Take equal parts melody from Tom Petty, The Beatles, Third Eye Blind, and mix in the guitar styles of greats like Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Ty Tabor, and Steve Vai, and you might start to come close to describing Curt’s music. A musician from the American south, Curt Granger cut his teeth on the classic bands of the 70’s and 80’s such as Boston, KISS, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen, Journey, and King’s X.
Curt Granger has been a major player in the local Birmingham Alabama music scene for 40 years. He began his professional music career in 1984, as a founding member and guitarist of the popular circuit band Pyrate. With this gang of rockers he logged thousands and thousands of miles on the road, performing over 600 shows all across the southeast. After taking a hiatus as an active musician to earn an electronics degree, Curt formed the alternative rock band Scream Sophie in 1999.
It was with Scream Sophie that he released two very well received original music CDs – “Offerings” in 2000, and “Secrets In A Jar” in 2003, and took the band on the road to perform hundreds of shows. In 2004 he worked a brief stint with the rock band Empty Fall, playing bass, writing, and producing.In 2007 Curt released the CD ‘420 Homegrown Avenue,” a solo effort he had been working on for 3 years. He also joined forces with some of his fellow golfing pals to form Citizen Jayne, playing lead guitar, contributing backing vocals, and singing lead on a few choices numbers, as well as handling the day-to-day business activities. 2007 also saw Curt form his guitar amplifier company, Granger Amplification, where he utilized his knowledge of tube amps and his electronics background to began building and selling custom, handcrafted amplifiers worldwide. This also eventually led to his becoming entirely self-employed, when he departed AT&T in 2009 to make Granger Amplification a full-time venture, as well as his expanding musical career.
In 2011 he joined Voodoo Jones and Mother Mercy, two local cover bands, adding many more live shows to his resume.
In 2012 Curt was involved in many different projects. In addition to performing with Neon Samurai, he began playing lead guitar with The Wildflowers, a Tom Petty tribute band, as well as reuniting with former members of Empty Fall, playing bass again briefly, with King Zen.
In 2013, Curt formed the hard rock/pop rock trio, Pluto’s Return.
2014-2016 found Curt performing Pluto’s Return gigs, corporate events, and weddings as lead guitarist with 5 Dollar Shake (now called The Emulators), more solo acoustic, and many Gringo Fife shows.
From 2016 on, Curt performed less acoustic gigs, and began touring almost exclusively with The Wildflowers. In 2017, the late great Tom Petty passed away, and The Wildflowers became ever more in demand, as Petty fans all over the country expressed their desire to hear Petty’s music live. Curt and the band’s schedule increased three-fold, and 2020 saw the band tour Canada. Unfortunately their schedule came to a nearly-grinding halt when the pandemic hit. They managed to play six shows during this time, to greatly reduced audiences, but they performed with the same enthusiasm and passion as always. Finally once the pandemic was over, their touring schedule steadily increased, including a return tour to Canada, and 2023 saw the band have their best year to date. 2024 has proven it will be just as busy, as the band has a full spring, summer, and fall booked in the states, and another Canadian tour scheduled for October.
Regarding his 2007 solo effort “420 Homegrown Avenue” album, Curt says, “That was something I’ve always longed to do, ever since I recorded my first overdub on an old Fostex 4-track. Not only the ‘total creative control’ aspect appealed to me, but the opportunity to wear multiple ‘hats’ and think outside the norm of how a guitar player usually thinks. I’m very fortunate that I could work on that album at home during breaks and downtown from my other projects. I’m very proud of it, to say the least.”