artist info

Born in the UK | Forged in the USA | Triple Grammy nominated | 30+ years at forefront of contemporary jazz

For more than three decades, the triple Grammy-nominated Acoustic Alchemy have pushed the limits of the potential of the acoustic guitar by embracing a spectrum of musical styles ranging from straight-ahead jazz to folk to rock to world music and beyond. Since their earliest recordings – despite a tragic setback in the late 1990s and the inherent challenges of the 21st century music industry – the group has assembled and sustained a vast and loyal following that stretches well beyond their U.K. origins. Through it all, the overriding mission of Acoustic Alchemy has been to reach the broadest possible audience by pushing the potential of instrumental music to embrace a broad spectrum of styles without being limited to any specific genre.

“For a lot of people, instrumental music is just a sound that plays in the background,” says Carmichael. “But we put a lot into it. I’d like to think that after all these years, we’ve learned how to take people on a journey. A lot of our fans have said that we that for them. As long as they keep coming back, and as long as they want to stay on that journey, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

The band’s story begins with two guitarists, Nick Webb and Simon James, who recorded a self-financed, self-produced album in the mid 1980s entitled Acoustic Alchemy. Shortly after the release, James left the partnership to study flamenco guitar in Spain, leaving Webb to promote the record on his own. Webb turned to a rock guitarist named Greg Carmichael, whose background complemented his own and the two assumed the name of Acoustic Alchemy.

The duo initially worked for Virgin Airlines, recording in-flight music for trans-Atlantic flights, then signed to MCA, where they released their 1987 debut album,Red Dust & Spanish Lace.

After two more records on MCA, Acoustic Alchemy moved to GRP, which would be their home for the better part of the 1990s. Reference Point (1990) was nominated for a Grammy Award, and marked the beginning of a successful run on GRP until Webb’s death from pancreatic cancer in 1998.

The band moved to EMI’s Higher Octave label, where they released a short string of successful albums, including the Grammy-nominated Aart (2001), their biggest selling album to date. Their success has continued throughout the years – in 2014, Live in London, a two CD live recording was released. Live In London is Acoustic Alchemy’s first-ever double album, featuring songs from their most recent studio release Roseland (2011), along with classic tracks from the band’s 16-album catalog.

In 2018 they released Thirty Three and A Third with chart-topping success and 5-star reviews.

For the last decade plus, the band lineup has been made up of Greg Carmichael on nylon guitar, Miles Gilderdaleon steel string acoustic and electric guitars, Jay Rowe on keyboards, and the powerhouse rhythm section of Greg Grainger on drums and his brother, Gary Grainger on bass.

Through it all, the overriding mission of Acoustic Alchemy has been to reach the broadest possible audience by pushing the potential of instrumental music to embrace a broad spectrum of styles without being limited to any specific genre.