Vance! …It Doesn't Get any more Live Than This! by Richard Cuccaro
Vance Gilbert, as those who have seen him live know, is a consummate showman. Equal parts comedian and drop-you-in-your-tracks singer.
How many octaves in that range, Vance? Eight, maybe? Yeah, that's the ticket…eight! Oh, all right, three? Enough to get the job done.
And the power! He'll unleash an acappella vocal of "The King of Rome" or Al Jarreau's "Could You Believe," with no mic at The Bottom Line
in NYC's Greenwich Village and fill the entire room with a searing, soaring melody that defies belief. Or, on long-time audience favorite,
"When Jimmy Falls in Love," he'll do the Rahsaan Roland Kirk circular breathing thing, holding one note continuously while the audience sings
the la la chorus for six or seven measures. His guitar work is a dazzling mix of acoustic jazz and folk. His writing is deceptively strong, getting
tucked behind the fluid melodies and stage pyrotechnics. More on that later.
How did this compelling mix of abilities come together? We did some online background searching for prior interviews and then asked Vance
some questions via e-mail.
Beginnings
Vance stated that, during his childhood, the house stereo was a major influence in providing a direction toward performing later on. Dinah Washington,
Dakota Staton, Ray Charles, and a handful of comedy records&emdash;Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx&emdash;those comedians provided the sense of timing
that seems to power his music sense as well as the comedy that infuses his performances.
In addition, he says: "I mean I remember being sick at home as a kid and hearing stuff from Yellow Submarine on the AM radio (via the earphone from
which I buried in my pillow when I went to sleep) .....kind of an early "Sensurround" experience. Lots of Motown and Stax and Memphis sound stuff
via my brother who is ten years older....Smokey Robinson, the Temps, 4 Tops....all were regular "45s" on his/our turntable. I always loved flipsides 'cause
they were so, well, unheard on radio. I believe the flip to the flipside to Smokey's 'I Second that Emotion' was a sweet tune called 'You Must Be Love'
....what a great theme for an album.... call it 'Flipsides' or 'Forty-fives'.... all acoustic covers of these seminal tunes for me."
The Learning Process
In other interviews, Vance has said that throughout his early years he was more interested in playing competitive tennis than pursuing music. He picked up
the guitar in college and learned how to play mostly on his own. In a prior interview in answer to the question about learning guitar, he states: "I figured most
of it out; I took a couple of lessons with a couple of people. I think I've had three lessons my whole life. Just people showing me things on guitar.
You can call that a lesson."
When he graduated with a degree in teaching, his main interest in the musical arena after teaching multi-cultural arts was to become an acoustic jazz performer.
He says: "I was the Bobby Short of the guitar/vocal set....at least I wanted to be. I wanted to sing the Great American Songbook in lounges - from Billy Strayhorn
to Jimmy Buffett, Duke Ellington to Stevie Wonder, Alec Wilder to Gershwin. At one time I had 500 - 600 tunes at recall. I didn't do them all well, but it gave me
a sense of Jazz vocal history - a musical tradition/place to come from."
Where did the vocal ability materialize? He states: "I had voice lessons for 3 years in the early 80's… they were very serious... however I wasn't doing "legit" stuff....
lots of showtunes and the like. A lot of the study was how to get all the sounds I could out of the instrument in all the situations one could think of.
As difficult as it is to believe that a voice this powerful didn't show itself until his 20's, when asked about it's first expression he says: "Singing and storytelling with
children gave me the opportunity to try out what I got." While I didn't nail down the chronology of this, he also stated: "You know that tape ad with the guy in the
chair in front of stereo speakers with his hair going straight back? That's me singing"
From Jazz to Folk
In response to questions about his entry into the singer/songwriter arena he said: "I wasn't even thinking of singing/songwriting&emdash; all teaching , the occasional
wedding at the time&emdash; when somebody said they had an extra ticket to see this woman sing at the now defunct Old Vienna Kaffehause in Westboro MA...."O.K., I'll go"
not knowing what to expect or really caring… it was Shawn Colvin and my life was changed forever. I wanted to be a short white woman after that.
I vowed to play the open mike at the 'Vienna, have a gig there in a year, and maybe one day in a few years even open for Shawn Colvin… I played the open mike,
had a gig there in 3 months and opened Shawn's Fat City Tour throughout the US and Canada a year and a half later.
My meteoric rise from absolutely unknown to relatively obscure is now a matter of historical record. Seriously, Shawn was doing what I always saw myself doing
but I didn't know I saw it… Does that make any sense?? Her performance/writing/ singing/playing morphs into this one musical entity that my mind couldn't make
a picture of but my heart always wanted to be. With a dash of comedy added, I've been striving for that sensibility ever since."
The Songwriting
With much chagrin, I admit that I am one of those who needed to catch up on Vance's skills in this area.
While the first two CDs contain a lot of my old favorites, in his third CD, Shaking Off Gravity, his command of all facets of a singer/songwriter's arsenal is on full display.
In the liner notes he states: "This is the one I've always wanted. This album is full of pops, clicks, hisses and flubbed notes. [I never noticed them] It is also full of performances.
Unbridled, go-for-broke performances." [that, I noticed]
While there are a surplus of great songs on the CD, my favorite is "Twice Struck." On this particular track, that magnificent vocal instrument gives a clinic, in control of a
tender melody which serves as a love song of a different variety. As the narrative unfolds, we learn that Lenny has been struck twice by lightning and is explaining that although
he lives on medication and TV re-runs, says: "Sometimes we're blessed / with an aerial view of our lives / Sometimes we're cut / And we don't even know it / It's like a left to the jaw /
A scar to the heart / And then the count comes / Five four three two / Twice struck by lightning / my fingers till tingle / and sometimes I can't feel / the very tips of my toes /
and on a good day my heart skips / only one beat…" here he holds the notes on each of the last two words, to exquisite effect. Vance's generosity of spirit shines through in this
"love song" to a fellow human being. I swallow the lump in my throat and play it again. And again.
Vance mixes the smooth vernacular of street slang and and an English professor's command of poetic metaphor. The masterful wordplay in "Taking it All to Tennessee"
can be lost to a casual listener (as I am, too often) caught up in the soaring vocal and fluid jazz rendering of the melody. His words to buddy Ellis Paul, after Ellis' move to
Nashville, balance the symbolism of:
Now I've got this empty cup
And you fill it up
with a lot of Mason Dixon talk
You hold that airline ticket like a gun
and it's killing me,
with the forthright heartache of:
Didn't you love the smell of spring
…didn't you love me?
In "Charlene," a lament for a lover departed by her own hand has some real teeth:
Charlene, Charlene
They couldn't find your pulse
or self esteem
They shouted "clear,"
but you had left them
Like the frantic third-place team
they left their rubber gloves like you were
Coming back to clean.
There are gems all the way through his discography. All one has to do is look, and there they are:
In "If These Teardrops Had Wings," we discover:
If goodbye was a moment
If this moment was lightning
If your heart was an open window
If these teardops had wings.
In "Good Cup of Coffee," a quiet reflection on unspoken but obvious prejudice, telling the story of a black truck driver,
doing what he must to support his family, looking for a little hospitality in a hostile world:
But it's nothing you notice and you can't understand
So I keep to the right of the broken white line
But my eyes are still wandering 'cause
I'll always be looking for / that good cup of coffee.
In "Witness to Joy," a song of hope, entreating us to celebrate life, so beautiful it's easy to look past its craft:
Now we can all stand in starlight, we can laugh at the moon
We can rest assured the sun will rise and set on us soon
But you cast your own shadow, thin as a knife
Your original creation stays with you for life…
So if you're standing in darkness or just standing in line
Or you stand in front of Goliath standing up for what is right…
Be a witness to joy
Get a clear view of the mountain top…
If you haven't already been converted to the Church of Vance, don't wait-- Go see him live and buy all his records.
His first 3 cds, Edgewise, Fugitives, and Shaking Off Gravity, are available at every record store in the universe (unless they suck)
and Somerville Live and the first three are available at:www.folkweb.com/vancegilbert
His web site: www.vancegilbert.com Pay a visit!
Some Advice
Having read that Vance was largely self-taught, I asked him if he'd share some learning techniques I told him, in anticipation,
that if he'd like, he could include "Working my ass off." He replied: "That certainly is one, but proper warming up, like any athletic event is essential!!!
Finding a teacher or singer you really trust and learn a good 15 - 30 min warmup will help save your ass if you're sick
( we singers have the WORST job on the planet when we have a throat/chest cold) or exhausted.
Further on, I asked him if he had any advice for aspiring singer/songwriters. This is what he shared:
1. Never give up.
2. Keep at it.
3. Tape yourself and be critical - always towards improvement.
4. Take some voice lessons with a reputable teacher.
5. Buy a metronome and play guitar with it.
6. Use it relentlessly while invoking #3.
7. Get into or start a songwriting group and attend the sessions even when you have nothing new written.
8. Get into/come from some sort of musical history, and I don't mean having almost all of R.E.M's albums.
Learn a lot of Beatles, Gershwin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, Child's Ballads, Leonard Cohen,
Joni Mitchell (early more obscure stuff)....get into some traditions and DEVOUR THEM.
Come from somewhere other than your own head and notebook.
9. Exercise.
10. Play any and all open mikes that are avaliable if that's where you're at.
11. Drink more water than you'd imagine the day you are to sing.
12. Sing with your eyes more open than closed.
13. Never give up.
Performing Schedule
July 12 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, Okemah OK 6:30PM www.woodyguthrie.com
July 24 Jackson Homestead, Newton MA 8:00PM 617-552-7130
July 27, 28, 29 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Hillsdale NY 860-364-0366 www.falconridgefolk.com
Aug 4 Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI 401-331-2211
Aug 6, 7 Musikfest, Bethlehem PA 610-861-0687
Aug 7 Musikfest, Bethlehem PA 610-861-0687
Aug 10 Calvin Theatre, Northampton MA 8:00PM 413-586-8686
Aug 11 Avalon Folk Festival, Paw Paw WV 604-947-5600
Aug 13-19 Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, Lyons CO 800-624-2422
Aug 25 Great River Folk Festival, La Crosse WI 608-784-3033
Sept 8 Britt Festival, Jacksonville OR 800-882-7488
Sept 15 Minnesota Folk Festival, St. Paul MN www.minnesotafolkfest.org
Sept 21 Outpost in the Burbs, Montclair NJ 8:30PM 973-744-6560
Sept 22 Boston Folk Festival, Boston MA 617-287-6900