~ NEW ALBUM “THE MOTHER OF TROUBLE” DONE CAME ON ALL STREAMING SERVICES !!
~ VIDEO SINGLE “BLACK ROCHELLE” IS OUT TOO https://youtu.be/30SrbQkemdk  

When: Monday nite 1/8 7:30pm ET

WHERE: https://youtube.com/live/h7dFoLkxnBw?feature=share

Who gets 10%: https://www.massfallenheroes.org/about/ Massachusetts Fallen Heroes  
Combat Veterans committed to memorializing fellow service members who did not return home. Raising funds, created a first-of-its-kind memorial, developed the Veteran’s Edge program to assist Veterans, and created a network of support and programs for MA Gold Star Families.

Order the CD or pay for this web groovery via:
http://paypal.me/vancevancevance  or
https://venmo.com/vancevancevance  or
VanceFunder P.O. Box 17, Arlington, MA 02476.
Pay what you like, above $10 appreciated

DATES OF NOTE

1/11 DECATUR GA, EDDIE'S ATTIC ***TIX GOING QUIX*** https://eddiesattic.com/event/vance-gilbert/  
1/13 - CAMBRIDGE, MA, CLUB PASSIM - ***HANDFUL OF TIX LEFT*** I told you this would sell out! https://www.passim.org/live-music/events/vance-gilbert/  
2/23 - NY, NY City Vineyard https://citywinery.com/city-vineyard-nyc/events/an-evening-with-vance-gilbert-3zlqup?from=https://citywinery.com/city-vineyard-nyc/events A residency for me!! Guest(s) to be announced!

More January shows are below

---------

GREG THOMAS

Sure, I’ll could print the lyrics to Old White Men again. Let’s just say that this balsa tissue rubber band model builder and flyer Giant was probably the best engineer that ever was for our hobby.

Here’s an excerpt from the Flying Aces Club newsletter, from a column I write called The Muse. This is a phone video interview with Greg back in 2021.

“...I was so busy enjoying our video call that I forgot that I don’t write much less read Sanskrit. Oh well, I’ll just type up whatever I have and hope for the best.

Yes this is the same Greg Thomas of Thomas Designs, the wondrous but now discontinued model company that bore his name. His kits were high priced for sure, but as one modeler remarked “You took one of those kits, put glue in the corner of the box, shook the box for 30 seconds and poured out a perfect scale ship...”

I recall someone spreading a Thomas Designs kit on a table at the Nationals. We all marveled at the contents, turned the fully formed bits of plywood and aluminum parts over and over in out hands, and then just carefully put the parts all back into the box.

We talked about a lot of things. He’s a Vietnam Vet (thank you), knows his way around various CAD programs, he’s a target shooting enthusiast, and he has this basement, when he’s showing you stuff, that seems to go on an on. Seriously, he’d walk the phone from his modeling room to the room where his magazines and books were to show something.

I’d wait.

He’s chatting away while walking. I’m scribbling illegible notes. Still waiting. I hear doors open. Doors close. I hear Greg walking. Our signal gets weak. I think I heard him pay a toll. Minnesota and Canada do share a border - did I hear some French? Finally Greg would be in a room full of magazines, pictures, and other modeling ephemera."

What a batch of dichotomy he was too:

~ He was in the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam FYI they’re an airborne infantry division of the United States Army specializing in parachute assault operations into hostile areas with a DOD mandate to be "on-call to fight any time, anywhere”. When asked about Vietnam he replied:
"None of us could figure out what we were fighting for, can you believe it?"

~ He was a avid gun enthusiast and competitive target shooter, yet he was an adamant gun control enthusiast:
"Hi Ya, Vance... Don't be dismayed by some of the rhetoric on my page! Although I do quit a bit of blasting along with the models, I'm not wrapped around an axle about 2nd amendment rights, like some of my contacts. You'll see some weird comments every now and then!”

~ He was vehemently anti-war, part of the Veterans For Peace movement.

~ He despised Trump and far right politics. Re Jan 6 2021:
"Yeah...what a sh1t show...proud to call you friend"

~ He was about 5’ 6” tall but could probably eviscerate the average person with a soup spoon

~ And I’d get the odd note a couple times a year that he’d watched a movie or show with a song in it that he’d swear I’d written or that I should surely do:
"...lyrics are such that I thought of you immediately. I'm wondering whether or not it is written by you?”

No, Greg. It wasn’t me. But for your brilliance, artistry, common sense, service duty, and friendship, ohh do I have a song for you.

xovg