Check out our story featured on our local ABC 10 News station: http://www.10news.com/news/video-the-musical-soul-of-guiro-grass
Guiro Grass is an Acoustic duo consisting of flatpicking guitar and guiro (pr: wee-doh) that combines bluegrass and folk with latin grooves from Puerto Rico and Cuba. Bouncing rhythms and fiery guitar picking are infused with the rhythmic chop of the guiro creating a one-of-a-kind sound in traditional roots music. Guiro Grass is also a musical concept that embraces the art and spirit of traditional roots music without confining itself to a specific culture.
It is the result of collaboration between two artists with completely different musical backgrounds. Travis Oliver; a Hiawassee, Georgia native with deep roots in Appalachian music and Junior Fos also known as “The Soul Man,” a San Diego Native, Veteran of the Korean War and legend in the local music scene.
Travis grew up listening to many styles of music including Mountain Music (Bluegrass,...
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Check out our story featured on our local ABC 10 News station: http://www.10news.com/news/video-the-musical-soul-of-guiro-grass
Guiro Grass is an Acoustic duo consisting of flatpicking guitar and guiro (pr: wee-doh) that combines bluegrass and folk with latin grooves from Puerto Rico and Cuba. Bouncing rhythms and fiery guitar picking are infused with the rhythmic chop of the guiro creating a one-of-a-kind sound in traditional roots music. Guiro Grass is also a musical concept that embraces the art and spirit of traditional roots music without confining itself to a specific culture.
It is the result of collaboration between two artists with completely different musical backgrounds. Travis Oliver; a Hiawassee, Georgia native with deep roots in Appalachian music and Junior Fos also known as “The Soul Man,” a San Diego Native, Veteran of the Korean War and legend in the local music scene.
Travis grew up listening to many styles of music including Mountain Music (Bluegrass, Old Time, etc), Blues, Jazz, Southern Rock and Jambands. He started learning how to sing and play bluegrass music from his father in 1997 with a heavy focus on flatpicking guitar. The Soul Man was born and raised in Logan Heights. He credits his musical heritage to his father, a multi-instrumentalist who played Polynesian, Jazz and Latin music. The Soul Man and his brother, famed Jazz pianist Joe Fos, learned to play these styles and many others in the San Diego music scene. After serving with the 187th Rakkasans in the Korean War, Soul Man returned home and has been playing the guiro since with many artists including Armando Peraza, Tito Fuente, Rene Touzet and more recently Viva Santana and the B-Side Players.
The duo was formed over several stage sessions at Winston's Open Mic in Ocean Beach (OB) starting in 2012. Soul Man really liked the pulse of the music Travis was playing and desired to find a way to add his Guiro patterns. After careful consideration and understanding of Junior’s background, Travis agreed to work with him on it. After many hours and years of practice and refinement, Guiro Grass was formed bringing a unique sound and rhythmic pattern to traditional music. They released their self-titled EP in July of 2016 and have performed at venues such as Winston’s, Adams Avenue Unplugged, Ocean Beach Street Fair, Tin Roof, The Merrow, and 1st Street Bar.