Fame is one of those constructs Jeffrey Gaines first experienced when he released his self-titled major-label debut back in 1992.
While his debut single, the super-soulful jam “Hero in Me” landed him a spot performing on Good Morning America and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, serious airplay on MTV (when the channel still mattered) and invites to tour with the likes of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Tracy Chapman and Stevie Nicks with Sheryl Crow, it was his cover of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” that landed him a Top 10 hit back in 2001.
While all the trappings of commercial success were most welcome, Gaines’ driving force was, has always been and continues to be the live connection he forges with an audience, something that’ll be in full effect when he hits the stage at My Father’s Place.
“If you’re walking in cold, you’re probably going to expect to get into the freest form of true expression you’ll get close to and be allowed at the end of your arm,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a small place and no one is going to really throw down like I’m going to throw down.
The thing I’ve been doing my entire life with music is I completely unzip and throw myself right on the heap. It’s going to be so much more than anyone can expect in a little quaint place like this. This guy goes to town.”
He added, “Sometimes it can be intrusive and uncomfortable. A lot of people come out for a little sedate evening of singer-songwriters and they’re full of all the politeness, overgraciousness and all that sweet stuff. I just am just committed completely to the electricity of music and the opportunity to go on stage wherever I’m doing it and whenever I’m doing it—I just completely go all the way there. It’s probably louder and I’m more excited about it than anybody in the room because it’s the love of my life. What they can expect is that [my live show] sounds better than the record.”
Where to credit this kind of unbridled enthusiasm? Part of it comes from Gaines being a ‘70s kid grooving to the sounds of public television around the same time he inherited his cousin’s vinyl collection of rock albums circa 1968 to 1972 (“Donovan’s ‘Barbajagal’ was super-fantastic and I remember going through all the Zeppelin stuff and everything that was happening.”)
When his sister was gifted a Precision bass and a Fender amp at 13, only to abandon it “…when she realized it was going to take more work than a weekend,” her teen brother confiscated the rig and traded it in for an electric guitar and an amp. While his Harrisburg, Penn., town wasn’t the hub of a thriving music scene, and most artists passing through were of the arena-sized variety (Rush, Krokus, The Scorpions), it was an intimate Elvis Costello club show that showed Gaines the possibilities of an impactful live music experience.
“I saw the Armed Forces Tour at the Harrisburg Forum,” he recalled. “It was a lovely little hall that was tiny and beautiful in the capital city, made for meetings and get-togethers. For me, it blew my mind. I’m going to live concerts, but I’m not seeing anything I think I’m really going to use until you see the Armed Forces Tour. Boom. Little trap set. Little amp. Prolific, prolific and song and song and purpose and purpose and meaning and meaning. Without smoke and without fire.”
Gaines’ passion comes honestly. A conversation with him can veer between delving into the merits of XTC’s 1982 effort “English Settlement” (“When I’m listening to XTC, I’m listening to the songwriting, but also the execution of recording an album”) to opening for Mavis Staples and catching her attention with a particularly passionate reading of “A Change Is Going to Come” he performed that night (“Think of her time, life and all the people she’s known, performed and sung with. Then you do a Sam Cooke song and throw that out into the air. Look who’s peeping around the corner thinking, ‘What’s this boy doing now?’ because she was there when they were writing this and she was part of that movement. You sing that in the house for somebody like that and she can confirm that song.”)
Eight studio albums into his career, Gaines’ focus is more on connecting with concertgoers than figuring out the next time he gets to record new material. The world of releasing records and seeing them move off retail shelves in a way that offers real-time validation in a way that streaming doesn’t offer, either financially or otherwise, is one that the 60-year-old singer-songwriter misses. For now, he’s more caught up in looking forward than living in the past.
“Every time someone asks about my next record, I tell them to bring a tape recorder to the next show,” Gaines said. “When it gets recorded, hopefully, some person in a suit is thinking they’ve got it and goes to play. Cool, go play? I’ll make you one anytime you want.
It’s just that I probably wouldn’t do that myself. You’re painting and doing portraits and doing
commissions.”
Jeffrey Gaines will be playing on March 19 at My Father’s Place at the Roslyn Hotel at 1221 Old Northern Blvd. in Roslyn. For more information, visit www.myfathersplace.com or call 516-625-2700.
