Deren Ney

Deren Michael Ney (born April 26) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from San Francisco, California. He has been lead guitarist for Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers. He made his solo debut in 2019 with "West Coast Mama" on Volplane Records.

Deren Ney
Background information
Birth nameDeren Michael Ney
BornBerkeley, California, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, filmmaker
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, keys
Years active2008–present
Labels
  • Volplane Records

Guitar World editor and The Allman Brothers Band biographer Alan Paul (author) has described Ney as "a secret weapon of sorts".[1]

As lead guitarist he led the Gramblers' bravura live shows, including appearances at Bonnaroo Music Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Tedeschi Trucks Band. He was featured in rock photographer Jay Blakesberg's Guitars That Jam book alongside his 1971 Gibson ES-335.

Biography

Ney grew up in Lafayette, California. According to Jay Blakesberg's book "Guitars That Jam", Ney was inspired to play guitar at 6 years old after seeing the movie Back to the Future and wanting to learn Johnny B/ Goode. He performed in local bands in an active youth music scene that included Cass McCombs, Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco), Mike Silverman aka That 1 Guy and Peter Hayes (musician) of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

After college he began playing with former classmate Nicki Bluhm in 2006.[2] Bluhm told The Mercury News in 2012:

“Initially, I was a solo artist. I quickly realized I didn’t like that,” she said. “It was hard to cut through the noise in clubs all alone. I asked Deren to come with me.[3]

In 2008 they expanded into a full band, dubbed The Gramblers. With Bluhm the band toured the West Coast for the next few years and had modest success, but it was the band's one-take performance of Hall and Oates' I Can't Go For That (No Can Do), performed live in their moving tour van, that went viral and amassed over a million fews in a week and made NBG a breakout act.[3] Over the next year they made appearances at some of the top festivals in the country and sold out shows across the country. They appeared on late night TV like Conan and were even featured on New York Magazine's Pop Culture Matrix and toured Europe in 2016.

The 30-plus "Van Sessions" have over 10 million views on YouTube to date and include Cameron Crowe among their fans, who told the band after seeing the videos, "Don't sell the van."[4]

Ney wrote some of the Gramblers signature tunes, including their top radio single, "Waiting On Love".

Ney is a cousin of country music legend Tex Ritter, Three's Company actor John Ritter and actors Jason Ritter, Tyler Ritter and singer Carly Ritter.

Solo career

On October 18, 2019, Ney released a single "West Coast Mama" on Volplane Records. The video followed two weeks later. The backing band included Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie, Tedeschi Trucks Band), Pete Levin (Gregg Allman, The Highwomen), and Ryan Avellone (The Brothers Comatose). Dave Mulligan and Mike Curry of The Gramblers, Los Angeles-based singer Lauren Barth, and The Mother Hips' Greg Loiacono sing harmonies.

Discography

Solo
  • West Coast Mama, single, (Volplane Records, 2019)
  • Crown Shyness (Stay Home and Get High), single, (Volplane Records, 2020)

Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers
  • Toby's Song (Little Knickers, 2008)
  • Driftwood (Little Knickers, 2011, re-released 2012 on Little Sur Records, 2012)
  • Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers (Little Sur Records, 2013)
  • Love Wild Lost (Little Sur Records, 2015)

Film

Ney appears with the Gramblers in the Elvis Presley documentary The King (2017 American film), where they performed live in Presley's 1963 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud. The film was directed by Eugene Jarecki and features interviews with Rosanne Cash, Ethan Hawke, Chuck D, Van Jones, Alec Baldwin, Emmylou Harris and more.

Backline

Following the suicide of his friend, guitarist Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Circles Around the Sun, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals in 2019, Ney wrote a Facebook post about depression in the music community that sparked a conversation about getting resources to musicians in need that was reprinted by No Depression. Soon after, Ney announced a new organization called Backline, which dubs itself the "music industry's hub for mental health and wellness resources." Oteil Burbridge, Anders Osborne, and Peter Shapiro (concert promoter) among others helped launch the effort. Ney significantly downplayed his role, telling radio host Jake Feinberg he "gave it a name and then smarter people did all the work."[5] Backline works in conjunction with some of the top charities in the industry to provide musicians with a case worker to help them navigate the web of resources available to them.[6]

As Director

Ney has directed and animated several music videos, including:

Year Video Artist
2014 "Another Rolling Stone" Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers
2019 "San Felipe" Greg Loiacono
2019 "Close Your Eyes" (We'll Be There Soon)" Greg Loiacono
2019 "Chamberlain's Trunk" Greg Loiacono
2019 "West Coast Mama" Deren Ney
2020 "Crown Shyness (Stay Home and Get High)" Deren Ney
gollark: Oh, I'm randomly nitpicking.
gollark: It's 70%, and that assumes that the chance of each protest in a location being violent is independent, which is not true.
gollark: I have no idea about *that*, but it's not valid to say "12 protests in your area → guaranteed (i.e. 100% or nearly) chance of one or more being violent".
gollark: > 10 percent of BLM protests are violent. that means if you have 12 protests in your area you are guaranteed to be hurt, or have property damageRandom nitpicking, but that is *not* how probabilities work.
gollark: Although, I'm not sure how a "no capital system" is meant to work, given that you need capital to produce basically anything.

References
  1. "Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers: Into the 'Wild' – Alan Paul". Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  2. "Lafayette Songstress Harmonizes With Van". Walnut Creek, CA Patch. 11 May 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  3. "'Van Sessions' helping Lafayette's Nicki Bluhm get places". The Mercury News. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  4. Crowe, Cameron (27 March 2012). "@nickibluhm @timbluhm don't sell the van!". @CameronCrowe. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  5. "Ney – The Derren Ney Interview | Jake Feinberg Show". Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  6. "Backline Launches Hub Featuring Mental Health & Wellness Resources For Live Music Community". JamBase. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
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