“Testimony” is a new song and video by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and I don’t know how you could pack any more talent into this production. Written Stephen Schwartz, in collaboration with Dan Savage, using words from the “It Gets Better” videos, conducted by Dr. Tim Seelig, and recorded and engineered by Leslie…

I first met Garrin Benfield in 2000, in NYC, at the GLAMA Awards, where he was nominated in the Out Recording category, for “What You’re Hiding,” from his debut CD “Living a Dream.” [ He and the Indigo Girls, Mary Gauthier and the Aluminum Group lost to Melissa Etheridge’s “Scarecrow.” ] To my regret, he…

Since I met Darren Ockert in 2006 his music has done nothing except impress me. I loved his debut album that year, “Anything Is Possible,” and the two songs from it that got remixes, and 2010’s single, “Celebrity du Jour.” But I’ve been wanting more. I guess I have to be patient, but help is…

One of the segments of my current Queer Music Heritage show is “German GLBT Music,” and it’s a quick history, with all the songs but one sung in German. It was a fun show to prepare (and a lot of work) and one section I found especially interesting was on three German lesbian bands, and…

I want to join those honoring the 100thanniversary of the birth of Bayard Rustin, and of course I’m doing it with music. It’s easy to use search engines to learn of the history of this remarkable leader, but not so easy to learn of this other side of him, the singer. The 10” LP above…

Labi Siffre was born in London in 1945 and started his music career in the 1960’s, playing with a number of jazz and other groups, and in 1970 actually started recording his music. He had some success in the 70’s and early 80’s and then took a break for a while. In 1985 he saw…

That’s the subtitle of Kathy Fire’s 1978 LP “Songs of Fire.” And her album is filled with rage, including the closing track, “Mother Rage,” dealing with rape.  Kathy Fire’s activism began early and she founded a chapter of NOW in South New Jersey, which led to her meeting many feminists from Philadelphia, and she heard…

Charles Ludlam (1943 – 1987), playwright, director, and actor, founded The Ridiculous Theatrical Company in NYC in 1967. He often appeared in his own plays, in female roles. As a writer he was prolific, but his most popular play by far was “The Mystery of Irma Vep.” This 1992 CD honored the 25th anniversary of…

From Denmark, Thomas Bickham created his gay diva identity in the early 2000’s, and in 2006 Tomboy was ready to be released, like Kracken, onto the unwary world. And over two million Youtube hits later, Tomboy’s “OK2GAY” was a video hit.  Click to Watch the Video A full-length CD was released in 2006, with other…

The Rebecca Riots were a series of protests in Wales in the 1840’s by local farmers and workers against unfair taxation, and the rioters were often men dressed as women. But for this blog, the Rebecca Riots were a band, and they billed themselves as a “radical folk” trio. Band members Andrea Prichett, Lisa Zeiler…