QMH intro (Bootlickers)

Kevin Cahoon comment: "Doll" is a song that I feel sort of sums up an existence of anyone who is different, growing up, in elementary school, in high school, and sort of the liberation that hopefully one attains when they reach adulthood. And, I wanted to write a pop song that had a sense of humor but also had something to say. You know, they've been so many people that have come to me and said, "I played with dolls when I was younger, and that song really speaks to me."

Kevin Cahoon - Doll (2005)

That song was called "Doll" and it's the title track from from the award winning album by Kevin Cahoon, and before it started you heard him talk about it. Kevin was one of the winners in June at the Outmusic Awards. And that's what this show is all about. I'm JD Doyle. This segment is called Queer Music Heritage and I'm here on the 4th Monday of each month to bring you an hour devoted to our culture's music. But this month I'm going to forego the heritage part and bring you some of the best queer music to be released during 2005, because that music was honored at the Outmusic Awards.

Okay, if you're a fan of GLBT music and don't know about the organization Outmusic, well, you should. It was founded in New York City about 16 years ago, intended to be a group of artists helping each other. In fact their slogan is "music within community and community within music."

This is the sixth annual awards event for Outmusic and it was held in New York City. It was several days packed full of artist showcases and performances, leading up the main awards event, held at the Knitting Factory. I was honored to have been asked again this year to be one of the judges for the awards, and the show itself was a wonderful showcase of queer music. If you want to hear a more news-oriented report on the awards, complete with clips from the acceptance speeches, that story was aired on This Way Out earlier this month, but can also be heard on-demand at my website. But for tonight I'm going to try to keep my talking down to a minimum so I can fit in as much music as possible. You're going to hear quite a variety of music, touching a lot of different genres. And besides playing songs by the winners, you'll also hear some extras.

Now, as I told you a few moments ago, I started off the show with Kevin Cahoon, a quadruple nominee for his album "Doll." The Outmusic Awards are nicknamed the OMAs, and he picked up his OMA for the category of Outstanding Debut Recording, Male. The variety of the music of the winning albums makes itself clear right away, with the category of Outstanding Debut Recording, Female. The recipient was soprano Melissa Fogarty for her classical album "Handal: Scorned and Betrayed." From it here's a little of a selection called "Si Si Del Gran Tiranno."

Melissa Fogarty - Si Si Del Gran Tiranno (2005)

Now I have to admit, this is not a genre I gravitate towards, but when I was in New York I got to see Melissa Fogarty perform and she was amazing.

Okay, I've told you who received the Outmusic Awards for Debut Male and Female, let's get to the more established Male and Female album categories. The OMA for Outstanding New Recording Male went to an artist who is no stranger to winning these awards. He won this same award in 2003, along with two others for his album "Out of the Loop." This time he won for a 2-CD album called "Soulsex," and his name is Mark Weigle. Now I want to add that besides being a wonderfully crafted and performed album, I think it's also a very brave album. Mark has always had the ability in his writing to touch the very core of various aspects of what it means to be a gay man in this country, but in this album he digs deeper. He sings about many of the sexual aspects that polite gay politicos would rather not discuss, but they are indeed part of the culture. With all that, many of the songs are not ready for radio, but I want to share one of them that certainly is, called "And I Love Horses."

Mark Weigle - And I Love Horses (2005)

That was Mark Weigle. Next, for Outstanding New Recording Female I happened to have been a judge in this category and in my opinion the competition was harder here than in any other. The artists not selected are all superb talents, and included Lea DeLaria, Jen Foster, Magdalen Hsu-Li, Candye Kane and Toshi Reagon. But I'm pleased with the result, as I love the winning album. It's by Nedra Johnson and is just called "Nedra," and from it here is a song also nominated for Out Song of the Year, "Anyway You Need Her."

Nedra Johnson - Anyway You Need Her (2005)

That was a little of "Anyway You Need Her" by Nedra Johnson, and as the Outmusic Awards expanded to 15 categories this year, that's more to cover, so unfortunately I won't be able to play complete songs, but I will give you a good taste of the quality of the music.

And one of the new categories was for Inspirational Recording. Now, this does not just encompass religious oriented albums, as the nominees also included spoken word and political recordings. But the winning album was indeed a spiritual one, by Marsha Stevens, who now goes by Marsha Stevens-Pino, adding on the last name of her partner, Cindy. Two years ago Outmusic gave Marsha a Special Recognition award, and I think it's very neat that now she got an award for one of her albums. Here's a little of the title track from that album, "You Called Us Good."

Marsha Stevens-Pino - You Called Us Good (2005)

I'm going to make a musical jump to another new category this year for Outmusic, the one for Outstanding Video. Well, you can see the video on the artist's site, but of course all I can do here is share a bit of the music. Here's Cazwell with "Do You Wanna Break Up."

Cazwell - Do You Wanna Break Up (2005)

Okay, that's about all I can play of that song without attracting the attention of the FCC. That was Cazwell. He has another very interesting video called "I Buy My Socks on 14th Street."

And from hip hop we're going next to punk, with the group Triple Crème. They received the OMA for Outstanding New Recording by a Band, for their album "This Might Hurt." From it is "Brooklyn."

Triple Crème - Brooklyn (2005)

And as you've seen the recipients of the awards this year spanned many genres of music. But it was an especially good year for classical music. You've already heard that Melissa Fogarty won for Debut Female album, and there were two more classical winners. Composer David Del Tredici won for Outstanding New Recording Instrumental for his creation, "Paul Revere's Ride."

David Del Tredici - Paul Revere's Ride - The Call (2005)
Thomas C. Moore - Mozart (2005)

And sharp listeners noticed that I switched in the middle to Mozart's Symphony No. 41. That was from an album by Boston Baroque. It was one of three albums produced by Thomas C. Moore, and the work on those albums got him the Outmusic Award for Outstanding Producer.

And, as long as we're jumping from genre to genre, up next is the category of Outstanding New Recording by a Chorus or Choir. And I thought it was pretty neat that it was won by the group that had the first ever recording by a gay chorus, in 1981. That's the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, and they also won this award last year, and this year had two albums nominated. But they won for their Christmas album, "Home for the Holidays, Live at the Castro Theatre." From it here's a touch of "Coming Out on Christmas"

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus - Coming Out on Christmas (2005)

While in New York I took lots and lots of photos of the artists I met, and at my site you can see photos of the winning albums and the artists, and find links to their sites. My site of course is at www.queermusicheritage.com. And this is a good time to remind you to listen to After Hours with Jimmy Carper, every Saturday night, Sunday morning from 1 to 4am, on KPFT Houston. It's Queer Radio…with attitude.

QMH Bootlickers ID

And I want to thank the group The BootLICKERS for making me that wonderful intro that I used to start the show.

I'm going to take a break from the competitive awards to let you know about the Special Recognition Awards given out this year by Outmusic.

The Outstanding Support Award was given to Kathy Reiser, who for the last ten years has been the host and producer of Out Loud and Queer, on WJFF, Radio Catskill, in Jeffersonville, NY. She's also the founder of a now annual event called Day to Be Gay in the Catskills, celebrating its 6th year this September.

Another Special Recognition Award was given to Junior Vasquez. His name is hardly new to fans of dance music, due to his expertise as a DJ, remixer, and producer of both famous and new artists.

And the last honorary award is one a bit closer to my heart. It's the Outmusic Heritage Award, which went to Tom Wilson Weinberg. In the late 70s Tom began singing queer-themed songs in gay coffee houses in Philadelphia, which led to his 1979 album "Gay Name Game," one of the earliest of that genre. He also brought queer lyrics to musical theatre for several productions including "The Ten Percent Revue" and "Get Used to It," and continues with new projects to this day. On a more personal note, to the best of my memory Tom's music was the first lyrically gay music that I ever heard. I was fresh out of the closet and living in Norfolk, Virginia, and a gay group I was active in brought Tom down from Philadelphia for a concert. In fact he and his lover John were my house guests that weekend.

There are a lot of songs by Tom that I could pick to share with you, but I've always liked this one, called "My Leviticus."

Tom Wilson Weinberg - My Leviticus (1979)

From his 1979 album "Gay Name Game," that was Tom Wilson Weinberg, who back then just went by Tom Wilson.

I've not mentioned yet that Alix Olson and Ari Gold were the very capable co-hosts of the Outmusic Awards ceremony, and they have both received awards in past years. Alix Olson is a spoken-word artist, a folk poet and a queer artist activist, and Ari Gold is chart-topping pop and dance singer/songwriter. Of course they both performed during the awards ceremony and I want to share a little of what the audience enjoyed. First Alix does one of her most acclaimed works, called "Independence Meal," and she's backed up on keyboards by Luke Parkin, a nominee for Outstanding Instrumental album.

Alix Olson - Independence Mean (2006, live)

Ari Gold is a two-time Outmusic Award winner, but I want to share part of his appearance that was on a much more serious level. Leading up to his song, here are part of his remarks about his friend and Outmusic member Kevin Aviance

  Kevin Aviance

Ari Gold - remarks on Kevin Aviance and "Love Will Take Over" (2006, live)

Again, that was Ari Gold performing live at the Outmusic Awards, doing an acoustic version of his dance hit "Love Will Take Over."

This is my annual tribute show to the winners of the Outmusic Awards, and I always like to set aside a little time to play some music by artists who were nominated but did not win. I'm going to use a producer's prerogative in playing them, because I think they are artists you should really get to hear. So I've picked four who were nominated in a variety of categories. I just love their albums and want to share these songs from them, so I am squeezing in about a minute or so of each one.

First up is a double nominee, the duo Wishing Chair, with their album "Underdog" being nominated for the Duo or Group category and this song, "Outlaw Wedding," for Out Song of the Year.

Wishing Chair - Outlaw Wedding (2005)

Levi Kreis was nominated for New Recording Male, and Songwriter, for his wonderful album "One of the Ones," and his song "Man Outta Me" was nominated for Out Song of the Year. I think it's an important song, as it deals with the almost secret subject of domestic abuse in a gay relationship.

Levi Kreis - Man Outta Me (2005)

"Man Outta Me" by Levi Kreis. And Levi gave me a terrific interview for my January show and you can hear the whole song and him talk about it there.

And I've got to share with you a little of the song the got Brian Lane Green a nomination for Out Song of the Year. It's called "Dad and Me" and is the true story of how he and his father had very different approaches to being gay.

Brian Lane Green - Dad and Me (2005)

Brian Lane Green and "Dad and Me" from his album "Waiting for the Glaciers to Melt."

Billy Porter has been acclaimed for his performances on Broadway, television and of course his live shows, and one of his live shows was captured on his latest album called "At the Corner of Broadway + Soul." It got him a nomination for Outstanding Recording Male and from it, well, I can't resist playing this next song. I've loved this song since 1982 when Jennifer Holiday made it her own in the Broadway show "Dreamgirls," but I never thought I'd get a legitimate chance to include it on one of my shows. Here's Billy Porter.

Billy Porter - And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going (2005)

"And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" by Billy Porter.

And this set concludes with the song "Out of the Rain" by Darren. It's from his album "Anything Is Possible," which was nominated for the Debut Male album award. I think this is a terrific album, and his live performance opening the awards ceremony was dynamite.

Darren - Out of the Rain (2005)

That was Darren from his album "Anything Is Possible"

One of the new and very interesting categories at the Outmusic Awards this year was for Outstanding Album Design. The winning album was "White Trash Girl" by Candye Kane. Those listening to my show on the internet can see the album, and I think the music's a winner as well, and that got her a nomination for Outstanding New Recording Female. From that album here's a bit of "What Happened to the Girl."

Candye Kane - What Happened to the Girl (2005)

Okay, back to the awards for new music. We've got four categories to go. For the category of Outstanding New Recording for a Band or Duo, it seems that all the members of the group Girlyman have to do is release an album and they get this award, which they've done three times now. This year they did if for their album called "Little Star," and their song "Young James Dean" also picked up a nomination for Out Song of the Year. You'll just love their harmonies.

Girlyman - Young James Dean (2005)

From their album "Little Star," that was Doris Muramatsu, Tylan Greenstein and Nate Borofsky, who make up the group Girlyman.

Always a very competitive category is that for Songwriter of the Year, and this year the recipient was Toshi Reagon. From her album "Have You Heard" here's a delicious sample of the song "Didn't I Tell Ya."

Toshi Reagon - Didn't I Tell Ya (2005)

Before we get to the last two categories, I've got a special treat for you. At one of the artist showcases held as part of the Outmusic Awards one of my very talented friends, Freddy Freeman, sang a new song that he wrote as a tribute to Outmusic. I loved it, and though he had not recorded it at that point I immediately pleaded with him to do a recording of it, so I could share it on this show. Good guy that he is, here's Freddy Freeman and the song "Outmusic"

Freddy Freeman - Outmusic (2006)

Again, thanks to Freddy Freeman for recording that song especially in time for this show.

The remaining two categories are perhaps the most revered of the awards, because instead of being determined by panels of judges, they are voted on by the members of Outmusic. The categories are for Outmusician of the Year and Outsong of the year. The Outmusican of the Year honor is not only for an artist's music but also for their activism and community involvement, and this year's recipient is Robert Urban. Robert's a tireless promoter of queer music and has produced many live concerts showcasing GLBT artists, including all-transgender artist shows, and he's also a writer, contributing articles on queer music to a number of Internet websites, getting the word out about artists who need to be heard. And of course he's a musician, and definitely he can rock, backing up many GLBT artists when they need assistance, and he's released a number of albums. From Robert's latest album, "Rock Widow," here's a little of the song "Don't Ask Don't Tell."

Robert Urban - Don't Ask Don't Tell (2003)

That brings us to the last category, Outsong of the Year, for the song that best speaks to our GLBT experience. This year there were ten songs nominated, which made it a very tough field, and again, these were voted on by the Outmusic members. I know I had a hard time deciding my choice.

Before we hear the winning song, I want to thank you all for tuning in. And while I'm sure you can tell I'm a little biased, I definitely recommend you visit the Outmusic website, at www.outmusic.com, to find out more about this organization, and to get acquainted with the more than 400 artists who belong. So, if, like me, you think queer music is more than the music you hear at circuit parties, or that of divas, and showtunes, you should visit the Outmusic site.

And, of course I've got to plug my own site again, at www.queermusicheritage.com, where you can see photos of the artists and recordings and also about 260 candid photos I took at the awards and related events. And, if you have a high speed connection, you can hear the actual Outmusic awards show and much more. If you have questions or comments about any of the music I've featured, please write to me. This is JD Doyle for Queer Voices on KPFT in Houston, and I'll be back on the 4th Monday of next month with another installment of Queer Music Heritage. That will be another of my Songs I've Been Meaning To Play shows, a continuation of the excursion I started on last month's show.

The artist who won for Out Song of the Year is Jen Foster, and I love her album, "The Underdogs." That album also got her nominations for Producer and Outstanding New Recording Female. By the way, she won in the category for Debut Female two years ago, for her album "Everybody's Girl." I first heard her song "The Underdogs" when I was judging for the awards, and it was one of those songs that when I finished listening, all I could say was "wow." And I've since interviewed her and I want to share with you her comments on the song. Here's Jen Foster introducing the song that received the award for Outmusic Out Song of the Year, "The Underdogs."

Jen Foster, on "The Underdogs": It's a series of little vignettes, about the kids I knew in school that didn't quite fit in, and each one didn't fit in for different reasons. You know, the kid in the first verse is named Billy Sims, and he didn't fit in because of the speech impediment. And, you know, the second verse is about a girl named Cindy Sloan, and she was just a little bit different. Some kids would call her off, so she would hang out in the lunch room and nobody would sit with her. The third verse is about a guy that I went on a date with in high school, named Justin Tate, and it turned out that we were both gay, and we both sort of revealed that secret to each other, and didn't fit in, and related to each other. So I just, I always related to the kids that were outsiders in school, and even though I was…you know, I don't know that you would call me a popular kid, you know, I was always very sensitive to kids that were different, probably because of the experience of being gay in high school. It wasn't as open back then as it is today, so I definitely always related to those kids, and this song is a tribute to them.

Jen Foster - The Underdogs (2005)