Ears Wide Open: Teddy Grossman

Kevin Bronson on January 20th, 2022

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There’s an old soul man bottled up inside singer-songwriter Teddy Grossman. The cork will officially be popped on March 11 with the release of his debut album, “Soon Come.”

Seemingly plucked from the golden age of ’70s AM radio soul, the 12-song collection was produced by Ryan Pollie and made with a backup band of bassist Alex Kyn, pianist Jason Goldstein and drummer Josh Teitelbaum. Notably, it’s lushly orchestrated, adorned with strings, horns, organ, slide guitar and backing vocals. Not unlike contemporary soul men such as Curtis Harding, Benjamin Booker, Nathaniel Rateliff and Anderson East, Grossman does right by his R&B and folk heroes.

The album’s secret weapon is its sense of world-weary yearning, the kind of outlook you get from a guy who’s lived a little. Reared in the Philadelphia area and educated at the University of Michigan, Grossman worked as a traveling salesman, living in Chicago and New York City before landing in L.A. a few years ago. Music went from the background in his life to the focus. “I need to be able to look back at my life and say I gave it a real go,” he says.

“For a long time in my life, I felt this low-grade hum in the background that I wasn’t really where I was supposed to be,” he says. “[This] is ultimately a record about hope, and a deep knowing that we’re gonna get there … all in good time.”

Along the way, “Soon Come” suggests, it never hurts to try a little tenderness.

||| Stream: “Giving Up”