Charming Teenagers – With a Message

These are not new videos, nor are they the usual GLBT artist fare I generally mention in this blog. But both of them made an impact on me and certainly merit a revisit. In 2005 a video of a then-eleven year old Dutch boy, Terence Uphoff, singing on a Netherlands television show Kinderen voor Kinderen (Children for Children), garnered over two million viewings. He sings about his Two Fathers ("Twee Vaders") in a way that would charm anyone.

Hosting Kinderen voor Kinderen at the time of this video was lesbian comedian, author, singer, TV host Claudia de Breij.

And around 2009 UK singer Lily Allen released a very, Very catchy song “Fuck You,” and it wasn’t long before folks in a number of countries uploaded lip-syncing videos, aiming their message and visuals squarely at homophobia. My favorite is still the first one I saw, by a group of adorable French teenagers.

Spencer Day – Future Jazz Star (in my humble opinion)

I had heard the name Spencer Day a while ago, but didn’t really explore his music until I put together my six-hour Jazz Music Special for my QMH show. And he was one of those artists I much needed to explore further. I now have his 2004 debut album, “Introducing Spencer Day,” his EP from 2005, “Movie of Your Life,” and his latest, “Vagabond,” from 2009. Besides having a great voice and being quite easy on the eyes, he’s got some intriguing videos. So, I just needed to let more folks know about him.

 

 http://spencerday.com/

Gallavin: My Baby Just Cares for Me

Swiss jazz artist Gallavin closed my January 6-hour QMH Jazz Music Special, and in it I could not fail to brag about the terrific video for the title track of his CD “Mad About the Boy.” Well, now he has another terrific video, the second from that album, for “My Baby Just Cares For Me.” This is tres gay jazz, and I love it. See both videos below.

http://www.gallavin.com/

Ryan Cassata: I’m Not “Trans Enough”

Last September and October I did a two-part QMH show on Transgender Music, and for the October part, I interviewed teenaged singer/songwriter/activist Ryan Casatta, and I much admire all three of those aspects of his talents. He just uploaded a new video, this time without him singing, but it packs a powerful wallop against transphobia…this time about judgement within the FTM community.

Hear my interview with Ryan:

The day the new CD arrived

There’s a lot more good music and activism on the RyanCassata YouTube Channel.

http://www.ryancassata.com

and, Ryan posted this on his Facebook wall, had to share it

Declan Bennett & Ani DiFranco, on Stage in London

What prompted the timing of this blog entry was seeing a video of Declan Bennett join Ani DiFranco for an impromptu performance on 1/10/12, in London, of her song “Overlap.” This was a dream of his to perform with his musical hero.

I became aware of UK singer/songwriter in 2009 and immediately became a fanatic for his music. I even bought a second copy of his 2007 CD “An Innocent Evening of Drinking,” to just keep in the car; I’ve very rarely done that. And I of course bought his first CD, from 2005, “The Painter’s Ball,” when, on that release, he was going by the pseudonym Sumladfromcov, but with his talent he was much more than Some Lad from Coventry, England. Also, he had some earlier success in 1999 and 2000 as a member of the boyband Point Break, scoring five top 30 hits in that time period.   

His music career has run alongside his theatre career, as he appeared with acclaim in the London cast of the Boy George musical “Taboo.” He’s been in a U.S. touring company cast of “Rent” and in 2010 he appeared on the Grammy Awards with Green Day in the cast of “American Idiot.” In fact it was Green Day member Billy Jo Armstrong who saw Declan perform songs for a new album and stepped in to finance the album demo. That album became the wonderful 2011 release, “Record:BREAKUP.”

“record:BREAKUP” easily made it to my Best of the Year radio show, and the video from it, “Freer,” deservedly won “Most Moving Video” last November in the RightOut TV Video Awards. It’s a Very powerful video.

 http://www.declanbennett.co.uk/  

Truman Capote was a Sissy, See the Music Video

On my January QMH show, Jazz Music Special, one of the featured interviews was with vocalist Mark Winkler. You can find his interview on my site, but I wanted to give special attention to one of his songs and the video to go with it. It’s called “Sissies” and is a tribute in particular to Truman Capote.

You can find the song on Mark’s 2009 CD “Till I Get It Right,” and I also show his
latest CD, “Sweet Spot.” Please check out Mark Winkler’s Website.

And as long as I’m mentioning Truman Capote, you can hear 
him read “Thanksgiving Visitor” on This Page of my website.

(September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984)

A Tribute to the band Yer Girlfriend

View the Video

As I produce a show called Queer Music Heritage, you might expect that I love to honor the work of artists & musicians who did great work, but just did not, in my opinion, get the credit or exposure they deserved. One such band was called Yer Girlfriend. They were a Kentucky band active from 1989 through 1995, releasing three wonderful albums. Laura Shine and Carol Kraemer did most of the lead vocals and writing. 

What of course grabbed my attention right away was that the lyrics were very, very gay…or in this case, lesbian. Even some of their titles gave that away: “Dyketime,” “She’s Not Somebody’s Wife,” “Lez-B-Bop,” and “L-Word.” And this was ten years before the TV show “L-Word.” So with the magic of Windows Movie Maker I put together a medley, with pictures, of nine songs from the band Yer Girlfriend.