Greazy Alice

Event information

Alice, Alice, who the hell is Greazy Alice?…
Good question.
Good question. First and foremost she is a character from Terry Allen’s seminal 1975 song cycle Juarez, a “working girl”, if you will, haunting a cantina on the Mexican border, walking the tightrope between Dos Equis and XXX. Well I’m sitting in a border palace, suckin’ on Dos Equis beer, suckin’ with Greazy Alice – Border Palace” by Terry Allen.

In the mid 2010’s New Orleans musician Alex Pianovich was searching for a moniker under which to present some new material written as an artist’s rendering of that “Big Easy bar band” sound. Upon hearing Juarez he knew he had a name.

Greazy Alice poured out sleazy hard-riffing rock n roll, smoky dive bar blues, and telecaster-driven honky tonk twang. Drunk and dirty, down and out, spend it all tonight may never come. Pianovich and an ever-evolving group of accomplices tried to strike the balance between a winking caricature and heartfelt homage to the music they loved. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

Over the last decade Greazy Alice morphed innumerable times eventually becoming the umbrella under which Pianovich presents most of his music. The current incarnation of the band took shape in November 2024, when Pianovich began to cut demos with an airtight rhythm section consisting of longtime friend Will Repholz on bass and frequent studio collaborator Lee Garcia on drums. Pianovich built on this foundation with swirling guitars and twinkling honky tonk keys. With the final addition of harmony vocals from local singer-songwriter Jo Morris there was magic on the tape. A sound had emerged and it was clear that these tracks were bound to become more than demos. Before long they had a full LP tied up on a couple of reels of 1 inch ATR magnetic tape.

As Time Goes By documents a moment in time, a moment of reflection, loss, growth and hope. A melancholic sweetness runs through those eleven songs and, in contrast with previous work from Greazy Alice, the focus of this album lies squarely on Pianovich’s songwriting. It is personal, earnest, and introspective while still evoking elements of the band’s earlier bar room aesthetic. It is an honest snapshot of how the band sounds right now and will remain an enjoyable album to revisit regardless of who/what/where Greazy Alice will be in the future.

“stunning debut from New Orleans-based quartet – a sublime mix of radiant country and heart-worn honkytonk” (9/10 Uncut).