Recorded in Woodstock, NY, during the early months of 1989, Now And Again finds The Grapes of Wrath displaying a wide variety of moods -- from the orchestrated subtleties of "All The Things I Wasn't" to the electric distortion of "Do You Want To Tell Me". For the first time, this record finds drummer Chris sitting out on several acoustic-only songs. As for singer/guitarist Kevin Kane, his guitar collection continues to grow at an alarming rate. This may be the reason for the considerable range in guitar sounds -- from the quietest acoustics to some uncharacteristically loud electrics. Of the album's diversity, Kevin says "We've always been called folk/rock. Now instead of he two terms being put together or hyphenated, it's more like they're pushed apart. The first song on the album could have been on a Nick Drake album -- it's really gloomy and all stark with cellos, and then, as it progesses, the album becomes more raging".

Where the last two albums have dealt with the more personal aspects of family, small town life, and parental relationships, Now And Again deals with the more universal feelings. "It's really hard to express happy feelings in songwriting", reflects Kevin, "You can take apart a bad feeling because you can really stew about it; it has more impact, it can be dissected. When you're happy you don't sit around pondering 'Why am I happy, why do I feel so good?' you just enjoy it. A lot of people are so afraid of being intense emotionally. Their idea of being intense is to have heavy guitars; they just crank up the Marshall, but there's nothing heavy about the songs content."

Guest musicians on Now And Again include Chuck Leavell (Allman Brothers) on piano and "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow (Little Feat, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Linda Ronstadt) on pedal steel guitar. Legendary photographer William Claxton, known for his black and white portraits of Chet Baker, shot the album cover. (His last "rock 'n' roll" subject was the Byrds).

The choice of Anton Fier (Golden Palominos, Drivin' and Cryin', The Feelies) came about when, Chris says, "the band was talking about the producer we wanted. We're real fans of the Golden Palominos, and I had read this really bad review of Blast Of Silence.. This reviewer said someting like Anton had lost his touch because he wasn't into the disco drum machine or whatever they thought he should be into, and that it sounded like Anton was trying to do an '80s version of Fleetwood Mac. We said yes! That's what we want! Those Fleetwood Mac and Eagles records from the '70s were astounding." Tom continues, "The songs and the music on Now And Again are ours, but the album is in a great part his. He had the vision to tie it together and make it work. We could see the finish line from the starting line, but he knew how to get us there."

Now And Again also features newly-added band member Vincent Jones. Vince had been touring with the band as the keyboardist since Treehouse and worked so well both musically and personally, that the band decided to add him as a permanent part of the line-up after ten years of status quo. As a new full-time member, Vincent compliments The Grapes straightforward sound with a perfect blend of piano and organ.

Friends for over a decade, Kevin, Chris and Tom all met in their teens. The trio, all from the small town of Kelowna, BC in Canada, formed a punk band they called Kill Pigs. After the group broke up, they remained close, but chose to pursue different musical paths. Kevin played in an art-rock band, Empty Set-Kevin and Chris continued college, receiving degrees in Fine Arts -- and the Hoopers joined a punk band, Gentlemen of Horror.

Several years later, in the spring of '83, they joined together as a one-night-only cover band, Honda Civic. It worked so well they decided to work together again. The trio took over the family garage, converting it into a rehearsal hall. After a futile search for a singer, Kevin was chosen by default, "At first I was so unsure of myself I'd ask the sound man to keep he vocals nice and soft".

The band's confidence grew. Because of impending performance dates, they had to come up with a band name quickly. Chris, a film fanatic, brought in a movie book, and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was chosen (the novel is currently in its 50th year of pulication).

Chris, Kevin and Tom held garage sales and rented stalls at flea markets, saving enough to put together an EP. Based on that EP, the Vancouver-based Nettwerk label signed The Grapes Of Wrath, and in 1984 the band released a four-song album. By this time all the members had moved to Vancouver. A year later they released their debut album, September Bowl of Green (taken from a novel by Truman Capote, The Grass Harp), and conducted a brief tour across Canada.

The album and tour were well received by critics, and trade publications like Billboard, and it made a good showin on the American and Canadian college charts, including CMJ and Boston Rock. In late '86 Nettwerk signed a deal with Capitol Records, and September Bowl of Green was re-released worldwide.

The band began work on their next album, using an outside producer (Tom Cochane) for the first time. Treehouse, released in October of 1987, was an album of strong pop/rock melodies influenced by the past, yet the always questioning and analyzing the present. Once again receiving resounding critical acclaim, the band went on an extended tour that included guest appearances with Guadalcanal Diary, The Woodentops, and Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians -- leaving in their wake an even bigger following.

Now And Again is the record we always talked about doing,", concludes Chris. "We're working up the songs or a tour it's really exciting; even though this record's really layered, it remains true to the concept of a band playing together. This is an album that you should put on your turntable, put on your headphones and really get into".