Jenni Dale Lord - Good Country

My QMH show for April will be a four-hour visit to recent Country Music released by LGBT artists, but I just cannot wait to share this artist with you. I think the new album by Jenni Dale Lord is outstanding. She recently moved back to Lubbock, Texas, after ten years in Austin, which makes me a bit sad, as now it will be much harder to get a chance to see her perform live. But the album I hope will travel far.  It's beautifully written, sung and produced throughout...you'll find no "filler" on this CD, and I'm hard pressed to pick favorites. But of course you knew I would single out some I especially like. One I'm including in my April show can be heard in the video below, at the OutLander Festival, at SXSW, just a couple weeks ago. I think it's one of her better uptempo songs, and is simply called "That Song."

And, for a more intimate performance, I recommend "Getting Better"

Jenni Dale Lord Website
Jenni Dale Lord at Reverbnation
JDL YouTube Channel

 

And I would also single out "A New Me" and the perfect country song, "Willie."

Well-Strung, and They Can Sing, Too!

The New York Times described this new group as "a buff, gay, pop-classical hybrid of juicy boy band and staid chamber group with a vocal component." In short, they are four hot gay guys who sing and play well, and to hear a string quartet do cover songs of some of our catchiest hits, well, is quite appealing. But, don't take my word for it...

Well-Strung stars first violinist Edmund Bagnell, second violinist Christopher Marchant, cellist Daniel Shevlin and violist Trevor Wadleigh. And their debut album just, as they say, hit the streets.

Well-Strung Website

 

Houston's Mustang Band

Reclaiming Lost History

The Mustang Band started in Houston in the late 1970's, as an offshoot of the social organization, The Mustang Club. They played all of the club's functions and then started working at other clubs and bars in Texas. From that point they began shows outside of the state, including playing the Mardi Gras for six years, and a regular route of bars in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. They played the Reno Gay Rodeo (3 years), and even got as far as Cincinnati and Boston.

All told, they played together for about seven years...by that time the AIDS epidemic decimated the band and their audiences, and they stopped playing in the early 1980's. I took this information from emails sent to me by founding member Larry Hodge, who said he believes he is the only surviving member. He now lives in central Illinois.

Like a lot of bar bands they played mostly cover songs, and while they did no professional recording, Larry was able to send me a CD made from a cassette tape recorded at a show. I am pleased to share with you some lost history. From the recording I picked two with the best sound, "I Don't Wanna Cry" and "Drivin' My Life Away.

Hear the Mustang Band

Larry Hodge is second from the right. Below is a scan of the large 

patches Mustang Club members wore on the back of their jackets.

Above, CDR done of a cassette recording of a show, and below, Los Angeles bar ad

Above, if anyone can provide me with the Mustang Band 45,
or a recording of it, I'd be most grateful

Below, 1982 ads

Tommy Martelle - The Gay Young Bride

Okay, can you name a female impersonator who had an ice cream flavor named after him? Nope, not RuPaulicious, not Divine Pink Flamingo...I'm not talking Ben & Jerry's commemorative names. You have to go back, way back for the one I have in mind. And it happened in 1926. The flavor was called "Hanford's Tommy Martelle Special." Hanford was the ice cream company, and it was sold in bricks. Tommy supposedly concocted the recipe himself, incorporating pecans, pineapple, coconut, black walnuts and maraschino cherries.

What? Tommy who? Tommy Martelle (sometimes spelled Martell in the early years) was one of the most successful female impersonators of the 1920's. His career began at least as early as 1911, when he was billed as "The Boy With the Pretty Gowns." It continued to build by the end of the teens, when he was in a production of Julian Eltinge's famous musical "The Fascinating Widow." Now, Eltinge was definitely THE most famous, and successful, female impersonator of the teens and 20's, and he became very wealthy with his shows. Eltinge even had the honor of having a New York theatre named after him. 

But this is about Tommy, and I've found essentially nothing about his personal life, when he was born or died...just clipping after clipping of his show successes, all through the 1920's across the country. In 1923 his career skyrocketed with his musical, "The Gay Young Bride," and later with other shows named "The Fashion Girl," "Some Girls," and "Glorious Annabelle." One clue I got to his popularity is that he was among the very few whose image was used in the venue ads of the time. The most common billing given him was that he was "The Foremost Delineator of Feminine Types." He was especially known for his dazzling costumes, and one headline read "Tommy Martelle and Wardrobe Are Back." So, what happened to him after the 1920's? I'd love to know, but perhaps his career faltered in the 1930's when female impersonation had begun to lose popularity, and performing became difficult due to the laws in some locations forbidding cross-dressing.

Visit my Website Sections on Tommy Martelle

RuPaul's Sex Freak

Ah, as RuPaul is now in the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, let's look back on a fabulous career, with scores of recordings, television and film appearances and success no one could have predicted. No, let's look back to the beginning, to 1985, and to her very first 12" EP release, called "Sex Freak." And I found a video of her performing the title track live...you better work!

http://www.funtone.com/sexfreak/

Danny O'Connor Became Canary Conn

The recording I am talking about today is the earliest in my collection by an artist who later transitioned, in this case, from man to woman. Yes, I have older ones, by Christine Jorgensen, Bambi, and others, but their singing efforts were all after they became known as transsexual.

Danny O'Connor became Canary Conn, and both have interesting stories. Danny grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and from a young age wanted to sing professionally. He got his break early, at age 18, by winning the nationwide contest "Super Teen: The Sounds of '68." He won best male vocalist, and a contract with Capitol Records, and in 1969 a 45 with two songs was released, "If I Am Not Free" and "Can You Imagine." 

Click to Hear Both Songs

or watch a video slide show

The 45 did little, but in promoting it he did net appearances on national teen music shows, including "The Larry Kane Show," on KTRK in Houston. He also acquired a wife (August 1968) and son along the way. The journey would get tougher though, right away. Within five years he would attempt suicide, go through a divorce (September 1970) and be denied contact with his son. And at age 23 he would transition, and take a new name, Canary Conn. Canary went public at this point, 1974, writing an autobiography "Canary: The Story of a Transsexual." Back in the spotlight, she appeared on such talk shows as The Merv Griffin Show, and Tom Synder's show, "Tomorrow," and on "The Phil Donahue Show," with the additional publicity yielding the paperback version of her book. 

And then the story pretty much stopped. I found on one blog someone saying they had "heard" Conn died around 1984, but nothing to back that up. A friend, with a subscription to Ancestry.com, could not find any death verification. Other than places to buy copies of the book, there is actually very little on the internet about Canary Conn. If anyone has recent information (as in, after 1975, please let me know)

    Click for my Danny O'Connor / Canary Conn Gallery

Aussie Singer Jenny Biddle

It's so nice to start the day totally enchanted by the music of an artist new to me, so I have to immediately do this blog entry to share that with you. You see, I have  music columnist friend in Australia, Sue Barrett, who keeps me informed on lesbian artists I may not of heard of from that country, and this one's a winner. Her name is Jenny Biddle and she's sure not a secret in that country, having won a number of music awards recently. Her third album, "Hero in Me," is coming out in March, and you can already (from her site) download a free track from it, and hear full versions of several others. Actually, there are eight tracks you can hear from her three releases and this morning I listened to every one, loving her more and more as I went through them. 

I suggest you start with the very openly gay title track, "Hero in Me," from the new one, and then perhaps go on to (the also lyrically gay) "Don't Mind," or the stunning cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," from her 2012 CD "Little Treasures." And then there's "Chest of Drawers," from her 2009 album by the same title. Those four should be enough to get you hooked.

Jenny Biddle Website

Jenny Biddle on Facebook