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Hat full of blues

Cyndi Lauper’s swampy, moody new album belies her sunny frame of mind

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Cyndi Lauper (Photo by Ellen Von Unwerth)

Gays love La Lauper, ’tis no secret. And the feelings are mutual. In honor of her D.C. show Saturday at the 9:30 Club, she e-mailed her thoughts on the blues, her lesser-known albums, her inspirations and how it feels to be immortalized in Barbie doll form.

The new album is doing quite well — do you think this might become a regular genre for you (i.e. blues) where you may do several projects in this vein as Dolly Parton did with bluegrass when her “Grass is Blue” album sold solidly and spawned a trilogy?

I am not sure yet. Just living and enjoying this release right now. I am filming a live DVD in Memphis in a few weeks that will come out Spring 2011. Basically it’s the show we’ve been doing on the road since “Memphis Blues” has come out. It will include songs from “Memphis Blues,” my hits and a few new songs. We will see after that. Stay tuned.

You made some phenomenal albums like “Hat Full of Stars” and “Sisters of Avalon” that were largely overlooked. Hindsight is 20/20 (they say) — the material, songwriting and production were so good, why do you think they failed to catch on to the degree that your early albums did?

I honestly don’t know. I am very proud of those records and am often told by fans that “Sisters” or “Hat Full of Stars” is their favorite CD, so its nice to hear and I continue to perform songs from those CDs live so hopefully they can grow the old fashioned way on the road.

Did you overcut tracks for any or many of your ’80s and ’90s albums? Are there outtakes and alternate versions from the “Unusual” or “Colors” sessions just waiting for a box set someday?

No I didn’t. We didn’t do things like that back in ’80s and ’90s. Sony has put out so many, and in my opinion, too many greatest hits packages, something I have very little control over, and there are too much “greatest hits” packages, box sets, etc. out there already and I don’t think my fans need more of that. The only greatest hits I am proud of or had anything to do with was “12 Deadly Cyns.”

How would you summarize your philosophy of set list building? What makes an effective set list? Do you like doing covers or deep album cuts in concert to surprise the hardcore fans?

My set list is different with each show. As you can see, I love to mix some old into something new with each performance. You should hear how “Girl” sounds with this tour. I have to say it’s really good. Come to a show and you will know what I am talking about.

You’ve been such an outspoken proponent for gay rights in so many ways — was there any sense that you might come to be thought of largely for that?  i.e. was the new album in any way a chance to do something unrelated to gay activism and perhaps stretch some different creative muscles?

No, I never thought that. I thought I have to do something to help my family and friends who deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and most importantly as equal citizens. Here in the United States where everyone is supposed to be free and have the same rights as the person next to you, it angers me that people are still singled out and told they are less than the rest of us. So, if by my speaking up and using whatever celebrity I have to tell it like it is has garnered me a reputation, then it means it is working and shows others when you speak up you can make a difference. I wanted to do an album that spoke to the nation’s mood right now, and blue definitely sums it up. From the economy to the wars to the fact that people are still not treated equally on many fronts. Blues music is a genre that the gay community, for those who haven’t already, should embrace because blues is about telling uplifting stories through overcoming the obstacles in one’s life. It is a message that everyone can connect to, but I think gay and transgender people can benefit from it even more given the times we still live in.

What did you think of the Cyndi Lauper Barbie doll that came out last year? Do you think it looked like you? Did you have to give permission for that?

I love it. They did a fab job, right? Yes as I had a lot of creative input. Hope you like it.

There were some years where it seemed like you went eons between records but now it feels like you’re back in a pretty regular groove of writing, recording and touring. There are probably a million reasons for that but any overarching factors that led to that?

Nothing really. I get bored very easily. Love new challenges. Maybe that’s why I am doing something different all the time.

You’ve made a lot of specialty records — a standards album, a Christmas album, an acoustic record and now a blues record. Is it artistically or commercially rewarding to go into a project with some theme in mind versus doing a straight-up studio project?

I just follow my spirit. I have no idea what’s next. Maybe a new studio CD, maybe a specialty record.   Really the ideas for all of my albums have kind of come to me and then I focus and do the best I can each time out.

Is your relationship with your gay fans symbiotic? How so?

I have had a long standing love affair with the LGBT community. My relationship with the community has been one of the greatest things that has come out of my music. The community has been there for me throughout my career and I will be there for the community until the end. My commitment is undying and everlasting.

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Music & Concerts

Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule

Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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Writer Gregg Shapiro with Jill Sobule in 2000. (Photo courtesy Shapiro)

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.

Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).

Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.

With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.

Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”

That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.

While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.

Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.

On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.

Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.

When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.

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Music & Concerts

Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’

Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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Singer Tom Goss is back. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. 

Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.

For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

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Music & Concerts

Kylie brings ‘Tension’ tour to D.C.

Performance on Tuesday at Capital One Arena

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Kylie Minogue visits D.C. on Tuesday.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”

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