This is my answer to "What a Wonderful World." There is hope on and beyond this planet, but we have to work for it.

IT IS THE JOURNEY

Wrote this when we were staying in a 14th century apartment on the  Île Saint-Louis in Paris where the Musketeers used to stay, the Siene outside my window. City of love. Love me now.

LOVE ME NOW

Time passes, but when you have a Friend, the Game of Life is easier to play.

NO TIME

IT IS THE JOURNEY the album, is about trying to find your way and a place you can call home, amidst the turmoil, heartache, delusions, frustrations, privations, self-doubts, cries of the soul. It is a cry in the night, but a cry that is answered.

A FRIEND

REACH

I prefer to leave the meaning of this song up to the listener. Getting it recorded with The Giving Tree Band and Packy was a transcendental experience.

WAIT IT OUT

Alone, lonely and tired, the song is a paen to the Creator to keep me going.

ALL ALONE

This is a confession and prayer and longing to Meet.

MEET

Written for my amazing daughter, Leandra. The song, seemingly light-hearted, encapsulates my feelings about crisis and faith.

AWAY WITH ME

The title say it all: "Toss your dreams... see what comes back to you." Heard the Grateful Dead in my blood when I wrote it.

TOSS YOUR DREAMS

James Harris Gruft is a composer, singer, and keyboard player (with a little guitar playing thrown in).

Over the years he has fronted several bands, including Living Folly with Lucas Rico Corrubia, Suffering Clams with John NewK Newcott, Core with Robert Perl and NewK, Gruft and NewK with NewK, Paul Amorese and Mike Chiavaro, Urban Hawks with Ian Walsh, James Wenzel and Jon Wenzel and more recently he has worked with The Giving Tree Band (Todd and E Fink, Charlie Karls, Norm Norman and Z) and with Packy. His musical training started with C James Hughes at Tappan Zee High School, Robert Printz, jazz pianist, and Will Johnson of Sonoma State University. He has released 6 CDs, including Perfect Peace, Give me the Strength, From Earth to Milky Way, No One Wants to Forget, The End of One, It Is What It Is, and the forthcoming vinyl LP,  It Is the Journey. His music is rock, with influences by Jack Bruce, Leonard Cohen and Peter Gabriel. His message is unique; nothing less than a cry, at times a complaint, in any case an attempt to come to terms with a Higher Power personally and spiritually.  So listen . . .

Oh, and by the way, James is also a physician, a healer of pain. So there.

James Gruft Music