10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

August 12, 2005

OutMusic Awards recognize new faces and new sounds

This year's Outmusic Awards ceremony recognized an outstanding group of musicians. For the first time, the expanded four-day celebration migrated beyond its usual Big Apple enclave to the Chicago Cultural Center.

The culminating awards ceremony, cohosted by Broadway and recording star Lea DeLaria and Chicago's cigar-smoking, inyour-face punk rocker Jinx Titanic, honored

Ari Gold

guitar legend June Millington, the Village People's cowboy Randy Jones, Connecticut radio host Pamela Smith and longtime queer rocker Tim Cain. The quality and depth of offerings underscored the importance of out artists to the health of the LGBT community.

Here is a quick look at some of the 2005 Outmusic Award recipients.

Outstanding New Recording Chorus or Choir

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (sfgmc.org) Closer than Ever: The 25th Anniversary Concert

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cal ensemble She Who, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus swept the field. Closer than Ever's selections, drawn from the chorus' first 25 years, are as impressive for their range as their beauty.

The disc begins with the Mendelssohn psalm the chorus sang at its unexpected début appearance on the steps of San Francisco City Hall the night gay Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated. Paying tribute to the 242 chorus members lost to AIDS, selections feature guest appearances by Tales of the City's Armistead Maupin, the fabulous Sharon McNight and California Assemblyman Mark Leno. The exuberance, musicality, and diverse repertoire of the singers serves as a model for LGBT choruses worldwide.

Outstanding New Recording Instrumental

Jennifer Higdon (telarc.org) City Scape & Concerto for Orchestra

For the first time, OutMusic honored a classical composer with major label pedigree. Jennifer Higdon, 42, has been out since meeting her partner Cheryl in. high school marching band. The accessible beauty and vitality of the Philadelphia transplant's numerous finely crafted works earn her over 100 performances a year.

Higdon's City Scape tribute to Atlanta, performed by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is irresistible, its color, range, and visceral impact thrillingly conveyed in Telarc's optional state-of-the-art SACD surround sound. The five movement Concerto for Orchestra (aping Béla Bartok's similarly titled masterpiece) may prove a bit challenging, but careful listening provides a portal to the wealth of glorious new music available to those willing to venture beyond pat pop formulas.

Outstanding Producer

Rocco Kaiyatos (Katastrophe) (katastropherap.com) Let's Fuck, Then Talk About my Problems

Using an impressive assortment of multitracking techniques, San Francisco MC/hip

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Kitty Rose hopper Katastrophe thrusts his social awareness, self-preoccupation, macho posing, and take no prisoners defiance in your face. The FTM transgender man does not deceive himself concerning President Bush, societal norms, cultural repression, and the challenges facing youth. The breadth of Katastrophe's poetry and back-up will seduce far more than hip-hop aficionados.

Outstanding New Recording Band

The Bobbleheads (thebobbleheads.com) Automatic Fun

San Francisco's Bobbleheads offer a frequently upbeat mix with a retro rock 'n' roll sound. "37 Bus," the opening song on their indie effort (afflicted with one-dimensional, bright and brittle sound) includes the lines "Everyone is standing still, except for me I'm dancing. I can walk around in the sunlight, everybody knows that you're mine." With numerous gay references, the Bobbleheads' yeah yeah yeah, la la la songs about life and love do acknowledge some dark moments, but concern themselves far more with smiles.

Outstanding New Recording Debut Female

Kitty Rose (kittyrose4country.com) Kitty Rose! Greatest Hits

From her opening "Yee Haw!" exclaimed for all its worth, Kitty Rose lets you know that she can hold her own with the best. The California Cowgirl (aka Katharine Chase) writes most of her songs, sings fabulously, and plays a mean acoustic guitar. Some tracks, recorded live with full band, convey all the exuberance of artist and audience in full rapport. I don't know what's more impressive, her ability to transition from an upbeat celebrant to a touching, softer-voiced balladeer, or the unstoppable conviction that has motivated a 20-year career. Count me an instant fan of this superb artist.

Outstanding New Recording Duo or Group

Zrazy (zrazy.com) Dream On Celtic jazz duo Zrazy is wonderful. Maria Walsh's (vocals, flute, percussion) slightly throaty, hushed delivery is as seductive as Carole Nelson's (alto and soprano saxophone, piano and tin whistle) classy songs and whispered winds. Based in Ireland, Zrazy sings of love, life and nature with an understated veracity that distinguishes first-class musicians from the rest of the pack. Winners of Irish, Billboard, Gay and Lesbian Music Associa-

tion and Gold Disc awards (sometimes for music very different from jazz), Zrazy deserves to rise to the top.

Outstanding New Recording Female

Adrianne (adrimusic.com) 10,000 Sto-

ries

Boy is this female songwriter-rocker-balladeer good! Winner of a page-full of awards including the USA Songwriting Competition, stage sharer with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Jeff Buckley, and many other notables, her song "Comets" (on this disc) graces the feature film Eulogy starring Ray Romano, Debra Winger, and Hank Azaria. Adrianne's great voice, naked honesty, and palpable yearning make listening and catching her on tour (adriannetour.com) essential.

OutMusician of the Year OutSong of the Year

Scott Free (scottfree.net) They Call Me Mr. Free

Displaying anger and defiance, arresting Chicago musician-activist Scott Free pulls no punches. In his winning OutSong, "Another Day of the Cruelty," he utters a rallying cry for oppressed gay youth, urging them to sue the pants off oppressive administrators and seek alternatives. In the biting "Disco Divas," he trashes artists whose mindless aping of straights leaves us partying away as secondclass citizens. "Ronald Reagan's Funeral" recounts the former president's silence around AIDS. Rather than rapping in quasi-coherent formulaic fashion, master Free delivers his own raw style of no-holds-barred, riveting musical activism.

Outstanding Songwriter

Rachael Sage (rachelsage.com): Ballads and Burlesques

Beyond the little girl personage and campy outfits lies one smart cookie. New Yorker. Rachael Sage's song "Sacrifice," about a young man who stands up to his oppressive father, deserves its Indie Music Award. With lyrics, vocals, and pianism that speak with clear, soft-edged passion, the Stanford drama graduate and childhood ballerina takes on life, love, and suffering with a boundary crossing, worldly perspective that commands the highest respect. Sounds great too.

Outstanding New Recording Debut Male

Dylan Rice (dylanrice.com): Wandering Eyes

Chicago rocker Dylan Rice proclaims he's not the drama queen he used to be, but that remains to be seen. Rice's youthful angst and autobiographical confessionals will certainly appeal to rock lovers drawn to the driving guitar style and slightly tortured vocals that distinguish his impressive début disc.

Outstanding New Recording Male

Ari Gold (arigold.com): Space Under Sun

Ari Gold isn't just out about being gay. A funk/soul artist of the first order, he's also delighted to display his shiny, smooth body and Jewish "Chai" medallion in every conceivable pose. The songs, mostly his own, are fabulous, the recording quality and spacey ambiance of major label quality. Gold's enhanced CD provides online lyrics (far less accessible than in print) and an enticing video that shows him lolling on the beach, flirting with his audience, and rubbing up against everything save a rubber duckie.

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Splash

Continued from page 1 27.48 points each, while this year, they nearly matched that, averaging 26.67 points.

"In addition to the excellent final results," said David Spawn, president of Ohio Splash, "it should be noted that all 18 of our swimmers set new Ohio Splash team records in either individual or relay events."

Glowing with pride, Spawn continued,

"Additionally, our second place finish in the medium size team category was our highest ever placement in a national championship event."

"It was very exciting to be a part of this great performance and to watch our team truly come together with great results," he concluded.

More information about Ohio Splash, including details of upcoming meets and other events, is available at www.ohio splash.org.