Beggars, Thieves and Kings is the first solo album by Lawrence Gray.  Lawrence has played music both solo and with bands over the course of his life including Mary on the Dash, a Chapel Hill based band that was active in the 1980s and early 1990s.  Lawrence left the band in 1988 and took an extended hiatus from music and performing as he followed his more conventional professional aspirations.  During a professional sabbatical in 2009, at the invitation of Bobby Houck of the Blue Dogs, Lawrence performed his first show in over 20 years opening for a Blue Dogs performance at Ashland Coffee & Tea in Ashland, VA.  

 

Since 2009, Lawrence has played several shows as an opener for the Blue Dogs, a few solo shows and, as a major highlight, shows with his talented daughter Arlo.  Arlo is featured on BTK as the solo singer in the first verse of Powderfinger and background vocals throughout Powderfinger and Route 5.  The rest of the Gray family (wife, Freddie and sons, Lewis and Teddy) added great dimension to the BTK project with their contributions to Powderfinger, Route 5 and the moody background vocals on both versions of Mary's Song.  

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All songs on BTK were written by Gray over the past thirty-five years except for Powderfinger, a Neil Young classic featured on his Rust Never Sleeps album from 1979.

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The supporting musicians for this record are a group of incredibly talented lifelong musicians that have made their names as members of other well-known bands.  Stephen McCarthy, who played bass for all the tracks on BTK, has been a lifelong musician and a member of several bands including the Long Ryders.  Johnny Hott, the drummer on all BTK tracks, is also a lifelong musician playing with many bands including House of Freaks.  All keyboards were contributed by Daniel Clarke, who is currently KD Lang's keyboard player playing with Lang all over the world.  Finally, the high-impact sax contribution to Lonely Romeo was played by JC Kuhl, the sax player for Agents of Good Roots.   The Agents of Good Roots connection also extends to the BTK project's engineer, Stewart Myers, who also played bass for AGR.

 

From Gray - "I am incredibly thankful to all those who inspired me to finally make this project a reality, those who made their incredibly talented contributions to this album, and especially my wife and kids whose participation in this project made it more than special."