Music & Concerts
Singer/songwriter Gina Chavez thrives on eclectic repertoire
Austin, Texas native preps AMP by Strathmore concert April 7


Gina Chavez in concert
April 7
AMP by Strathmore
11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda, Md.
$25-30
301-581-5100
Gina Chavez is the kind of artist who sings about her own experiences.
“My performance persona is me, and that’s exactly what you get at my shows,” she says. “I share my story. Part is discovering my Latin roots through music and part is being a practicing Catholic who fell in love with a woman and got married.”
On Sunday, Gina Chavez brings her life and music to AMP by Strathmore, a cabaret-style venue at the Pike & Rose area in North Bethesda. Backed by a five-piece, all-male band, Chavez takes her audiences on a bilingual journey, incorporating sounds from the Americas and the Middle East.
“It’s a wide variety of music. You’ll get singer/songwriter to Latin dance band, and we have a blast. My shows often turn into mini-dance parties,” she says.
Though she’s of Mexican descent, Chavez, 36, didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. The Austin, Texas native embraced her Latin roots during a semester abroad in Buenos Aires where she fell in love with chacarera, the rhythmic folk music she heard at street fairs.
She ended up writing her own version. It’s the only Spanish song on her first album and she still plays it live. It “holds a special place in my heart” because it came to her quickly — she wrote it in 10 minutes. She credits her education at Austin public schools for giving her appreciation for a wide variety of music. She sang material as varied as show tunes to classical works like Mozart’s “Requiem.”
Today, Chavez and her band travel the world playing dates throughout the U.S. and Latin America, and far-flung spots like Uzbekistan and Jordan as cultural ambassadors with the U.S. State Department.
“I never intended to have this awesome life with music. In fact, it might not have happened,” she says.
In 2009, just when Chavez was becoming a name on the Austin music scene, she and Jodi Granado, her wife (then girlfriend), spent eight months in El Salvador teaching English to underprivileged girls.
“Everybody thought I was crazy, but El Salvador was an experience that informed my life, career and relationship with my wife. We didn’t go to change social norms or give the finger to the establishment. We were helping girls going through a rough situation in large part caused by the U.S. Despite dealing with horrendous crime, everyone we encountered were incredibly kind and giving. We received more love than we could have given.”
Shortly after their return to Austin in 2010, Chavez recorded “Siete D,” her award-winning single, which takes a stand against gang violence in Central America. At the same time, the couple established Niñas Arriba (ninasarriba.wordpress.com), an ongoing college fund that offers full scholarships for young women in El Salvador.
Chavez met Granado in school, at the University Catholic Center at the University of Texas Austin.
“Looking back, it was love at first, but I didn’t realize it was love until later. I just knew that I was intrigued and wanted to be around her all the time. Oblivious to the fact I was gay. It just wasn’t on the table as an option. My counselor had to asked me on three different occasions it I’d discerned my sexuality before I came out.”
Thirteen years later, Chavez and Granado (a high school math teacher and sports coach who additionally helps to manage Chavez’s career) are happily married and remain practicing Catholics. They attend Mass with Chavez’s parents every Sunday.
“Mother Church is big slow-moving tanker. She doesn’t turn quickly. The church isn’t going to change if everyone who knows there’s need for change leaves. Our decision at this time is to stick around. For a long time, I was a practicing Catholic but didn’t own my faith. Because I’m gay, I felt I couldn’t own it, but that’s bullshit. I’m as Catholic as Pope Francis, And I talk about this in the show.”
In her song “Heaven Knows,” she sings, “Heaven knows our souls, our story/the shape of your heart when you hold me/wouldn’t tear us apart or disown me.”
Also on April 7 at AMP, Chavez and her band are playing “Kids Pajama Jam Party,” a lively, bilingual, all-ages matinee concert with an educational twist.
“It’s a lot of fun. The audience is encouraged to dance and sing along,” says Chavez who is thinking about having children of her own. “That’s a subject currently in discussion,” she adds with a twinkle in her voice.
“I’ve been privileged with a loving family and opportunity. I like to think that through my music I can bring people together who otherwise might not know each other,” she says. “I have a platform and want to put love in the world.”
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.”