Gary McGrath, Annetta, TX
Officially formed in 2005 in Los Angeles, CA with an all star line up featuring Tim Bogert on Bass Guitar (Vanilla Fudge), Teddy Andreadis (Guns n Roses) on Keyboards, Bryan Head (Foreigner) on drums and Gary McGrath on guitars and lead vocals. The band made its first full length self titled debut record in 2008. The record was comprised of music from Gary McGraths solo efforts from two previous solo records (now out of print) The record got favorable reviews from the Santa Clarita Signal, the Fort Worth Weekly, Austin Chronical as well as several on line blogs and reviewers. The two singles, “Where You Belong” and “The Chance” became top 10 hits on several internet radio stations including #1 on indie 103.1 FM in Los Angels (Where You Belong #1, The Chance #10 in 2008)
The bands sophomore record, a double album entitled, “Love is a Four Letter Word” (certified Gold in the UK) spawned the single, “You Secret Is Out” which charted at #14 on the ACQB Charts and #187 on Billboards indie radio charts in 2010. This double record showed a small line up change to add Chet McCracken from The Doobie Brothers on drums and Dean Minnerly from Three Dog Night on Keys and adding female vocalist, Ann-Marita.
After relocating back to his native state of Texas Gary released the bands third record, an EP called, “Phoenix”. Gary reformed the band as a trio with multi Grammy Award winning producer Eric Delegard on Bass and local first call drummer Ryan Martin. The band performed regularly in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in original venues to high praise including such staples as the Curtain Club, The Aardvark, The Liquid Lounge and the Cellar. No real focus was put into promoting the record until 2020 with the release of, “Casey's Last Chance” and, “Right Through You” as singles with music videos.
In 2019 The McGrath Project signed to Smith Music and released the bands fourth record, “Closet Full of Skeletons”. The record released the singles, “Hollywood Vampire” which received national radio airplay on both CBS radio, Clear Channel radio and college radio. The single became a top ten requested song in Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Oklahoma City FM commercial radio and #! on 25 indie/internet radio stations. The bands second single, “You'll Be My Star” cracked the top 50 on Texas Red Dirt Charts for two weeks. The record features guest appearances by Mark White (Spin Doctors), Susan Cloud (Susan and the Sissies), Gregg Bissonette (Ringo Star), Tim Bogert (Vanilla Fudge) Luis Conte (James Taylor) and Phil Parlapiano (Rod Stewart) on various songs.
To Promote the record the band performed on Good Day Dallas, Good Day Austin, Opened for Tony Lewis of the Outfield at 3ten Austin City Limits, opened for Manny Charlton formerly of Nazareth on various dates and on air performances on Texas News Room, SCTV House Blend, Queen Silvy Show, Tia Tropical Radio Show, Deep Dallas Radio, 97.1 FM The Eagle, Dallas, Texas, LA Talk Live, KHTS 98.1 Santa Clarita, CA and 94.& FM Austin, TX.
In 2022 The McGrath Project is excited to get back on the road after the Covid-19 Pandemic. The band has had great International success with radio play in both modern rock and Texas Country charts in 2021 with the new singles, "Save Me" and "**** Me Off".
