On the air
Who: Sybil Gage and “The Stormy Monday Show”
When: 7 to 8 p.m. Saturdays
Where: WMEL-AM (1300)
Information: www.sybilsings.com
In concert
When: 7 to 10 p.m. June 19
Where: Bodega Blue, 2115 14th Ave., Vero Beach
Admission: Free
Call: 772-569-4400
When: 4 to 8 p.m. June 21
Where: The Redhead, 626 Glen Cheek Drive, Cape Canaveral
Admission: Free
Call: 321-799-1616
When: 7 to 10 p.m. June 26
Where: Cocoa Beach Hilton, 1550 N. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach
Admission: Free
Call: 321-799-0003
Local radio station WMEL-AM (1300) will soon be blessed with the “Hardest Working Woman in Show Business” when local jazz great Sybil Gage returns to the airwaves with “The Stormy Monday Show,” debuting Saturday. Gage, who grew up in New Orleans around a vibrant music scene, has long been regarded as one of the area’s top musical talents. She was named Space Coast Living magazine’s “Best Musician in Brevard County” and earned the No. 6 spot on the “100 Greatest Things About Brevard County” in the June 2008 issue.
Gage was first labeled a hard worker thanks to her exhausting schedule that frequently includes performances six nights a week. I spoke with Gage about her new radio show, her forthcoming CD and her unique musical background. So let’s Shake, Rattle & Know: Sybil Gage.
SRK: What can you tell me about “The Stormy Monday Show” you will be hosting starting this Saturday?
Gage: I’m very excited, first and foremost. It will be very different from other shows, in that it will be eclectic, but focus on one artist at a time. It will be nice to hear a great collection of songs from a great artist, and from some that may be a little more obscure.
SRK: Now, you are no stranger to being on the radio. Tell me about your previous radio stints.
Gage: I went into radio fresh out of high school. I worked at WYLD in New Orleans, a progressive jazz station that featured jazz, soul and a lot of great vocalists. It was my first job ever, and I was spinning real vinyl, so I guess that whole experience stayed with me. I was also on public radio in New York. In fact, the title for my show “Stormy Monday” is a tribute to the first Stormy Monday show back in New York and the man who ran it, David Jackson. He lived it, loved it and I owe a lot to him. He worked the show with a guy named James Brown, and it was a great time. I also worked at a station that had an AM and an FM station in the same building. I would run back and forth between the two doing news segments. In those days, you had to do a little bit of everything. Now I look forward to this new opportunity at WMEL.
SRK: You perform as many as six nights a week. With that type schedule, how do you stop yourself from reaching burnout?
Gage: The audiences keep me going. It helps that I am not grinding it out in one spot every night, and I play different places all the time. I’ll even be playing in New York this summer. I have shows in Vero Beach and Jensen Beach, and the audiences lift you up and keep you going. Oh, that and a new dress.
SRK: How did growing up in new Orleans shape you as an artist?
Gage: Artists from that region are difficult to pigeonhole. Because we grew up with so many different styles of music, you can’t just label us as one thing. There were many different artists and styles I was exposed to, from jazz, to rock ’n’ roll and, of course, soul. We are unclassifiable with all the diversity we bring to the music, so it’s hard to push us in a corner and call our style just one thing.
SRK: What is the single greatest piece of advice anyone has ever given you musically?
Gage: Don’t just do it, feel it. We have a saying in New Orleans that says “Put your foot in it.” I have people that come up to me all the time and say, “I don’t care what you sing; I just want to hear you sing,” and that’s true. That’s what an audience expects from you. Don’t let anyone tell you how to do your thing, let them do their thing, and you do your thing.
SRK: As a songwriter, what do you find to be the most challenging part of bringing a song together?
Gage: Sometimes it just comes to you, and sometimes you have only a hook or a melody and can’t figure out the rest. I’m not one to say I can put a song together in 20 minutes, it just isn’t possible. It takes a while for the words to make sense and form complete thoughts. One thing’s for sure though — you have to have a hook.
SRK: You are working on a new CD titled “Catch New Orleans.” How will this CD differ from your previous offerings?
Gage: It sounds more New Orleans than ever before. It will have more music on it, and we have incorporated guitars, harmonica, maybe a horn or two and some percussion. It’s still very much me and my material, but with this record I’ll have my whole musical family with me. I will have John Possis (guitar), Leon Olguin (piano), Balsa Bill Yerkes (piano), Stoney from Stoney and the House Rockers (harmonica), and Dennis Thompson (drums) on the record with me. We recorded it locally at Solo Creative Media in Canaveral Groves.
If you have an artist/band you’d like to recommend for review, contact Nunez at myspace.com/shakerattleandknow or fantasyforecaster2005@yahoo.com
