Music & Concerts
More Barbra duets
Tacky novelty album relies more on stunt casting than musical magic


While it’s great Streisand has stayed (relatively) active in the studio, there’s little on new album ‘Encore’ to interest any but her most ardent disciples. (Photo courtesy the Karpel Group)
It’s fair to say that Barbra Streisand, the ultimate pop diva of the last three generations, has nothing to prove.
The 74-year old icon could easily while away her time in genteel luxury counting her millions, but Babs has never stayed away from the recording studio too long. Her latest album, a duets collection of theatrical material, is “Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.” It will never be considered one of her great works, but Streisand die-hards will enjoy it.
It should be made clear from the outset that there are several things one much enjoy at least to some extent to have any reason to purchase this album. The first bar is the easiest to cross: Streisand herself. She’s never been less than magical. Just hearing her voice again is a privilege that we should not take lightly. Instead of retreating into a life of detached luxury, she continues providing her fans with what they love. One must also love theater to have any prayer of enjoying this album, and that’s a slightly higher line to cross. It’s a form of music that speaks its own language and has its own rules. Some will find it enthralling, some maddening in its sing-song preciousness. Streisand layers on humorous touches, a career trademark that sometimes has worked, sometimes has not.
Thirdly, to enjoy this album one much appreciate strange duet partners. Some of these odd couplings work better than others. I mean, you’re Barbra Streisand, right? “Legend” doesn’t cut it. A word has yet to be invented to describe what you are. You could sing with anyone at any time. And who do you partner with on “Encore”? Alec Baldwin, Melissa McCarthy, Seth MacFarlane, and Chris Pine. Why not just wander into any fairly decent karaoke bar and take your pick? Sure, they ham it up and do well enough for this pointless novelty album, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with doing something fun. But you’ll never be getting the saccharine out your ears after listening to the album’s relentlessly chipper and altogether overdone Broadway exuberance.
“At the Ballet” from “A Chorus Line” opens the album with forced charm and awkwardness, guests Anne Hathaway and Daisy Ridely adding nothing but name cachet. The gargantuan Stephen Sondheim ballad “Loving You,” featuring Broadway powerhouse Patrick Wilson is as tackily overwrought as you’d expect. The tragi-comic (although I suspect it’s only supposed to be comic) “The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened” finds Streisand once again forcing the wit alongside a voice that will never cease being Jack Donaghy
Just when you think there are moments of real heart hiding amongst the glitzy artifice, as in Streisand’s gorgeous introduction to “Any Moment Now,” it devolves into a mess of puerile dialogue and a ludicrously overdone arrangement. “Pure Imagination” begs the question: Did the world really need a duet between Barbra Streisand and Seth MacFarlane? The answer is self-evident in the graceless embarrassment they inflict upon poor unsuspecting listeners. Streisand’s allegedly comical turn with Melissa McCarthy on “Anything You Can Do” is a trite, third-rate take on an Irving Berlin’s classic that does not do justice to either of these talented ladies.
“Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway” is far from Streisand’s most compelling work. In fact, it sounds like little more than rushed together product to get something on the shelves. But hell, it’s Barbra Streisand. Like she cares the hell what I think. She’s long ago earned the right to do exactly what she wants, when she wants to do it, and more likely than not her die-hard fans (and there are many) will adore it. And more power to ‘em.
Music & Concerts
Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule
Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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.
Music & Concerts
Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’
Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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.

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.”