The Gracious Few

The Gracious Few
Taylor, Martin, Gracey & Dahlheimer on October 30, 2010
Background information
Origin	York, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres	Hard rock, alternative rock
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Questionable Entertainment
Associated acts	Live, Candlebox, The Hiwatts
Website	www.thegraciousfew.com
Members	Kevin Martin Chad Taylor Sean Hennesy Patrick Dahlheimer Chad Gracey

The Gracious Few (also known as TGF) are an American rock group from York, Pennsylvania. The band features guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey from the band Live, along with lead vocalist Kevin Martin and guitarist Sean Hennesy from the band Candlebox.

With Live on what they initially termed a "two-year hiatus", Chad Taylor, Chad Gracey and Patrick Dahlheimer needed a vocalist for the new songs they had written. Chad Gracey called his friend Kevin Martin and suggested that he should join them. Martin explained, "He called me and said Pat, Chad, and I have been writing and we think you are the perfect singer for this project.”

With Chad Taylor claiming that he no longer wanted to play guitar solos, Martin suggested that his Candlebox bandmate, guitarist Sean Hennesy, could do the job. Hennesy explained, "Tonally, he’s got a big, fat, manly beast sound. I have more of a high-cut karate sound that cuts through, so our tones complement each other very well." Once Hennesy was recruited, The Gracious Few's line-up was completed.

On November 30, 2009 Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey issued a statement announcing that Live had disbanded following the departure of lead singer Ed Kowalczyk and that The Gracious Few was now their main focus. Their statement alleged that Kowalczyk had demanded a $100,000 "lead singer bonus" to appear with the band at the 2009 Pinkpop Festival, and had obtained sole publishing rights to the band's songs without the knowledge of the other three band members.

The Gracious Few played their first concert date at Fat Daddy's in York, Pennsylvania on May 27, 2010. This was followed by shows at Summerfest in Milwaukee on June 25, 2010 and The Troubador in Los Angeles on June 28.

The band began rehearsing in California in September 2009 and subsequently recorded their self-titled debut album. It was produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and mixed by Tom Lord-Alge. The first single from the album is "Honest Man". In September 2010, Kevin Martin explained that it had been difficult to schedule the recording of the album because Chad Gracey's wife was about to give birth, Martin and Hennesy were working with Candlebox and Taylor and Dahlheimer were involved in a film project. Also the band members live far apart; Taylor and Dahlheimer in Pennsylvania, Gracey in Orange County and Hennesy and Martin in Los Angeles. Eventually twenty songs were written in two sessions totalling only twenty two days.