TITLE: BAD DOG BUFFET

ARTIST: VANCE GILBERT

LABEL: SELF

RELEASE DATE: 2014

By Ellen Giurleo

Vance Gilbert is back with another beautifully sung and evocative album – a transcendent collection of new songs on his CD, BaD Dog Buffet – and, as Vance’s audience knows, the magic of Vance happens on stage. His live show has a reputation that precedes it.

Known equally for his vocal virtuosity and his comedic stage banter and stories, Vance has continued to garner new fans wherever he plays. In the beginning it was Shawn Colvin who wanted him on her tour. Requests also came in from Arlo Guthrie, Anita Baker, and the late George Carlin and most recently, Paul Reiser to add Vance to their shows.

Over the course of a decade in the music business, Vance has made many great recordings and BaD Dog Buffet is perhaps his finest.  This time he had generous assistance from a varied list of respected guests—including Celtic harpist/singer Aine Minogue, bluegrass boys Darol Anger and Joe Walsh Jr., jazz sax player Grace Kelly, country rocker Roy Sludge, and guitarist Kevin Barry.

Fully funded by Vance’s loyal fans, the new CD has so far received rave reviews. There’s the wry, life-loving capitulation of God Bless Everyone, the seething rocker Nothing from You, and the tongue-in-cheek, happy break-up song, Out the Way We Came In which Vance started playing live before the CD came out.

Vance was an arts teacher working with kids, when he first burst onto the singer-songwriter scene in the Northeast in the early 1990s. Buzz spread quickly. One of Vance’s first big gigs, opening Shawn Colvin’s Fat City tour, opened the door and exposed wide audiences to his unique combination of showmanship and entertainment. Early on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said “With the voice of an angel, the wit of a devil, and the guitar playing of a god, it was enough to earn him that rarity: an encore for an opener.”

Vance made several acclaimed albums for the Rounder/Philo label (Edgewise (1994), Fugitives (1995), and Shaking Off Gravity (1998)) and then his first independent album, Somerville Live (2000) was cited by the Boston Globe as the disc “young songwriters should study the way law students cram for bar exams.”

Vance has followed these with several more highly praised albums including Side of the Road, a duet album with his friend Ellis Paul and Unfamiliar Moon, which landed in the Boston Globe’s Top 10 CD’s of the Year in 2005. His last album, Old White Men hit the Top 10 for 2 straight months on the Folk DJ chart.

Throughout all this activity, Vance has been busy touring in the U.S and Canada. His appearance at McCabe’s is a not-to-be-missed rare stop in southern California and a chance to hear the new songs. He undoubtedly will also have new stories to tell and have the audience rolling in the aisles.

Vance Gilbert will be performing Sunday, June 29, 2014 8:00pm McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 310-828-4497

Ellen Giurleo was formerly an on-air host at WUMB in Boston now living in Los Angeles.  She currently does tour management for Jimmy Webb