Music & Concerts
Local gay favorite on the brink of stardom?
Peter Fox’s new album shows singer is ready for primetime
“Out of the tree of life I just picked me a plum,” croons the fabulous and fantastic Peter Fox.
Fox today stands on the brink of stardom, if there’s any justice in the music industry. Of course justice in the music industry is an oxymoron.
As a singer in the jazz and adult contemporary spotlight now, with the issue of his first and self-titled CD, Fox is certainly ready for prime time. But meanwhile the business model of the once robust recording industry has fractured into splinters of its former self, as CD sales have nosedived.
So how does someone like Fox, having spent nine seasons with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington (GMCW), and who also recently wrapped up a three-year run with the close-harmony pop acapella group Potomac Fever, market himself?
Fox is avoiding record labels and concert promoters to do it himself. “I went the independent route because music is in my soul and the independent route with the available tools and reach of the Internet is now actually a feasible way to reach a fairly major audience, allowing me to do what I’m meant to be doing,” he says.
A longtime GMCW audience favorite, Fox has picked a plum opportunity with the songs on his new album, recently launched at a special concert at the Kennedy Center restaurant veranda. He is as easy to like as he is easy on the eyes — and his charm is rooted in the easy listening of his sound and his lyrical first tenor voice so sweet with feeling as well as perfect pitch and phrasing.
The songs are each special to him, as explained in the album liner notes at his website, PeterFoxMusic.net, including “When You Meet an Angel,” a number first performed with the GMCW at the Lincoln Theatre. The angel theme will be familiar to his fans, who recall vividly his bare-chested starring role recently as heartthrob “Teen Angel” in the Chorus’s production of “Grease.” Speaking of the song, Peter admits that he had just broken up with someone who was sitting in the third row on opening night, but he recalls also that the song “later came to mean more” to him, “as a few dear family members and friends passed on to their next chapter.”
Another song, “Nightfall,” is a deeply layered ode to living a life without a lover but with the “extraordinary love I have shared with friends.” He declares finally in the song, “I am contented to be my own family, a family of one!”
Peter says, “it took me some tome to really grasp the various levels of message in this song, but I now so appreciate and deeply understand that one’s life can be so rich and full without any typical idea of the modern primary relationship.” Indeed, he says, “the song speaks to gratitude, the simple joy of just accepting what is.”
But one song alone stands out for its utter perfection of lyric and melody, “I Can Hold You,” written by David Friedman, the composer, record producer and Hollywood film score composer for Disney animated features like “Aladdin,” “Pocahontas” and “Beauty and the Beast,” for which Friedman was also music supervisor for the Broadway stage version.
Friedman is the author of many astonishing songs of inspiration, hope and love — collected in several CDs such as “Listen To My Heart: The Songs of David Friedman” (2002) and 63 of his best-known songs are also in his “Songbook.” Fox has taken one of them, “I Can Hold You,” he calls it “one of the most tender songs” on the album, a song he first recorded in 2005 but is now completely remixed and remastered — because “the song speaks to hope.”
“I am most struck by the way the singer offering to hold another who has been battered by life may really be wishing to be held in the same way,” he admits.
Fox, who grew up in New Jersey and had a boyfriend “discreetly” in high school, earned his BS in business administration from Penn State University, and came out to his family in his early 20’s. He spent seven years in Pittsburgh as a paramedic and then spent two years on the road as a long-haul trucker saying of that time,”I basically spent two years by myself.” He moved to D.C. in 1997 to work in the health care field and “do music.”
“Music is a conduit to what’s right,” he says. “Let’s get people connected to the joy of their own stories through song.”
His album is available now for $10.99 from PeterfoxMusic.net.
Music & Concerts
Red, White, and Beyoncé: Queen Bey takes Cowboy Carter to D.C. for the Fourth of July
The legendary music icon performed on July 4 and 7 to a nearly sold-out Northwest Stadium.
Just in time for Independence Day, Beyoncé lit up Landover’s Commanders Field (formerly FedEx Field) with fireworks and fiery patriotism, bringing her deeply moving and genre-defying “Cowboy Carter” tour to the Washington, D.C. area.
The tour, which takes the global icon across nine cities in support of her chart-topping and Grammy-winning country album “Cowboy Carter,” landed in Prince George’s County, Maryland, over the Fourth of July weekend. From the moment Beyoncé stepped on stage, it was clear this was more than just a concert — it was a reclamation.
Drawing from classic Americana, sharp political commentary, and a reimagined vision of country music, the show served as a powerful reminder of how Black Americans — especially Black women — have long been overlooked in spaces they helped create. “Cowboy Carter” released in March 2024, is the second act in Beyoncé’s genre-traversing trilogy. With it, she became the first Black woman to win a Grammy for Best Country Album and also took home the coveted Album of the Year.
The record examines the Black American experience through the lens of country music, grappling with the tension between the mythology of the American Dream and the lived realities of those historically excluded from it. That theme comes alive in the show’s opening number, “American Requiem,” where Beyoncé sings:
“Said I wouldn’t saddle up, but
If that ain’t country, tell me, what is?
Plant my bare feet on solid ground for years
They don’t, don’t know how hard I had to fight for this
When I sing my song…”
Throughout the performance, Beyoncé incorporated arresting visuals: Black cowboys on horseback, vintage American iconography, and Fox News clips criticizing her genre shift — all woven together with voiceovers from country legends like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. The result was a multimedia masterclass in storytelling and subversion.
The “Cowboy Carter” tour has been a social media sensation for weeks, with fans scrambling for tickets, curating elaborate “cowboy couture” outfits, and tailgating under the summer sun. At Commanders Field, thousands waited in long lines for exclusive merch and even longer ones to enter the stadium — a pilgrimage that, for many, felt more like attending church than a concert.
One group out in full force for the concert was Black queer men — some rocking “denim on denim on denim on denim,” while others opted for more polished Cowboy Couture looks. The celebration of Black identity within Americana was ever-present, making the concert feel like the world’s biggest gay country-western club.
A standout moment of the night was the appearance of Beyoncé’s 13-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Commanding the stage with poise and power, she matched the intensity and choreography of her mother and the professional dancers — a remarkable feat for someone her age and a clear sign that the Carter legacy continues to shine.
It’s been nearly two decades since Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child parted ways, and since then, she’s more than lived up to her title as the voice of a generation. With “Cowboy Carter,” she’s not just making music — she’s rewriting history and reclaiming the space Black artists have always deserved in the country canon.
Music & Concerts
Berkshire Choral to commemorate Matthew Shepard’s life
Concert held at Washington National Cathedral
Berkshire Choral International will present a concert performance of composer Craig Hella Johnson’s fusion oratorio “Considering Matthew Shepard” on Friday, July 11, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at the Washington National Cathedral.
The program will be guest conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Benson, a native of the DMV who currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at San José State University. The concert is a partial benefit for the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Notably, Matthew’s remains are interred at the National Cathedral and his parents, Dennis and Judy, will give opening remarks at the performance.
Tickets are $20 – $65, and 50% of ticket proceeds will be donated to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Tickets are only available online at berkshirechoral.org.
Music & Concerts
Indigo Girls coming to Capital One Hall
Stars take center stage alongside Fairfax Symphony
Capital One Center will host “The Indigo Girls with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra” on Thursday, June 19 and Friday, June 20 at 8 p.m. at Capital One Hall.
The Grammy Award-winning folk and pop stars will take center stage alongside the Fairfax Symphony, conducted by Jason Seber. The concerts feature orchestrations of iconic hits such as “Power of Two,” “Get Out The Map,” “Least Complicated,” “Ghost,” “Kid Fears,” “Galileo,” “Closer to Fine,” and many more.
Tickets are available on Ticketmaster or in person at Capital One Hall the nights of the concerts.
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