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Music & Concerts

‘Let your love shine’

‘Idol’ finalist prizes authenticity, tenacity

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Crystal Bowersox, gay news, Washington Blade
Crystal Bowersox, gay news, Washington Blade

Singer/songwriter Crystal Bowersox says the national exposure of a hit reality show can be a double-edged sword. (Photo courtesy Orrigami Entertainment)

Crystal Bowersox

 

Baltimore Sound Stage

 

124 Market Place

 

Baltimore

 

Tuesday 8 p.m. (Doors 7)

 

All ages

 

$20 advance; $25 day of

 

 

Crystal Bowersox was introduced to millions of people on television when she competed in “American Idol’s” ninth season. But viewers may remember more of the experience than she does.

When Bowersox auditioned for the show performing “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin, it was clear she would be a top contender. The judges were baffled that she brought her guitar in for her audition. Unlike now, contestants were not allowed to perform with a guitar. Bowersox replied that it was like a comfort blanket for her. She went on to be a runner-up to Lee DeWyze for the season.

“Honestly the whole ‘Idol’ thing was a blur,” Bowersox, who plays Baltimore Sound Stage on Tuesday, says. “When I try to recall a moment of my own experience its hard for me to do that because it was such a high stress environment.”

Her strategy in the competition was to achieve an intimate feeling to her performances.

“I had a game plan in my mind to perform for the people who were there in the live viewing audience rather than concern myself with 30 million people watching through the cameras,” she says. “I think that’s really what kept me sane.”

It’s a strategy that worked. While Bowersox, originally from Elliston, Ohio, was stressing out during the season, America was loving her soulful voice. She was the third “Idol” runner-up never in the bottom three or two, behind fellow “Idol” alums Clay Aiken and David Archuleta.

After the success on the show, Bowersox went on to release two albums “Farmer’s Daughter” in 2010 and “All That for This” in 2013. This summer, she self-released an EP called “Promises” with her song “How Long” that explores the fame and success that comes along with being on a show like “American Idol.”

“There is a downside. ‘How Long’ is about exactly that. How long will the love be here? They love you when you’re up and kick you when you’re down.”

Some “Idol” contestants have noticeably dropped from the public eye after the ending of the show like fifth season winner, Taylor Hicks. It’s something Bowersox, 29, believes has less to do with the artist and more with the listener.

“Folks just assume that people who grace that stage disappear but they don’t disappear. Its just a matter of people having very short attention spans and people don’t seek out what they’re interested in,” Bowersox says.
Her success also allowed her to bring light to issues she felt were important. In 2013, Bowersox came out as bisexual through her Christmas song, “Coming Out for Christmas.” She had previously been married to a man and had one child. Yet coming out was worth doing for her after she started questioning her sexuality in high school.

“Hearing from people who I was close to that it was not OK to love someone of the same gender was a struggle,” she says. “You start this cycle of self-loathing and thinking there is something wrong with me.”

She thinks those feelings are ones that many other people can relate to and that’s why she wanted to share her own experience.

“I think that the more people in the public eye who come out and are honest about themselves gives kids in the middle of nowhere who are struggling the confidence to really love themselves no matter what. You are not flawed. You are human and it’s important to let your love light shine.”

She says her song “Coming Out for Christmas” is about not being afraid to bring your partner home for the holidays and having your family accept them. It’s a message she hopes is heard.

“Some parents don’t love their children unconditionally and that’s a shame,” Bowersox says.

Since “Idol,” Bowersox has collaborated with Jakob Dylan on the song “Stitches.” The two met through a mutual friend and bonded over the amount of bruises their children received resulting in the two singing the song she wrote. She also is in the works to play Patsy Cline in the Broadway play “Always, Patsy Cline.” All of these opportunities are ones Bowersox recognizes comes from the exposure she got on “Idol.”

“Anyone who has been on a reality TV show who doesn’t come out on the other side with something positive, I feel like that’s a choice rather than just fate or something beyond your power.”

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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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