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Organized musings

Out recitalist Christopher Houlihan shares tricks of the trade

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Christopher Houlihan, gay news, Washington Blade
Christopher Houlihan, gay news, Washington Blade

Christopher Houlihan at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., on March 6, 2016. (Washington Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)

Christopher Houlihan
 
Organ recital
 
Presented by the National Symphony Orchestra
 
Kennedy Center Concert Hall
 
Wednesday, May 4
 
8 p.m.
 
$15
 

Organist Christopher Houlihan took a few minutes with us by phone from Hartford, Conn., where he was playing at his alma mater Trinity College (where he’s artist in residence) in advance of his Washington recital next week. He plays the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, May 4. His comments have been slightly edited for length.

WASHINGTON BLADE: Does organ music translate well to iPods?

CHRISTOPHER HOULIHAN: I think it can. … Some pieces work better than others. I don’t tend to listen to it if I just want to have some music playing because if it’s organ music, I tend to focus on it too much. If you want the best experience possible, there’s nothing more exciting than a live organ shaking the room.

BLADE: Recording organ is hard with all the outside noise that can happen. Can engineers take out sirens and that sort of thing?

HOULIHAN: In my experience, we haven’t been able to do that. We’ve had to do another take. But yes, recording in a big city is really tough. You usually have to do it in the middle of the night. But then sometimes if it rains, you lose a whole night.

BLADE: Do you plan to keep recording and releasing CDs?

HOULIHAN: I would definitely like to do more. I have a Bach CD that’s in the works to be released. … I hope in time over what I hope is a long career that I’ll have several recordings released.

BLADE: Can you tell which stops are pipe or digital on a hybrid organ?

HOULIHAN: When they’re done well, I think they can be very effective. … It’s a tough question to answer. I can tell, but I’ve played lots of hybrid organs and completely digital organs and what matters most is if you can make music on them and you absolutely can.

BLADE: What is the consensus among elite organists about the Kennedy Center’s new Casavant organ?

HOULIHAN: It has a good reputation. I haven’t heard it myself yet but I’m excited. I’ve played lots of Casavants and some of their more recent instruments and I have nothing but good things to say. I’m sure the Kennedy Center’s is equally stunning.

BLADE: How much of a consideration is audience familiarity with certain pieces when you’re programming a recital? Are some works perhaps too much to digest?

HOULIHAN: It’s somewhat a consideration. I think a program needs to have balance so I think playing something they’re familiar with helps but I also find people like to be a little challenged and there are things they’ll like and find interesting whether they’re familiar with them or not. Most people aren’t familiar with a whole lot beyond the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, so it’s hard to give that too much weight.

BLADE: You played at First Baptist Church in Washington in 2013. How was it for you?

HOULIHAN: I had a great time. It’s a great space for organ music. The Austin organ there is enormous and has a great variety of colors and beautiful sounds.

BLADE: You don’t seem to post much on Facebook. How do you stay focused?

HOULIHAN: I guess I’m on Facebook as much as anybody. I don’t post a lot, but when it comes time to work, I put my phone aside and focus on practicing. Then I take a break when it’s time to take a break. … I’m much more interested in reaping the benefits of practicing. It’s not especially hard once you get yourself to the organ bench.

BLADE: (Your former teacher) Paul Jacobs was here last month at the Kennedy Center. What was your biggest overall lesson from your time with him?

HOULIHAN: I think one of the things all of Paul’s students would say is the level of commitment and discipline he brings to what he does. It’s inspiring and he expects no less from his students. That’s something that’s stuck with me for sure. To get a good result, you have to put in a lot of effort. He is very demanding of that and it pays off.

BLADE: On average about how long do you spend on a major work from first read until you perform it in recital?

HOULIHAN: I have no idea. I should calculate it someday. I tend to learn slowly. I’d rather take more time learning something before I bring it on the road. That works best for me but as for a specific amount of time, I don’t really know.

BLADE: Where were you when you heard about the Supreme Court marriage ruling last year? How did you feel?

HOULIHAN: I was thrilled. My mom was visiting New York City and we went out for pizza to celebrate.

BLADE: Is that an issue you followed very closely?

HOULIHAN: It was something I’d hoped for as a gay persons and I’m thrilled it’s the law of the land. But it’s also important to me now that we continue to fight, especially for trans people.

BLADE: Has being out ever been a professional hindrance in any perceptible way?

HOULIHAN: Not that I can think of. I suppose if a church didn’t want to invite me to play because of that, I’d never know about it. My church in New York, Church of the Holy Apostles, is incredibly gay friendly.

BLADE: Do the technical challenges of playing lighten at a certain level of proficiency or are they always there?

HOULIHAN: There are always technical obstacles there for anyone who really wants to grow and challenge themselves. But they’re exciting to work on and over time you learn how to practice and how to work on those challenges. It doesn’t get easier, but you learn how to tackle them.

BLADE: You seem genuinely nice. Do people prey on that?

HOULIHAN: I certainly know how to stand up for myself when that’s required.

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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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