Singer, songwriter, and acclaimed harmonica player Grant Dermody's devotion to the blues naturally leads him in different directions. While his last album, Digging in John's Backyard, found him collaborating with guitarist Frank Fotusky on a set of songs that paid tribute to John Jackson, a foremost practitioner and proponent of Piedmont blues, his upcoming effort, Behind the Sun, finds him returning to electric blues with a full band and the inspiration and influence of Louisiana, the place where it was recorded.

Grant Dermody & Fotusky are pleased to announce the January 14, 2022 release of Digging in John's Backyard. Dermody, a modern master of the blues harmonica, and guitarist Fotusky, one of the premier acoustic blues guitar stylists in the nation, have finally joined forces to record the album inspired by their shared connection to the late John Jackson, the Virginia bred country blues guitarist and master of the Piedmont style who gave up in 1949, only to be "rediscovered" in the 1960's.

I need a play list that captures my mood. It’s mostly dark, perplexed and chaotic but sometimes there are much needed glimmers of inspiration. I have so many questions. Is this really our plight? Will it ever end? How will humanity change? With this rapidly, unfolding uncertainty, I can’t do light and surface. Good old rock or pop, my normal go-tos, definitely will not work. I’m craving gritty and real.

Great artists manage to excel in a particular format, but they never find themselves strictly confined either. Consequently, while Grant Dermody has been hailed as a harmonica player, singer, songwriter, and teacher with an approach intrinsically tied to acoustic blues and Chicago blues, his musical reach extends well beyond any singular genre.