Artist:Sonja Midtune Hometown: Los Angeles, California Song: “Los Angeles” Album:Dreams Melt Away (EP) Release Date: April 2, 2021
In Their Words: “‘Los Angeles’ is a song with multiple meanings. What starts as a love song quickly turns into an analogy about the relationship; pretty on the surface, but messy underneath, just like Los Angeles. It asks the question, ‘Are WE Los Angeles?’ and ends with me accepting L.A. as my home, but wow, I am lost here. The music video was shot by my boyfriend at all of my favorite unique L.A. spots that I’ve discovered through the years. He loves the song. đ We had a blast!” — Sonja Midtune
Artist:Sweetlove Hometown: Currently based in Los Angeles. Originally from Simi Valley, California Song: “Things I Didn’t Say” Album:Goodnight, Lover Release Date: March 26, 2021
In Their Words: “‘Things I Didnât Say’ is a very personal song for me, full of ache, and when I wrote it I was reeling after the suicide of a longtime love of mine, and the only thing that brought me some comfort was writing songs. I wrote it on a rainy day in Silver Lake with the wonderful Stolar and Evangelia. Evangelia came in with the opening line, ‘I took off my makeup, and took on the madness,’ and it really resonated with me, so we wrote this mournful, stripped-down song about all of the things you canât say anymore to the person youâve lost, and how you struggle for a place to put those things for a long time. The end of the song has this beautiful outro piece, almost like a wave of love to send David off, into a place where he would always be at peace, and I will be forever comforted by the fact that his spirit is free, and that I was fortunate enough to know him and love him my whole life. If you are reading this piece and are struggling and in despair, I beg of you to hold on, to reach out, to get help — I promise you there is more love around you than you know, more hope than your pain lets you see.” — Sweetlove
For the last decade, many queer singer-songwriters have doubled down on laconic melancholy, so itâs pleasant to hear Garrison Starrâs new album, Girl I Used to Be, has the ease of Dave Matthews or Sheryl Crow, but Starr is more open about her sexuality on this album than her previous work. At 45, she is older than a cluster of younger generation of performers (some queer, some writing about queerness) who are still working through experiences of gender, sexuality, and religion.
Listening to her new album, one can hear connections to work like Semlerâs âYouth Group,â a small, pointed folk song about discovering that you are queer after a youth group lock-in, or Stephanie Lambringâs lacerating attack against homophobia, âJoys of Jesus.â There are also echoes of the joyous call for selfhood in some of Katie Pruittâs best work. Starr has written with Pruitt, and “The Devil in Me” from Girl I Used to Be was at first intended for her.
âI was sure that would be a song for Katieâs upcoming record,â Starr tells BGS in an email interview. âBut she didnât take to it like I did, and truthfully, Iâm happy because I realize how much that song really is a biography of my experience and of my questions as well. I love the curiosity in it and the sense of breaking away from something that doesnât serve me anymore. Iâm not sure where I fit in with Christianity at this point and even if Iâm drawn to it, really. The hypocrisy and elitism, at least in the evangelical church, is repulsive to me, and though I think the story of Jesusâ love and redemption is the best thing about any of it, Iâm still searching. I believe in a power greater than myself that I choose to call God — thatâs all I really know.â
Lyrically there are places where Girl I Used to Be points to the woman she is now, while still drawing on the memories of her childhood in Mississippi, trying to fit in. This merging of past and present give Starr an authority which leads to a commitment to declarative sentences via a voice that is often plainer and clearer than younger queer performers. She is most declarative about issues of sexuality and geography, particularly on her best West Coast songs.
On “Downtown Hollywood,â Starr tells the story of a runaway that gradually shifts from third-person into first-person. She sings about how âthey were raising and they were failingâ and trying to âcash it all in.â It has a jab against kids with so much privilege that they didn’t need to grow up, and thus, is a grown-up song, almost burnt out, almost jaded about a town Starr still claims to love.
âMy only advice to anybody is to find your authenticity, lean into it and never look back,â she says about her adopted hometown. âLos Angeles is a funny place⌠itâs changed so much and it hasnât changed at all. The homeless situation here is definitely worse since I came in the late â90s. Some of my favorite old haunts arenât there anymore, but new stuff has popped up in its place. The hustle, the funkiness, the freedom and the hills havenât changed, and thatâs really what made me fall in love with it in the first place.â
Starr grew up in the Deep South, spending some of her undergrad years at Ole Miss, where she was in a sorority. Feeling restricted in that environment, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. Her major label debut, Eighteen Over Me, was released by Geffen in 1997, and the sudden attention was complex for this queer songwriter. She has mentioned in an interview with Mississippi Today that in her mid-1990s heyday she was told by handlers not to butch it up too much, to avoid the tomboy aesthetic.
Her subsequent career was as an independent touring artist and a successful jobbing musician. She has sung back up for Mary Chapin Carpenter, worked with Josh Joplin, covered the Indigo Girls, and ended up on the soundtrack to multiple television shows, including The Fosters and Greyâs Anatomy. In 2019, her song âBetter Day Cominââ was featured in a trailer for the Oscar-nominated Mister Rogers biopic, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. In addition, her production credits include Margaret Choâs Grammy-nominated comedy album, American Tragedy. âMargaret is one of the most generous and down to earth people on the planet. I am grateful to know her and have had the opportunity to work with her,â Starr says.
Girl I Used to Be builds upon all of this complex history, while at the same time, provides a way into the future.
âIâve spent a lot more time in my studio, working on production and mixing, and Iâve been able to continue to create content,â she says about the past year. âMy business hasnât been dependent on touring, thank god. I realized a while ago that if I want to make a living in this business, I gotta figure out how to diversify. So, I write a lot of songs with a lot of people, and I make sure some of them make it into TV and film so I can afford to be an artist for a living.â
Like many contemporary singer-songwriters, a paradox exists between the authority she shows in her music and the helplessness she felt about the political situation as she was writing the record. She says that the song âDam Thatâs Breakingâ is a response to the administration of the 45th president. He was, she says, âempowered and embraced by evangelicals, even though they knew it was wrong. Itâs definitely about religious hypocrisy as well as greed and power, cowardice, selfishness and everything else that makes you feel like the walls are closing in on you and you are powerless to stop it.â
What Starr has to say about long-won battles, about landscape, and about power, through the lens of knowing, has something to teach younger queer artists, and can be an example for a young artist striving to write with a strong sense of place, delicate emotion, and a talent for observation. For example, her song âTrain Thatâs Bound for Gloryâ is inspired by a remark by her late grandfather at his birthday party.
âHe loved to goof around and he loved to pick on you,â she says. âThey were singing him âHappy Birthday,â and he carried on about not being around for his next birthday and that it was âprobably gonna be my last birthday. ⌠He ended it with, âYep, I can hear the whistle on the train thatâs bound for glory, calling me home.â I knew of the Guthrie song, but I had honestly never heard it until after I wrote my version.â
As a whole, Girl I Used to Be answers the question of who the girl is now: a queer woman attempting to reconcile her history and her present. She embodies a queer desire to reinvent oneself in another space. You can have a career anywhere these days, and stories of the Midwest and the South have become central to new LGBTQIA stories — and so the exile motif in Starrâs work might be another kind of lived-in quality. Her experience shows that finding home does not mean exile.
One such example is âMake Peace With It,â among the albumâs most trenchant moments. Starr says, âWell, the lyric is, âIf Iâm ever gonna live this life, I gotta make peace with it.â I was thinking in that moment about how much I was struggling to hold onto blame for the rejection I experienced in the church, for the way I felt like my career wasnât working like I wanted it to, and name whatever else I felt victim to for a long time in my life. I finally got to a place, through what Iâm calling grace, and Iâll explain that in a second, where I realized Iâd rather be happy than be right. (Thank you, Alanon.).â
She concludes, âWhat I mean by grace is that there have been so many times in my life where I have been accepted, as I am, by people who truly love me, when Iâve been at my absolute worst. That is what I mean when I say grace. Grace is love, no matter what.â
Artists:Greg Loiacono & Jamie Drake Hometown: Novato, California / Los Angeles, California Song: “Bound to Fall” Release Date: March 12, 2021 Label: Blue Rose
In Their Words: “A few years back I had become obsessed with a recording called ‘Please Stay’ by The Cryinâ Shames. It inspired me to dive back into old records of singers singing heartbreak songs from way back like Patti Page, The Everly Brothers, and so on. I hoped to convey that lonely, faraway sound on this record. Once Jamie and I started working on the song together we focused in on this unrequited love that drives the singer almost into a sense of delusion. It was really enjoyable finding ways to convey this through words and melody. This is the second duet that Jamie and I have done together. Her powerful, versatile voice can pretty much do anything. Itâs a joy to sing and write with her.” — Greg Loiacono
“In October 2018, Blue Rose introduced me to Greg Loiacono to sing on a duet he’d written called ‘San Felipe.’ Recording that day flowed naturally and led to us wanting to collaborate again in the future. Greg invited me to open for him — along with Scott Hirsch (Hiss Golden Messenger) — at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, California, and I had a day off, so I took a drive to Greg’s hometown of Novato to work on some co-writes. The photo we used for the art was caught on film during the writing session. ‘Bound to Fall’ became a world for us to step into that was different from ‘San Felipe,’ but similar in that we captured a specific, vintage, musical vibe in an authentic way. It’s quite enjoyable to have musical friends you can accomplish different worlds with; Iâm grateful to have found this kind of collaborator in Greg Loiacono.â — Jamie Drake
Chris Pierce has cultivated a significant following in the Los Angeles area and beyond, usually writing soulful and emotional songs that have populated fifteen years’ worth of albums and appeared in TV shows like This Is Us. But in 2020, accompanied by little more than his 1949 Gibson J-45 (“Blondie”) or his 1973 Martin D-18 (“Doriella”), the California native recorded the album American Silence with a mission of social activism against racial disparities.
Pierce gained a love of language from his mother, an English teacher who taught at-risk youth. She introduced him to the lyrical writings of Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss, as well as essential writers like Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. The economy of words in all of those authors is immediately evident in original compositions like “American Silence” and “It’s Been Burning for a While,” where Pierce gets his point across directly, and with power. His convictions are never more optimistically presented than in the album’s closing anthem, “Young, Black and Beautiful,” which details the experience of maturing from a cute little kid to a perceived threat.
Calling from Los Angeles, he had a lot to say about American Silence, which is poised to become one of the most resounding folk albums of 2021.
BGS: To me, âAmerican Silenceâ is like a message from a folksinger to an audience. What was on your mind when you wrote the song?
Pierce: History and resilience, and that cycle of bad things happening and people becoming aware of those things. Jumping on the train of, âLetâs try to end this,â and doing what we can to create awareness about a problem. And then kind of fading away. That song, for me, I was thinking about being young and cuffed on the streets, and stopped for things, and how being a Black kid â and now a Black man â can sometimes feel like a crime in itself, just walking around.
I wanted to write a song that addressed complacency, and remind people like myself, and Black people, and anybodyâs been oppressed, to never give up. And also, to remind songwriters and artists that itâs important to not give up on reaching out to people, even though itâs sometimes hard. Itâs important to keep that fight going in whatever way you can. And it asks those folks: âHey, you come to my shows, you say you support, but if something were actually happening to me and you saw it, would you do something? And are you willing to do something in your everyday life that would create a more positive experience for people who arenât like you?â Thatâs the short answer. [Laughs]
What has been the response so far?
Itâs been getting good response from folks who have had my albums through the years. Iâve been getting emails and notes, and Iâve gotten to speak for a couple of schools, which is great. Iâve been invited to speak at events and play songs, and I think itâs doing a little bit of what I wanted it to do — which is to open up the continued conversation. And through a song, let it be another reminder to not let this moment, and these horrific things that happen, and how appalled you are by them, fade into the distance.
Does it change the vibe in the room when you walk in with a guitar?
Yeah, you know, Iâm not a petite individual. Iâm 6â4â and Iâm a big man! And Iâm a Black man, and I think walking into a room with a guitar raises a few eyebrows, to where folks will want to listen to a few lines and open their hearts, and to hear what I have to say. Itâs being a gentle giant — a man of stature and size, and having this sensitive heart. In a lot of ways, the core of who I am is somebody who really wants to make music and make a difference and spread love. To get into a room with a guitar and sing about our history, and some of the ways I think we could change for the better, is thrilling for me. Iâm really looking forward to walking into more rooms soon to play live. I miss it so much!
âSound All the Bellsâ is a call to action, too, but itâs also very personal. Whatâs that like for you to put those experiences in a song and then share it with people?
All of the songs from this album came out of me last year, and for me it was a moment of clarity. Here I was, at home, trying to be safe and responsible, and in a lot of ways being still forced my heart to open to some of these compartmentalized feelings that I tucked away over the years to survive â and face them in a way that Iâve never faced them before. âŚ
âSound All the Bellsâ is almost like a timeline through different experiences that Iâve personally gone through, but it also offers the message of, âYou know, I consider myself one of the lucky ones, for getting broken ribs and thrown in jail and stabbed and shot at â Iâm still here, to sing songs.” So, I want people to really consider that perspective, in hope that it encourages them to do something about it.
One of the lyrics is about seeing a cross burning in your yard when you were 5 years old. Thatâs a powerful image.
Yeah, throughout the years Iâve had little flashes of memories about that. And a couple of years ago, I was sitting at lunch with my mom, in the town where that happened. We were talking about how things have changed over the years, and she started walking me through exactly what happened, and what she and my late father felt, being the first interracial couple in the neighborhood and the pushback from that. That wasnât the only instance of hate that they encountered. And once I came along, there was this protectiveness from both of them, having a young child.
When that happened, from my motherâs perspective, it was something that [told them] they had a choice. And their choice was to be strong and to carry on and stay in the house, and try to be an example of love and acceptance. And thatâs what they did. Iâm so proud of them. Itâs one thing to go through that when youâre a kid, but itâs another thing to imagine young parents having that happen. I feel like, in a lot of way, that example of their strength and resilience carries on into who I am, and the kind of music I make. And just the fact that I keep going is part of that moment.
On this record, itâs essentially just you and the guitar. Why did you choose that approach?
A big part of it was the pandemic and wanting to be safe and responsible, and not add to the problem of people getting sick and dying. It made me want to set up a session like this. And the other thing was, I wanted the listeners to not have anything in the way, and to let the words sink in. I have some extremely talented friends and folks that Iâm around that are incredible at their instruments, but instead of picking up the phone and calling them, which was very tempting, I just said, you know, let me sit down with a guitar and sing these truths. Sing them in a way that means something to me and see if that translates.
âYoung, Black and Beautiful,â feels like an encore to me. Youâre closing the album with a message of encouragement, and I think the strength of your voice is part of that, too. Why did you want to end the album with that song?
The song in general was inspired by reading a friendâs Instagram post. She was talking about her Black son and how he was getting to the age that instead of folks on the street saying, âHeâs so cute,â itâs turning into folks feeling threatened by him. That got me thinking about my own history, and what happens in that pivotal moment as a Black child that people are starting to look at you differently. You start hearing doors lock and you see purses clenched, and people walking to the other side of the street.
I wanted to offer something that went along the lines of the old term from the â60s, that Black is beautiful. It doesnât mean that other things are not beautiful! Itâs just a reminder that Black is beautiful. Itâs about Black self-love, and I feel like itâs a song that I have benefitted from hearing when I was that age. I also wanted it to feel like an anthem that people could sing along to.
And at the end, I wanted to hold the word âBlackâ as long as I could, to give an example that you should never be ashamed of your Blackness. Sing it loud! And give folks as many examples as you can of your authentic self. And walk on through all these things that youâve experienced, and that Iâve experienced, and find a new purpose in each days, knowing that your authenticity makes you beautiful.
Artist:Judith Hill Hometown: North Hollywood, California Song: “Baby, Iâm Hollywood!” Album:Baby, Iâm Hollywood! Release Date: March 5, 2021 Label: Regime Music Group
In Their Words: “‘Baby, I’m Hollywood’ is a defining statement for me. It sums up all of the drama, love, and pain that surrounds my life as an entertainer. I personify Hollywood as a woman who has become her own rock in spite of a very unstable world. She will take all of the pain and turn into the performance of her life because that’s what she was born to do. The show is not only a spectacle but a service because it puts words, music, lights, and costumes to our secrets and inner battles, giving them a safe place to live.” — Judith Hill
Artist:The Wild West* Hometown: Los Angeles, California Song: âBetter Wayâ Release Date: February 26, 2021 Label: Blackbird Record Label
In Their Words: “When the idea of ‘Better Way’ formed, society was and still is struggling with the differences that divide us. If one does not take the time and compassion to honor differences and look at the commonality that unites us, itâs blinding and tears us apart. Lyrically the idea of being born with love and born without hate is at the root of ‘Better Way.’ Finding the way back to that innocence, compassion and understanding brings a hopeful lens for the future if we can hold onto it and lift each other up. This group of women does exactly that for each other.” — Manda Mosher
*The Wild West: Tawny Ellis (vocals, lap steel, omnichord); Amilia K Spicer (vocals, guitar, mandolin, keys); Pi Jacobs (vocals, guitar); Manda Mosher (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Heather Anne Lomax (vocals, guitar); Deb Morrison (vocals, bass guitar)
Artist:Chris Pierce Hometown: Los Angeles, California Song: “American Silence” Album:American Silence Release Date: February 26, 2021
In Their Words: “Itâs important to not give up on reaching out to those who have stayed silent for too long about the issues that affect those around us all. Complacency is an addiction that plagues our society. If you smile and applaud for those different than you, be willing to fight for those folks too.” — Chris Pierce
Artist:Madison Cunningham Hometown: Orange County, Califoria Album:Wednesday EP
âI challenged myself at the beginning of last year to learn and post a cover song every week as a way to stay inspired both in writing and performing. What started as a fun prompt cracked something open in me and stayed for good, freeing me up in the areas I tend to be too cautious in. After weeks and weeks of this, I decided to release four of these songs as an EP of interpretations, in hopes that they would bring comfort to people in the same way they for did me during this painful year.â — Madison Cunningham
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
Itâs hard to give credit to only one as so many artists helped me along in different phases of my life. But if thereâs one artist that encompasses all forms of my deepest interests, which is singing, playing, and writing, it has to be Joni Mitchell. She taught me how to sing and how to be a free thinker. Her music cracked me open as a young shy writer.
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
I was in Aspen, Colorado, last year opening for Amos Lee. Iâm not quite sure if it was the elevation or the drunk audience, but it holds the record for being one of the most comfortable and freeing shows that Iâve played to date. For me, if thereâs one small accident or interruption during the tuning portion of a performance, it makes me feel right at home. The conversation is the fun of it and makes the music feel invincible. Without it, I feel like I opened the door to the wrong apartment.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I think the only answer to this question is to eat some sort of red pasta with red wine, while sitting across from Joni Mitchell underneath a New York veranda. Ideally at sunset. But the truth is, Iâd jump at any chance, at any hour, to have such a meal.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
Probably when writing âSomething to Believe In.” Itâs quite possibly my favorite song that Iâve written, but cost me most of my hair. I sat on the chorus, and verses one and two, for about six months. And on the day I decided to finish it, I was pounding my fist against the floor and standing on my head trying to come up with verse three. Even after I finished it, I wasnât convinced this song was for me to sing. So I gave it to a friend and then ended up recording it myself later.
How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use âyouâ when it’s actually âmeâ?
I think every character is some three-dimensional form of myself. The only way you can write sincerely about someone is by relating to them, and you really only have your own experience to go by. Writing from a character’s perspective also gives you a kind of bravery to write about yourself, freeing you up to say things youâd normally feel was too forward. It’s an âIâm only the messengerâ sort of a thing.
Artist:Raye Zaragoza Hometown: Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NYC Latest album:Woman In Color (Rebel River Records) Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Ray was my nickname for my whole life. My full name is Rayanna. I added the e when I started playing music!
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
My favorite memory of being on stage was when I was in the third grade and I was performing âI Can Do Thatâ from A Chorus Line in my schoolâs talent show. I had my tap shoes on and everything. But I had what was probably bronchitis. I hardly had a voice and had a terrible cough. I guess my parents thought I was still ok to perform! I gargled salt water every five minutes while I waited for my turn. I got on stage and could barely get any of the song out. It was just low muffled coughs and groans and then tap dance breaks. I asked my friend how I sounded after and she said, âIt was pretty bad.â Since then, I have never really had stage fright, and donât really stress when I have to perform sick. I conquered bombing a set very early on in my stage career. I am so grateful for that!
What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?
I love rituals. Before a show, I always stretch, which feels funny because I just stand there and play guitar and sing! I am not doing any dance moves or anything like that, haha. But when I was a kid, going on stage meant that I was dancing, so I feel like something is wrong if I donât stretch before going on stage. I also always drink hot water before a show (even in the summer) and say a little prayer and land acknowledgment with my crew.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?
I was always music obsessed as a kid. I always had headphones on and thought songwriting was the absolute coolest thing anyone could do. But I knew I wanted to be a career musician at my first real gig. I played House of Blues (restaurant stage) in Hollywood when I was 19 (2012). It was one of those âpay to playâ-type deals that I my roll my eyes at so deeply now. I ended up selling the place out with all of my co-workers from my hostess job and got up there to play the four original songs I had written to date and some covers. It was the first time I played my own songs for people at a real performance. I had this crazy feeling during the first song. I felt like I was on the best drug trip ever. I felt happier than Iâd ever felt in my life. It was a magical feeling and I’ve never stopped chasing it since.
If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?
Be the role model you wish you had as a kid. Make your ancestors proud. But donât take yourself too seriously.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?
I moved to Long Beach, California, in January and have recently become obsessed with swimming in the ocean. I honestly had very little exposure to nature as a kid growing up in New York City. Central Park was my nature. I now live three blocks from the ocean and go almost every day. The ocean calms and grounds me. It brings me to that grounded place where I can create best. And on the other extreme, I love the desert. The desert and ocean both make me feel so small and alone in a way that inspires me to create.
Photo credit: Jimmy Hines
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