Melissa Ferrick

Since I blogged earlier this morning about Glen Phillips opening for Melissa, everyone can assume we did in fact see Melissa at Skipper’s in Tampa on Friday, right?  Folks you should know by now NEVER to assume such a thing but in this case, you would be right.  We did see Melissa but not without some concern that she "got off the boat". 

Glen started his set at 8:30, playing to a packed house (can you call an outdoor bar a "house"? I guess you can since I just did) with people still in line outside buying tickets.  A couple of songs into the set someone came out and handed him a note.  I figured once again someone had parked in a bad spot and he was going to have to ask the folks with the white mercedes to move.  But no, apparently Melissa was in fact going to make it – there had been some doubt!?!  News to us and the hundreds who were waiting in line to buy those tickets but that’s a blog post for another day… Glen played on.  And played on.  And played on.  An hour goes by and he finishes only to come back out for an encore since Melissa was looking for a place to park?  (Weird since Melissa generally tours with her opener as in tours in the same vehicle – how did Glen manage to make it but Melissa didn’t?  Did she go out to buy his socks and get stuck in traffic?)  He finishes his encore and the radio station folks get up to talk about their station and their raffle and assure us Melissa will be out soon, she’s getting ready.

Another 45 minutes pass and the radio folks come out again (no sign of Melissa’s gear at all…) to give away their raffle prizes.  15 minutes later we get the first reassurance that we might, in fact, see Melissa – mics are changed, gear is brought out and there she is… orange sweatshirt and a couple of hospital wrist bands dangling from her left wrist.  Hmmmm

She sets up quickly, sound checks quickly and quickly tells us that she is sick and asked them to fast track her ’cause she had to play tonight because there were so many people waiting… and play she did.  In the sweatshirt, wihch was odd – not the orange that both she and Michelle were troubled by, just the sweats in general was odd.  She didn’t chat much with the crowd and when she did, her voice was quiet and tired and shakey.  She didn’t drink near enough water during the set – she never does but when you’re sick… (I only play a doctor on the internet folks, but dehydration is not something to screw around with)…

Did I mention she played?  She did.  She played hard.  She had no visible set list (unusual).  She played an interesting mix of songs.  Not many new ones which I was both disappointed and appreciative of – I’m not overly fond of the new ones thus far but hearing them live, more often, would probably help that…

She likes playing at Skipper’s and Skipper’s likes her. Playing sick, and she definitely was sick – the wobble and grab for the monitor at the end was definite proof if anyone had doubts – but her performance on Friday is the sort that leads us to feel the Melissa groupie lust.  It’s the type of performance that makes us think about whether we could manage a trip to Lake Worth for the Saturday show.  Whether we could handle the drive home after the Freebird Live show in Jax. Whether we could take Tuesday off work and Wednesday, too, for the show at the only bar I’ve ever considered worth going to. 

Melissa did what she does best, she put everything she had to give into her music and we got to experience it.  (more photos here)  Thanks Melissa – feel better, and if you don’t – then get off the boat and take a break, we do still love you when you need a break to take care of yourself. 

**edited to add…Melissa has cancelled her shows through the 11th but is scheduled to appear (I’m guessing this isn’t a performance) at the Delray Film Festival where Decade will be screened.  Both the cancellations and the film festival are good, in my opinion.   FYI Glen Phillips will still perform at the previously scheduled events so don’t get a refund, go and enjoy Glen!**

Technorati Tags: melissaferrick, indie, folkmusic, skippers, tampa

From the title of this post you might think I’m going to talk about all of the blog fluttering about Willie Nelson and his gay cowboys.  I’m not.  I don’t DO Willie Nelson.  I don’t like Willie Nelson.  I only tolerate discussions about Willie Nelson for the awesome Nuthinfancy and the amazing catnmousie.  So no, this is not about that MAN.  And I’m not sorry, either.

When I first heard about the movie Brokeback Mountain and all of it’s "awesome" gay cowboyness my first thought was Y’all and their song My Man, Our Horses, and Me from the OUT LOUD cd.  I tried very hard to push that image from my mind.  I saw the movie and while it wasn’t anything like the "classic" gay cowboy song that the Flamingo House Family has often giggled over, I couldn’t get that song out of my head.  It’s just that kind of song.  You say gay cowboys, I think "side saddle".  You say gay cowboys again and I think "her name is windy". 

Go listen – and if you’re so inclined, listen to some of our "family favorites" from the cd while you’re there… The only Indigo Girls song I like, "This Train"…  "Weddings are Icky", because they ARE! … Chris and his friends loved  "Shave Your Head", one of the kids really loved "Kiss My Sticky" (guess which one!) and of course Melissa Ferrick is awesome with a song she never sings in her live performances, "Taking a Liking".

Out Loud folks, with gay cowboys.  And no Willie Nelson in sight!

Technorati Tags: gaycowboys, music, mymanourhorsesandme, y’all, outloud, GLBT,

Sony is launching a new music label, Music With a Twist.  The line up will include GLBT artists "who have mass appeal and hit potential across all musical genres". 

What, exactly does that mean?  And do GLBT musicians want or need a separate label?

If it means they’re looking for GLBT artists whose music reflects who they are and where they’ve come from and truly resonates with the GLBT community, then heck yea.  Why not?  Colleen asks "Would Elton John jump at the chance to be on Music With a Twist?" – that’s not a fair question at all.  Obviously at this stage in the game, he wouldn’t.  Why would he?  He is gay, certainly, but his music doesn’t reflect his homosexuality, the GLBT culture or anything else that’s gay.  30 years ago would he have jumped, I think he might have.   The real question is would a group like our local group Redboy jump to join?  I haven’t talked to them but I bet you they certainly would.  I’ll ask TJ (the non lesbian boy drummer in the band) the next time I see him and get back to you on that.

If it means they’re looking for GLBT artists whose music is gender neutral and watered down for mass consumption, then I cannot imagine a GLBT artist wanting to be included on such a label.

Look at what happened to Melissa Ferrick and Atlantic.  Lesbian chic was in and still Atlantic didn’t know what to do with her.  They had a special gay marketing group and still they didn’t know what to do with her.  If this is more of the same, then Music With a Twist isn’t going to work for a lot of artists or for GLBT consumers. 

And speaking of Melissa and twists – Here she is talking about this little label and it’s looking like she’s either in or she wants to be in.    Which again answers Colleen’s question – Elton may not want in, but Melissa does. 

As Melissa will tell you during every performance, it isn’t about whether you are gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered – it’s about the music.  But she’s smart enough to know who got her where she is and what it takes to get her where she wants to go.  A solidly promoted alternative label like Music With a Twist can allow her to use the GLBT fan base in a positive way – and from there the music will do the rest.

Technorati Tags: musicwithatwist, sonyrecords, GLBT, melissaferrick, music

At the risk of making it look like I’m writing a MUSIC blog, or more likely a Melissa Ferrick blog, I’m writing another entry about music and Ferrick. I’m going to try really hard not to post about music (or Melissa) until at least after Christmas. Surely I can hold out a couple of weeks, can’t I? Maybe write about gay marriage or queer blogs or why boys are smelly but smell is no the prime indication that you are a boy or have a boy or maybe even that us/them piece about homeschool and school at home? Surely. But until then, Melissa it is.

Awhile back I talked about ordering two copies of Melissa’s DVD, Decade. Well I did and they arrived on Saturday to applause and whistles. Well no, not really, but Michelle did jump up and down and say “Thank you Mommy” about ten times. Which is high praise from an almost 16 year old.

Michelle and the half kid who half lives with us watched “her” copy upstairs and TW and I watched “our” copy in the bedroom on TW’s laptop (first time we’ve ever watched a DVD on a laptop in bed). It was cool, the DVD not the DVD on laptop watching part.

Really interesting to see Melissa and her “big break” – opening for Morrissey when she was 23 and unknown. How young and out of place she looked at the photo shoot, the makeup, the hair, the kiss Atlantic record executive butt nervousness. No wonder she was less than clean at that time of her life. And “Happy Song”, gosh I apologize for ever making fun of it or giggling about it (but I won’t apologize for having giggled and laughed at “Favorite Person in the World” cause that’s just one weird song for MF, ya know?)

From her big break to WAR to Right On Records and Brian – man I miss Brian. That’s pretty much what the entire second part of the DVD had me saying. I felt like a broken record. I miss Brian. I miss Brian. I miss Brian. I hope Brian Winton is doing a vanity search and comes across this post so he knows I MISS BRIAN. Pretty amusing and amazing watching MF and Brian setting up the studio at her parents’ house (too bad there wasn’t more footage of mom and dad, ya know?) and thinking about Valentine Heartache coming out of that big event. Cool, really cool.

Melissa – Decade was worth waiting for. I’m glad I bought two copies and I’m probably going to go ahead and order that third copy, just in case something happens to these two…

Technorati Tags: melissaferrick, decade, brianwinton, rightonrecords