Hi VanceFans -

10/5 - Tarrytown, NY https://tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org OPENING FOR ROBERT CRAY

GIG FISHING - anyone near Bolivia, NC on 10/18? You wanna private party? Coaching?

VANCE HOLIDAY PARTY HOUSE CONCERT TIME - Yes, it’s that time of year to get your bookings in. I’m cheaper than you think. Contact me here for details.

“Good Good Man” the CD is here. You can have one. Just let me know.
• Buy from me at a show
• Buy from me directly - via PayPal to vancefunder@gmail.com
• Buy from me directly via check for anything between $10 - $20 and up to Vancefunder P.O. Box 17 Arlington, MA 02476
• **If your name is on the CD, you’re a friend, family member, promoter, radio/podcast personage, cash strapped, or anyone else that thinks they should just have one, send me your address again and I’ll just send one to you. Seriously, just ask for one and I’ll send it.**

Cary Baker at Conqueroo is the big-time publicist we coerced into publicizing this CD. We have all but inked a contract. His hard work will mostly happen after the Holiday Thanksgiving/Christmas media mash. At which time I’ll stream it, have it on digital platforms, etc. You folks on this list will get notice first when things happen... I’m trying to be late life famous. Take this ride with me, will you?

Coaching of songwriting, performance, voice, private parties, Afro-Origami instruction available upon request.

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Happy Rosh Hashanah, Happy Fall, Happy New Year,

So this last weekend was also the first few days of having my new CD Good Good Man on a few shows. SOPAC in South Orange NJ was a gas. Folks from high school, college, past, present. Easily 10-15% of the audience was Black folks I didn’t know. Nice-sized house. I sang great. I debuted a new song called Honeysuckle Fences.

Next night was the Iron Horse in Northampton. A more intimate audience I haven’t played for there in a long time, but having the psychic (he had to be, because he seemed to know what I was doing before I did) Jesse Williams on upright bass was a revelation, an utter artistic lift. The house manager Neil and the Iron Horse owner Eric, (who hadn’t planned to stay but did because he dug what I was up to ) were unfazed by the numbers as the music was if I can say so myself, off the h00que… CDs were sold and given away. People gave me handfuls of used mailing envelopes as I go to keep it green getting your CDs to you. Intimate, perfect evening.

So yesterday I was wandering my neighborhood giving away CDs to neighbors that were home, driving by, out walking. I’m feeling pretty minor celeb. There’s one woodworking neighbor you can hear sawing, planing, rabbet cutting, drilling and spinning Vance Gilbert music the whole day, into the night. It’s odd sometimes, because I think I’ve left something playing in my house but it’s him, playing my stuff. My partner says, “Please go give that man the new album…”

So I go over and start chatting with this man and his son. The son asks me “is this a cease and desist visit to get Dad to play something else?" I slyly lay the CD on the table next to his nearest project and Dad's elated. He tries to pay me and I wave him off. Truly what I get from Mr. Woodworker is real “airplay” out of that garage.

He tells me that my song "Come Here My Love" makes him stop whatever he is doing. He cannot work through it. I’m flattered beyond the stars at that. Then he tells me that the song he is most troubled by is Old White Men, as he thinks the characterization of individuals in the song has racist overtones. “Would you be comfortable if you heard a song with characterizations in it called 'Old Black Men’ “?

My mind flashed to every White blues, R&B, and jazz singer I’ve ever known, from John Hammond Jr. to Average White Band to Mel Torme, and I decided…Yes. I’ve had to be comfortable with that all of my life. Happily so. Music, artisan skills, things as such evolve from peoples to peoples. They’re racist and appropriation arts acts when imitated poorly for big money without the cultural acknowledgment...and even that’s kinda grey, isn’t it?

But I replied "Oh Peter, it’s a celebration of all of our differences. And an acknowledgement of growth. I might ask you to listen ‘through' rather than just ‘to' that song.” He said he’d give it another shot.

We’ll see. I do know that my new album was playing out around the corner as of about 8 o'clock last night, with its custom disc sanding background track.

xovg

P.S. Is it illegal to answer robo calls, press 1, and tell whoever answers that “This is Mass State Attorney General Maura Healey’s office - how can I help you?”. I get hung up on more quickly than I did by Anita M’s dad when I called her house lovesick in the 7th grade. Thanks for coming to the show at SOPAC, Anita.
vg