April & Monroe Grisman have spent their lives surrounded by music, art and the creative community of Marin County and the San Francisco Bay Area. Both grew up in families where creativity was simply part of everyday life. Monroe is the son of musicians David Grisman and Harmony Grisman, while April is the daughter of artist Pat Ryan and singer Cyretta Ryan. Those roots exposed them to different but overlapping worlds of musicians, artists and free spirits, and helped shape lives that would always revolve around music.

April and Monroe met in their early twenties and have built a life, family and musical careers together ever since. But for most of those years, their creative paths remained surprisingly separate. April had her bands, Monroe had his, and although both were songwriters, they had never written songs together.

That changed during the pandemic. With gigs suddenly gone and the world shut down around them, they began writing together for the first time. What started as a much-needed creative outlet quickly revealed something neither had expected: a natural songwriting chemistry. The songs kept coming, eventually growing into a body of more than 18 originals shaped by their lives, relationships and the turbulent world around them. “Yellow Brick Road,” now their first officially released single, was one of the earliest songs to emerge from that period.

As the songs developed, so did the band around them. April and Monroe began inviting longtime friends and musical collaborators to help bring the music to life, and over the next several years the project evolved organically. Loralee Christensen was part of the earliest formation of the band around the songs, followed by Eric McCann, Rob Hooper, Allyson Paige and eventually Raleigh Neal. April, Ally and Loralee share a particularly deep musical connection, having sung together for more than 15 years. Each is a lead singer in her own right, and years of singing together have created a distinctive blend of big, rich vocal harmonies that has become one of the defining sounds of the band.

The band name came just as naturally. Walking together one morning and talking about recent rehearsals and gigs, April and Monroe reflected on how fortunate they were to be surrounded by such talented musicians who were also close friends and genuinely fun people to spend time with. It was, they realized, a beautiful hang. The band had essentially named itself.

Today, April & Monroe Grisman The Beautiful Hang Gang brings those relationships together in an original blend of Americana, soul, reggae & rock & roll. The core Gang of April, Monroe, Ally, Loralee, Eric, Rob and Raleigh is joined at different times by an extended family of musician friends, keeping the spirit of the project larger than any single lineup.

The Gang is rooted in original songs, friendship and the gathering of friends, family and community through the shared joy of making music together: the beautiful hang.