In March 2012, we were blessed with the opportunity to play a live in-studio session at Revolver Recordings in Thousand Oaks, CA, with a young man with an incredible story of how one should face adversity. Sadly, Kyle passed away on August 3rd, 2012, but not without having blessed his community with the inspiration to carry out their dreams despite any challenge that gets in the way. Thank you, Kyle. You will be missed.

Here is "Do You Know?" featuring Kyle on the electric guitar, one of four tracks we laid down with him that day. Plans are currently being made to start a foundation in Kyle's name, and once set up, Alma D will put all 4 tracks on iTunes with proceeds going to support the foundation. Enjoy, and celebrate the gift of life like Kyle did.

~Alma D

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Auto-Biography by Kyle Grady -- Life, morals, music.
-Written April 2012-

I was born outside of Chicago on Oct 4, 1991. At age seven months I was diagnosed with a rare form of bilateral retinal cancer. After years of treatment and being the first infant ever to receive chemo for the specific disease, I survived but with limited sight.

Growing up I feared no limitations, as this sight was all I ever knew. I participated in martial arts and many other sports, but mostly enjoyed playing piano, trumpet and any other instrument I could find. At age eleven, I was asked by the school band department which instrument I'd like to play for the school band. After eagerly exclaiming "GUITAR!" I was surprised to hear an outburst of laughter with the response "you need to pick something you'll be good at". This wasn't the first time someone had doubted me, but I was determined and a few months later had my first guitar, (an Alvarez acoustic). The guitar almost immediately became my main hobby and I began memorizing songs from The Beatles, Bon Jovi, Elvis, The Eagles, Zeppelin, Johnny Lang, Tom Petty and many more. I began forming bands at fifteen but always ran into the same problem: no one took it seriously. By the time I myself wrote enough songs for a gig, people just decided they weren't interested anymore. By seventeen I began single-handedly recording songs I'd written earlier (playing every instrument myself). I played locally and at charity events for cancer awareness.

At nineteen I was once again diagnosed with a rare form of nasal cancer only seen aprox twenty times in the world. Most people view this disease as a matter of life or death, I viewed it as a matter of life along with a positive lesson or experience God had for me. After six months of intense chemo and two surgeries lasting up to 20 hours I was declared cancer free for the second time in twenty years. It was long before this time that I decided my purpose was to share my testimony through music with the world and proclaim a message of love, strength and hope. I've seen so many in similar cases fail from lack of knowledge, if they only knew the kind of strength and power God put within them they would've made it. I recently collaborated with Alma Desnuda, a well known legend of San Francisco, and am currently working on a new album in Chicago with big plans for the future.