Gary Hempsey Shares Visuals For Satirical New Single ‘Ganja Gnomes’: Singer-songwriter Gary Hempsey shares his unique, quirky new single ‘Ganja Gnomes’ just in time for Christmas.
Bringing together surreal witty lyricism with a warming bluegrass-come-Americana/ folk soundscape, Gary’s musical maturity and musical identity is captured in a sonically organic mix of live instrumentation under Hempsey’s husky lead vocals.
As the track progresses from its acoustic guitar led intro, layers of wah wah soaked electric guitar and fiddler enter, adding an edge to the folk soundscape. Infectiously creative and bizarre, the track manages to retain musical depth, despite the satirical nature of the subject.
Written about Gary’s garden gnomes, apparently long-time inhabitants of his garden and also party animals that spend their time cultivating cannabis, the track is a celebration of Gary’s wild imagination as well as of weed itself, but more than that, it’s light hearted great fun, an unlikely yet no less potent potential stoner anthem. Speaking about the inspiration for the track, Gary explains:
“I was in my studio and went out into the yard. I have a few old garden gnomes out there kinda hidden in a bush, I looked at his face and noticed another one that the bush grew around so I thought these guys have lived here for a long while. Then my imagination ran a bit wild…
I thought up a scene where they were listening to the music from the studio and came to life. I started writing as if they were the garden keepers who also like to party – They take care of the garden but also grow pot on a very high level. So I made up characters and made them into a band. I took a guitar outside and started writing, I thought they would play bluegrass with an electric twist so I did what bluegrass doesn’t do – I added drums and electric guitar, Haha, like Zappa meets bluegrass. It’s a fun song that’s very upbeat with characters that come to life.”
