Arts & Entertainment
Tom Goss preps new album for Aug. release
‘Bears’ singer has edgy, experimental project ready
Out singer/songwriter Tom Goss veers into unchartered creative waters with his new album, slated for an Aug. 2 release. (Photo courtesy Venfield 8)
Tom Goss new album 2016
Tom Goss should be a familiar name to D.C.-area music fans. The LGBT singer/songwriter/guitarist was a longtime mainstay of the local scene before relocating to Los Angeles last year.
We last heard from Goss earlier this year when his haunting reimagining of the Dusty Springfield classic “Son of a Preacher Man,” set to a stirring and provocative video in support of the Trevor Project suicide prevention initiative, went viral and received enormous acclaim. That success set the stage for “What Doesn’t Break,” Goss’ sixth full-length album and his first since 2014’s excellent “Wait.” He returns to the region for a show at Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington on Sunday, Aug. 7 (details here).
“What Doesn’t Break,” slated for an Aug. 2 release, is a departure for Goss, who is known for his often buoyant acoustic-guitar based power pop. The new album is a progression into deeper and more personal material with an edgy and experimental vibe. He collaborates with producer Marr Zimm, who helps create a complex and dense soundscape of electronic elements, brass and strings weaving through the layers of Goss’s excellent guitar-work. The ambition of the music is matched by the intensely personal songwriting and powerful vocal performances. “What Doesn’t Break” exhibits clear artistic progression for Goss while retaining the genuine heart, sincerity and strong melodic sensibility for which he’s always been known.
Goss expresses raw emotion and vulnerability on a level far beyond what he’s presented previously, and it wasn’t always an easy process.
The album opens with the jittery “Wake Alive,” with Goss singing the verses in his resonant lower register before breaking into an anthemic arena-rock chorus. “Thirteen” is a harrowing stare into the rearview at sometimes painful youthful turmoil and how those experiences shaped the man he is today. “Holes in the Wall” is a heartrending break-up song set to shimmery strings, keyboards and a lushly beautiful choral vocal arrangement.
The ominous “Someone Else” is a tense and piercingly direct rocker seething with rage and venom. In a bit of inspired sequencing, he follows the angriest piece on the album with perhaps the loveliest and most heartbreaking, “Mama.” Goss delivers arguably the album’s finest vocal with a song that begins as an exquisite acoustic ballad with soaring strings before exploding into a propulsive, wrenching catharsis that explores the painful reality of the vast distance that can engulf families over divergent beliefs and an inability to come to terms with love as it’s meant to be.
The synth-driven “All My Love” is a late highlight, an achingly devotional ballad layered with sublime vocal harmonies. The biggest sonic departure on an album loaded with them is the electro-pop finale “Long Way Back Home.” It ends the collection with a philosophical and nostalgic bent, appropriate for the poignant musical journey that has unfolded over the course of these 10 songs.
Some fans may be startled by the intensity and restlessness that Goss delivers here, but the emotion is so real and the songs are so expertly crafted that it’s hard to avoid getting caught up in the album’s dramatic sweep. It’s a triumph for Tom Goss, a leap forward that’s both intimate and exciting.
WorldPride 2025 concluded with the WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert held along Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. on Sunday, June 8. Performers on the main stage included Doechii, Khalid, Courtney Act, Parker Matthews, 2AM Ricky, Suzie Toot, MkX and Brooke Eden.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The 2025 WorldPride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 7. Laverne Cox and Renée Rapp were the grand marshals.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Robert Rapanut)
Theater
A hilarious ‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger full of ‘elegant kink’
Nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan stars as Duke Orsino
‘Twelfth Night’
Through June 22
Folger Theatre
201 East Capitol St., S.E.
$20-$84
Folger.edu
Nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan (they/them)loves tapping into the multitudes within.
Currently Keegan plays the melancholic Duke Orsino in Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Twelfth Night.” Director Mei Ann Teo describes the production as “sexy, hilarious, and devastating” and full of “elegant kink.”
Washington-based, Keegan enjoys a busy and celebrated career. Her vast biography includes Come From Away at Ford’s Theatre; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Helen Hayes Award, Best Actress) and Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, both at Round House Theatre; Diana Son’s Stop Kiss directedby Holly Twyford for No Rules Theatre Company; and Contractions at Studio Theatre, to name just a few.
In addition to acting, Keegan works as a polyamory and ethical non-monogamy life and relationship coach, an area of interest that grew out of personal exploration. For them, coaching seems to work hand in hand with acting.
WASHINGTON BLADE: You’re playing the lovesick Orsino in Twelfth Night. How did that come about?
ALYSSA KEEGAN: The director was looking to cast a group of actors with diverse identities; throughout auditions, there were no constraints regarding anyone’s assigned sex at birth. It was really a free for all.
BLADE: What’s your approach to the fetching, cod-piece clad nobleman?
KEEGAN: Offstage I identify as completely nonbinary; I love riding in this neutral middle space. But I also love cosplay. The ability to do that in the play gives me permission to dive completely into maleness.
So, when I made that decision to play Orsino as a bio male, suddenly the part really cracked open for me. I began looking for clues about his thoughts and opinions about things like his past relationships and his decision not to date older women.
Underneath his mask of bravura and sexuality, and his firmness of feelings, he’s quite lonely and has never really felt loved. It makes sense to me why his love for Olivia is so misguided and why he might fall in love with the Cesario/Viola character.
BLADE: As an actor, do you ever risk taking on the feelings of your characters?
KEEGAN: Prior to my mental health education, yes, and that could be toxic for me. I’ve since learned that the nervous system can’t tell the difference between real emotional distress and a that of a fully embodied character.
So, I created and share the Empowered Performer Project. [a holistic approach to performance that emphasizes the mental and emotional well-being of performing artists]. It utilizes somatic tools that help enormously when stepping into a character.
BLADE: Has changing the way you work affected your performances?
KEEGAN: I think I’m much better now. I used to have nearly debilitating stage fright. I’d spend all day dreading going onstage. I thought that was just part of the job. Now, I’ve learned to talk to my body. Prior to a performance, I can now spend my offstage time calmly gardening, working with my mental health clients, or playing with my kid. I’m just present in my life in a different way.
BLADE: Is Orsino your first time playing a male role?
KEEGAN: No. In fact, the very first time I played a male role was at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va. I played Hipolito in Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy.
As Hipolito, I felt utterly male in the moment, so much so that I had audience members see me later after the show and they were surprised that I was female. They thought I was a young guy in the role. There’s something very powerful in that.
BLADE: Do you have a favorite part? Male or female?
KEEGAN: That’s tough but I think it’s Maggie the Cat. I played the hyper-female Maggie in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Round House. In the first act she didn’t stop talking for 51 minutes opposite Gregory Wooddell as Brick who barely had to speak. That lift was probably the heaviest I’ve ever been asked to do in acting.
BLADE: What about Folger’s Twelfth Night might be especially appealing to queer audiences?
KEEGAN: First and foremost is presentation. 99% of the cast identify as queer in some way.
The approach to Shakespeare’s text is one of the most bold and playful that I have ever seen. It’s unabashedly queer. The actors are here to celebrate and be loud and colorful and to advocate. It’s a powerful production, especially to do so close to the Capitol building, and that’s not lost on any of us.
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A hilarious ‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger full of ‘elegant kink’
