaps of contemporary music and classical composition. He bends the boundaries of genre specific music. He has engineered/produced such artists as Kail Baxley, Nylo, There There, Will and the Wonts, Rome Dust, Big African Sound, The Bell Hours, Magpie and many more. With his latest effort he has stepped out of the shadows and into the spotlight. #musicattheview #stageandstudio

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