Grace Ombry

Novelist

Category: Music (Page 1 of 2)

Yield bus
Ellie's painted Yield bus

“On the Bus” Getting in Tune – State of Love & Trust

May 16, 2019 /

Author’s note

State of Love & Trust - review

State of Love & Trust, a novel by Grace Ombry

I’m serializing the first 10% of State of Love & Trust here on my blog. It’s a story about Pearl Jam fans in Detroit’s oldest neighborhood, Corktown.

This is the first installment.

Ellie – Detroit, Mich. – Tuesday, May 20, 2006

I pulled the Yield bus into a rest stop somewhere between Grand Rapids and Detroit. Seeing Pearl Jam three times in four days was the kind of thing I lived for, but at two in the morning after the third show, I was cracked.

“C’mon you guys. Break time, then someone else has to take a turn driving this beast.” I tossed a pillow at the futon where my boyfriend Reece was kicking back, smearing marshmallow fluff onto an Oreo.Continue Reading “On the Bus” Getting in Tune – State of Love & Trust

Stone Hell Yes

Stone, hell yes

July 25, 2017 /
Tuesday Evening, 73°F and clear
Listening to The Beatles—Dear Prudence
Pearl Jam Religion - Sacred Heart of Stone Gossard

Clive indulged his sister by painting The Sacred Heart of Pearl Jam on the back of her bus.

This is for every Pearl Jam fan who doesn’t think Stone Gossard gets anywhere near as much credit as he deserves. Ellie, Clive, and Saint all understand who the sacred heart of Pearl Jam really is. Oh my god, Stone, hell yes.

Read about these hardcore Pearl Jam fans in my tragicomic novel, State of Love & Trust.

Progholm Syndrome via Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson and Lake thoroughly enjoying themselves while playing Rondo.

Progholm Syndrome

January 17, 2017 /
Tuesday Evening, 33°F and foggy
Listening to The Nice, Rondo

Progholm Syndrome … It’s no secret that I have a thing about progressive rock. I tend to go through phases with it, where I will get deep down into a single prog band for days or weeks then I’ll come back out of my prog binge and not listen to another note of prog for weeks.

A few years ago my best friend and I started a really limited Facebook group called Progvember, dedicated to listening to prog during the month of November. For some reason (probably a combination of NaNoWriMo and a disgust hangover from the US presidential election) I neglected Progvember entirely in 2016. I thought I could get away with that. Turns out prog had something to say about that. Uh-uh, Grace. Not so fast.Continue Reading Progholm Syndrome

Rock n roll! Traeger and Blackwell, Night Beats
James Traeger and Danny Lee Blackwell of the incredible psychedelic band, Night Beats.

Rumors of Rock-n-Roll’s Death

September 27, 2016 /

have been greatly exaggerated

Tuesday afternoon, 63° and windy
Listening to Night Beats, The New World

If you believe rock n roll is dead, or that there is no good new rock music, or that Justin Beiber, Rhianna or *insert popular, predictable, auto-tuned act here* killed rock n roll, I have seven suggestions for you.

1. Quit complaining about today’s Top 40. Top 40 has largely sucked throughout its history, has only been a trailing indicator of musical trends, and has completely missed countless fantastic acts. For every Space Oddity there were approximately 1,794 Afternoon Delights. If you’re over 35, you do not have enough years left to wait for Top 40 to spoon feed you something great.  Most likely, it won’t.

Yes, 1973 was an exception. So what. You’ve been holding your breath for four decades waiting for that to happen again? Get over it.

Continue Reading Rumors of Rock-n-Roll’s Death

No Code, Yield Vinyl and copyright permission on lyrics all in one day.
Pearl Jam's No Code and Yield arrived together the same day I got copyright permission on lyrics by Pearl Jam.

A Banner Day

September 8, 2016 /

In My Pearl Jam Universe

Thursday night, 70°F
Listening to The Rolling Stones, Let It Loose

Or how I got copyright permission on lyrics from Pearl Jam

How many times have you been told that you can’t put lyrics in your novel? That it’s impossible (or at least prohibitively expensive) to obtain copyright permission on lyrics? If it’s important to your novel, then it’s worth the effort to try. I did, and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as people claim. I’m so glad I didn’t let their negativity discourage me.

First things first: you absolutely must get copyright permission on lyrics before you publish them in your manuscript. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the law.

On August 17, 2016, I made a post explaining why the words of Saint Wozniak’s Whipping tattoo were left out of my novel, State of Love & Trust. In short, his tattoo is the first stanza of the Pearl Jam song, Whipping, and therefore protected by copyright.  At the time I wrote that post, I was well into the process of attempting to obtain permission from music publisher Hal Leonard. Based on everything I’d read while researching copyright issues, I fully expected it to be too expensive. But I had to at least ask. Those lyrics fit Saint’s reckless, hard headed character too perfectly for me to not at least try to get them included.Continue Reading A Banner Day

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