On September 25, 2012, Billy Barnes passed away. According to the L.A. Times, he earned a reputation as “The Revue Master of Hollywood” after hitting his stride in 1958 with “The Billy Barnes Revue.” And many more revues followed. He also was a master of “special material,” contributing to “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” the Oscar…

I happened upon Sean Wood on another blog, and what a treat. On some of tracks I thought of the more mellow Beach Boys songs, but with modern production. I was immediately attracted to the most “out” song, “Slow.” It starts out with meeting a boy, hey, there’s immediate mutual attraction, but let’s take it…slow.…

I’m very pleased add to my blog entries a brand new CD by Canadian Jeff Straker. His albums are always an event with me, and the new one is called “Vagabond.” This album, like a lot of his, seem to be complete works of art, so it almost seems wrong to just pick single songs…

In an article in Time Magazine, March 25, 1940, NBC revealed that 147 songs were on their list of “blue recordings,” with “blue” meaning they were blacklisted from radio. This may have been prompted by ASCAP’s concern about what they perceived as a wave of “salacious and suggestive songs.” It seems difficult to believe these…

Here’s a queer anthem, literally, that I have been nuts about since I first heard it in 2000, but over the years I’ve found very few people know about it. The duo Sponge Finger is comprised of Clayton Littlewood and Rob Brown, and their 12″ release of four mixes of “I Love To Be Queer”…

Zebedy Colt was born Edward Earle Marsh and had two parallel careers. As Edward Earle, he was active in theatre, with several small Broadway roles, and many more regional theatre credits. And he was a musician, and that work included appearing on one of Ben Bagby’s albums in 1967. Those albums paid homage to the…

I first became a fan of the music of Atlanta artist Mike Rickard in 2004 when he released his debut CD “Shaken Not Stirred.” Then came his next release, in 2009, called “Sweat.” I interviewed him for my show Queer Music Heritage (April 2010) and he told me: “You know, ‘Sweat’ is about…I would say…

In the late 20’s and all of the 30’s, blues and innuendo seem to go hand in hand, and from the gay perspective that perfectly fit Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon. He was “Half-Pint” as he was 5’2″ and he started honing his craft as a teenager, joining a touring company when he was only 15 (in…

  I wish I had a better image of this rare 78 rpm record, or even that I owned a copy. It’s “Sissy Man Blues,” written and sung by Kokomo Arnold, in early 1935. It has a special place in the history of “gay” blues songs, with its famous line,  “Lord, if you can’t send me…

Okay, I stumbled upon this artist and while I can’t tell you much about him (his site is in Spanish) I Can tell you he’s got a terrific voice. He’s Ramil and all you need to do is hear him sing “Believe,” and you’ll agree. It’s the official song for 2012 for Pride Barcelona. He…