Grace Woods Trio and Vanessa Van Spall are two of the bands headquartered on this website as solo and full band acts. Vanessa Van Spall creates upbeat, bittersweet piano pop while Grace Woods performs dark jazzy quirky pop. Photos, blog entries, mp3s and shows listed on this site have labels to specifiy the specific group involved.

Lit By Lightning is Original Power Pop Rock resembling a mix of the following: Ben Folds Five, Fleetwood Mac, The Cars and Steely Dan. Venue/Festival Bookers Click this PDF
It’s the result of the two Bay Area bands (GWT and VVS) coming together to make one superband.

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Thanks to Ann and Greg of the Stockton Asparagus Festival for welcoming us back and taking such great care of us. It ended up a sunny event. We shared two orders of fried asparagus and tri-tip asparagus sandwiches. After a heated debate on the car ride home on the intricate facets of music, the band retired for a couple days to prepare for the Glen Park Festival.

Vanessa pointed out that her neice is a 4th generation Glen Park Resident and it was fun to watch Vanessa point out people she knew in the crowd. Special thanks to those who came out and to Dan Gustavson for taking such great care of us. At both of these shows, we were lucky enough to play a few tunes by Alex Karweit, our dear friend and talented local musician. You can check him out at alexkarweit.com. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Orinda 4th of July Parade!

On another note, close family friend Ron Stallings had a benefit concert at La Pena (tilda soon to be learned on this computer) last night. Musical friends played tunes in his honor and Whitney and his family were treated to a swelling wave of support. If you wish to make a donation to help pay for the medical expenses that Ron incurred in his last months, please call La Pena for information.

-Grace and LBL

We had the pleasure of opening up the SF Women’s Film Festival at the Women’s building in the mission and it was one of the most stress-free gigs we have had. With a very enthusiastic crew of volunteers, some amazing filmmakers and a very supportive crowd, this event is a must-attend for anyone interested. We look forward to contributing in future years and we hope to see you there! For more info on this continuing event, check out sfwff.org!

Special thanks to Otis, Chris V., Les, Jacob, Magdalene, USF Cohorts 1 and 2, Laura, Anil, Cordelia, Linda, Gwen, Dan, Jake, Will and many others who made last night so memorable! The place was small, high-ceilinged and intimate. We got sweaty and loud. We fussed with monitors and jumped around. Wine flowed and people filled the balconies with talk of weekends, the economy, music etc. We played a number of completely new songs. I’m putting a couple pics up, but there are more coming from our good friend Gary. Enjoy the free downloads on the music page!

Hi Everybody! You may already have our past albums and EP but I wanted to let you know that Ian just made the mp3s for our 3 demo songs available for free download on various sites! Click on the logo on the music player in the music section and you will be directed to the download site! Click the downward-pointing arrow on the right of the song and it will download to your computer without asking for your information! We would like you to keep in touch, however, by signing up for our e-mail list to your left, so we can let you know when we post new free downloads!

See you at Cafe Royale for a FREE show in San Francisco March 7th with Otis! Details in the GIGS section!

Special thanks to the production crew for putting on the webcast yesterday! I’m having fun editing the content to be put up on this site shortly. Thanks also to the Vasagiris, Anneke (spelled wrong), Michael, Chris and Heather. For those who missed it, we filmed a live show and streamed it online out of Emeryville CA. We performed numerous songs that no one has heard before and it was great to try them out. Some cool additions to the set up included a cloth sign that Vanessa made herself and the bass drumhead logo on Whitney’s set. Unlike the webcast 3 years ago, the 5 of us filled the stage and were able to dance and revel in our new found freedom. This 5-piece just gets better and better! Funny thing- we said hi to people in various states and countries but don’t know who tuned in- I’m really curious!

Clearly the band has pre-sold out, as evidenced by the appearance of Whit, our drummer, and our unnamed, yet much loved band truck appearing on vehix.com. When asked about the appearance, made in part to support and aspiring local filmmaker, Inti Hernandez, Whit commented that he thought it best to “pre-sell out” since it would quench the thirst of those critics eagerly anticipating an LBL song in an ipod commercial or GAP ad. To see part of LBL in a customer review video for a product we actually own and use, go to www.vehix.com/video, then click on video made by, consumer reviews, then Toyota Tacoma 2006.

Thanks for welcoming the new band to the stage and supporting us as we debuted a bunch of new songs! Special thanks to Chris and friends, Colette, Owen, Jim, Ellen, Megan, Renee, Rick, Michelle, Mike, Elisabeth, Heather, Glenn, Gordon, Ryan, Eloise, Tom, Roy, John, Elana and friends, Joe Warner and his band, and everyone else who I have missed off the top of my head. Joe Warner, the 17 year old piano prodigy, played a very polished set, improvising on standards, changing up tempos and infusing the set with enough variety to keep everyone’s attention. During the changeover we were able to see some good friends and see how their New Year’s went. We are very lucky to have such supportive friends. Armando’s had some quirky lighting and atmosphere, complete with painted chairs and quotes from rock stars painted on the walls. Check out the our photos section for some memories from this show!

Press Pause to Let Load- that way it won’t start and stop as you watch.

Thanks for sticking with us as we reformed into a new band this fall. Neither of the two bands (Grace Woods Trio and Vanessa Van Spall) lost any members. “Lit by Lightning” is an organic collaboration between 5 people. All of our songs are written together with no one person contributing the majority of input in every song. We share a common vision of putting on a great performance of inspiring music and believe the power of 5 has made the music even better. Our line up is as follows:

Grace Woods: Vocals, Keys
Vanessa Van Spall: Vocals, Percussion
Joe Hickey: Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Beatbox, Flute
Whitney Jacobson: Drums, Percussion
Ian Hisert: Piano, Keyboards

Our gameplan is to release a final EP for the Grace Woods Trio (since we already recorded it) in the early Spring of 2009, along with the demo for “Lit By Lightning” (we record that demo next week). We hope you will see our new superband as a high energy version of the melodic group you have already come to enjoy. Happy Holidays!

There is so much to report. This past weekend we played the Monterey Wine Festival, again collaborating with Vanessa Van Spall and Ian Hisert. Many of the same festival-goers were there from last year and there was even another woman named Grace who befriended me. The new, co-written songs were high-energy and I never knew how fun it could be to have a dance partner on stage until Vanessa showed up. She recently dyed her hair red as well, so my new short hair and our primary colors made for a fun presentation. So it’s all working out right?

Last night the band had a fun practice that involved switching places at a board of butcher paper. WE were writing potential band names. After all, we are no longer a trio and we are seeing the benefits of writing songs as a team. We found that the longer any one person wrote the ideas on the board, the more they started to censor them. For example, the name “Glam Chowder” was put on the board early on. I don’t know that it would have made the list later in the night. With over a hundred and more coming, I’m excited to narrow it down. We’ll keep you posted on the change and as always, we welcome your feedback!

Oh and I forgot to thank the following people for the Starry Plough Show: Peter, John, Bob, Tony, Alice, Gerry, Guy, Brian, Bernadette, Sergio, Iddo, Lindsey, Leah and Kyle.