News

VIVE LE WITZEND

VIVE LE BENEFIT

VIVE LE FRANCE!

I just got back from France, where I spent two weeks in the Loire Valley, near the town of Chateauroux, in a huge chateau, writing songs for a project. I was able to take a few days off for R ‘n’ R in Paris. First time seeing Paris at the ripe old age of 62. But, it’s never too late, right? I will write more about France in a later blog, but I wanted to get this out to make sure everyone knew about some upcoming gigs:

Tuesday, Feb 10 at  7pm, I will be at Witzend in Venice hosting Lauri Reimer’s excellent Songwriters In The Round series. I made sure to bring in some big guns to perform alongside me.  Tracy Newman, whose work continues to be a goal-post I constantly aim for; James Lee Stanley, who wowed me the first time I saw him, and whose irreverent humor resonates deeply with me (and everyone else who hears him); and the livest of live-wires, Abby Posner, who has so much fire and talent as a player and a writer that it’s exploding like fireworks every time she hits the stage. Each one of them has had a great influence on me, and I’m honored to be on the stage with them.  The show is $10, tickets can be had in advance here, or pay at the door. Your admission allows you to see all the other acts after us as well.

Sunday Feb, 15, I will be appearing at Matt Denny’s Ale House in Arcadia with a star-studded lineup of performers for a Benefit Concert organized by the indefatigable Peggy Flinn Glenn for the Sweet Relief fund, and will help other musicians in need of medical procedures and other life help. The roster is too big to write about all of them here, but here’s most of them: Paul Zollo, Shelby and Tieg, Wild Mountain Mystics, John Zipperer and Friends, Matt Cartsonis, Amilia Spicer, James Lee Stanley, Ted LePlat, Phil Ward, John M, Mark Islam, Patricia Bahia, David Serby, and sitting in with a lot of us (hopefully), will be the amazing Ed Tree. The event starts at 3pm and goes to 9pm. I will be playing at 6:40, but you’ll want to get there earlier and check out all the great music, and support this good cause.

I will also be appearing a couple of nights later at JC Hyke’s  Songwriter Serenade, on Tuesday February 17, at 7pm, also at Matt Denny’s Ale House.

Hope to see you at one of these, and au revoir, mes amis!

Go here to watch a YouTube of the new song: http://youtu.be/PZ96U61p7cU

Last Thursday night, I performed this Christmas song at the Sit ‘n’ Spin show, so I wanted to share it with all of you.

It’s about the Republican sweep of Congress and of many state governorships.

The setup for the song is, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Now, a small caveat: I have lots of friends who are to the Right of me on the political spectrum, so I hope you’ll take this song in the spirit of fun. In fact, I would LOVE to hear some comedy songs about the Left (a challenge!). If I like your song, I will post it on my Facebook page.

I wrote the song with Spencer Green, and Paul Rogers. On guitar is Steve Postell, and Scott Breadman plays drums and percussion. It’s me singing the lead, backed by the vocal talents of Aaron Steinberg, Ali Handal, Andrea Robinson, and Richard Green.

Have a happy and joyous holiday season, with family, friends, and crazy music.

To Download: http://www.reverbnation.com/garystockdale/song/22546372-a-right-wing-christmas

First off, the gig schedule. I mentioned in my last blog that on Dec. 6th, at 8pm I am playing Russ & Julie’s world-famous House Concert in Oak Park. I am sharing the bill with the very cool vocal and instrumental duo, Dan and Laurel. This is my first time playing what is the granddaddy of house concerts. It’s not that long a drive from LA to Oak Park, and I guarantee you will be richly rewarded musically, not to mention meeting a lot of wonderful people (plus pot luck!). RSVP to: rsvp@houseconcerts.us

And, on Dec. 18th at 8pm, as I have done for many years now, I will be directing and performing music for the always-wacky Holiday Show of LA’s long-running Sit ‘n’ Spin comedy/spoken-word series at the Comedy Central Stage at the Hudson Theatre. There are always surprises (plus a GREAT party afterwards) and the surprise that I’m bringing is my friend Paul Rogers, perhaps best-known for fronting the band Those Darn Accordions. I got to know him and the band when they were on Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular, the live variety show I worked on in the late ‘90s. He is a great, funny songwriter, and we will be joined by our good friends Scott Breadman, Steve Postell, Kevin Saunders Hayes and more! This show is free, but fills up fast! So please call for tickets, 323-960-5519

Rounding out the December fun, Dec. 13th at 8pm I’m doing my friend Pablo Marz’ popular spoken-word show, Tell It! at The Spirit Studio in Silverlake. I’ll be appearing with Marlene Nichols, and Jill Demby Guest.  Reservations can be made by clicking here: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/986063

Side note: “The Holidays” means something different to different people. To Christians it is the symbolic birthday of their Savior. To Jewish people, it is Hanukkah – the 8-day Festival of Lights. I will have to Google what it means to Muslims, and I may as well look up Kwanzaa too…I’ll be right back….

Okay –

http://tinyurl.com/q8enaxl

http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml

Yet this time of the year is important to everyone. Those of us who come from a more humanistic point-of-view, or who are not believers, feel exactly as full of the spirit of this season, and celebrate it like everyone does.  And all of us are reminded of the universal meaning behind these times of celebration.

Like…

A longing for peace among people who have defined themselves by their differences for far too long.

Being with family, and close friends who feel like family, and realizing how thankful you are for all of them.

Pausing to remember, and perhaps offer some assistance to, those less fortunate than we are, and in some measure, make their way a little easier.

And food. Incredible amounts of heart-clogging, gut-busting, yet aromatic, savory and delectable food.

So, in that spirit, I wish you – and bring you – Happy Holidays, sung by Andy Williams of course, enjoyed across generations by people of every race, color, and creed. Celebrate.

Much love.

Singer-songwriter Gary Stockdale at Fiddlers Crossing Nov. 15

By DEBORAH HAND-CUTLER Contributing writer

Singer-songwriter Gary Stockdale will perform at Fiddlers Crossing on Saturday, Nov 15, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $20.

Gary Stockdale has an impressive resume.

Wonderful singer. Witty songwriter. Engaging performer. TV and film composer. Two EMMY nominations. A BMI award for music composition.

He plays piano and guitar. He has sung on many Henry Mancini movie scores. He has scored films for Roger Corman and others. He was an arranger for film composer Lalo Schifrin. He composed music for many Penn & Teller projects, as well as for television sitcoms including Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He has sung on commercials, on TV and in films.

And then there’s his infectious grin.

Gary Stockdale will live up to his resume and then some when he performs at Fiddlers Crossing on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m.

Music was part of his life growing up. His mother was a jazz singer before she gave it up to raise a family, and he sang in church choirs from an early age. Stockdale started piano lessons when he was only four, but in sixth grade, when the Beatles hit the airwaves, he switched to guitar.

He studied theater and music at Los Angeles City College, writing, performing, and directing the music for their shows. “After a time,” he said, “it became obvious that music was where my greatest abilities lay.”

Stockdale ignored his father’s advice to have something “to fall back on” other than show business.

“I always figured if you have something to fall back on, if times get tough, you’ll fall back,” he said. From college on, he was able to make a living in doing what he loved — either singing, playing music directing or writing music.

Stockdale’s singing credits range from being the solo singer on commercials for In-and-Out Burgers and singing a Paul McCartney sound-alike for a John Lennon miniseries on NBC, to creating “odd vocal sounds” in a chorus in the film “Avatar.” He said, “You can hear us most prominently in the scenes where the alien people are all sort of chanting and praying together.”

With a full body of work behind him, Stockdale now has the freedom to pursue his love of live performance, singing and playing piano and guitar. His songs are those of a man who sees the irony in life and is enjoying sharing it with his audience. Even his more serious songs have wit and humor in them.

And then there’s that grin…

Fiddlers Crossing is located at 206 E. “F” St., at Robinson Street, in Downtown Tehachapi. Tickets may be purchased online at fiddlerscrossing.org, or at Mountain Music, Tehachapi Treasure Trove, Tehachapi Furniture in Old Town, or Lucky’s Barbershop. To reserve tickets or pay by phone, call 823-9994. Tickets to the concert are $20, and as always, coffee and goodies are included. The concert begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

On the horizon at Fiddlers Crossing: “Winter Dance — Celtic Christmas Celebration,” with Molly’s Revenge and vocalist Christa Burch, on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. in the BeeKay Theatre.

A “TOUCH O’ HAPPY” BIRTHDAY, and RUSS & JULIE’S

(not necessarily in that order)

That’s what my step-Dad, Jim Gaus, used to call Tehachapi: “Touch o’ Happy.” Which is what I feel getting to play there at Fiddlers Crossing. Tehachapi is about 2 hours NE of LA, near both the Mojave Desert and the Sequoias. Fiddlers Crossing was started by Peter Cutler and Deborah Hand-Cutler, and is a true “Listening Room.” It’s 7pm, on November 15th, which also happens to be my birthday!

And, December 6th at 8pm, I’m hugely honored to get to play what has become the gold standard of house concerts, the one that shows everyone else how to do it: Russ and Julie’s series in Oak Park, CA. I’m so excited to be playing their show. Russ and Julie Paris are such generous people, and so dedicated to music and the people who write and perform it, giving hundreds of hours of their time to organizations like the Folk Alliance, and helping to initiate a network of concerts for singer-songwriters and folk artists to play all over America. I’ll be appearing with the talented and rousing duo, Dan Frechette and Laurel Thompson. I’ve become friends with both of them, and their talent and musicianship never ceases to amaze me. To RSVP, and for directions, please email: rsvp@houseconcerts.us

Other upcoming gigs: The Cellar Sessions on November 9th. I’ll be appearing with Susie Glaze and the Hi-Lonesome Band. It’s at 3pm at Old Oak Cellars, 2620-D E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, California 91107. From 3 to 3:45pm, there’ll be complimentary wine-tasting, and the show starts at 3:45. Thanks to my friends Brad Colerick and Ximena Dussan for putting me on this show.

Side note: I have to confess to being one of those people who gets into Facebook discussions/arguments/banter about politics and religion – things people say you should never have conversations about in polite society, but…I always do (My wife always tells me this is the reason we never get invited to dinner parties more than once!). I know some people get angry, indignant, defensive – or OFFensive – in these discussions, but I don’t. Call me crazy, but I actually believe that people coming from different ideas and philosophies, can, with a little work, at least shed some light for others on why they think the way they do. Being in an echo chamber where your own voice and views keep coming back at you is only good for recording vocals. It’s like listening to nothing but oldies. Comforting, but you miss out on a lot of great new stuff.

It’s always amazing to me to see how people can look at the same set of facts and come to wildly different conclusions (and how some people come to their conclusions from no facts at all). But I’m pretty sure we all think our reasoning is sound. Remember, somebody once thought making “Godfather 3” was a good idea.