Uptown Express has been keeping busy with live shows from Manhattan’s Metropolitan Room, to the fun and summery Asbury Park, to the quirky and friendly New Hope, PA.

The group was nominated for two of the prestigious MAC Awards this year for Vocal Group and Best Recording. Teeming with talent, New York City is a rough city to get noticed in. Uptown has singled themselves out as a premier act with many amazing reviews for both their live appearances and their CD “Take You There”.

The year started out with the death of group member David Gurland. David’s loss and memory fueled the group into continuing. Jaymes Hodges was brought into the group earlier in the year, not to replace David, but to bring something new. Jaymes is not, by any means, new to any of this. He has brought with him an extensive resume of experience. “Naked Boys Singing – The Movie” , and the CD, as the lead (yes, go Google it, we all did!), Guiding Light, Gossip Girl, Broadway, touring companies and more.

David will live on in his music, accomplishments and relationships.

Chris Caswell, John DePalma, Brad Parks, Jaymes Hodges and musical director, James Followell are continuing to raise Uptown Express to new heights.

I believe their future lies in the music choices of the next album. “Take You There” began a new mix of contemporary pop, music we loved as kids and want the next generation to hear and Manhattan’s own Cabaret, that will hopefully be taken further. These four are so comfortable to watch and listen to, it’s impossible to think of anything but great success.

If you haven’t seen them in person, here is a promo video from the group. I’m not sure I would say it showcases all you will see and feel from seeing them, but you can clearly see the wonderful interaction of the group and know that you’ll have a good time.

After watching, visit them on Facebook or the Uptown Express Website.

I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy of the new CD Take You There,  from Uptown Express and was both surprised and excited right away.

I’ll tell the truth, the first time through I was engaged by the music but laughed out loud (LOL!) at each song change. By the third song, I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. You see, I didn’t get a track list so I had really no idea. I encourage you to listen without first studying that list.

I don’t often yell to people to come listen to something, but this time I did it several times. You would have thought I was the one singing. I was so amazed by the quality of each song and that just about every song is a favorite. It’s one of those collections you feel was done as your own, personal mix tape!

Here is another thing I don’t usually do with music (besides laughing and calling people over!)… amidst the mayhem comes Erasure’s Always. I had actually gotten a pre-pre-release of that song, so I knew it was coming, but hearing it in the mix of the rest got me. I choked up a little there. OK, a lot. I LOVE that song! I sang right along with Chris. I don’t think I’ll be the 5th member or anything, but I didn’t need a microphone. ‘Nuff said.

I can best describe the ‘happy’ of this CD by saying that as I drive along and hear random songs on the radio, a song will come on that makes me sit up, sing along and hope to remember its name so I can add it to my imaginary jukebox. This CD is like the jukebox in my mind. Each song, though very different from the last, made me sit up and remember a time, a place, a person.

I won’t go through all the tracks, I’m really hoping you’ll feel some of that surprise that I did, but the songs range from superstar covers to Broadway kitsch and cabaret to current stuff. Each member has his time to shine and shine each one does. The voices, each different on their own and then when they all sing together… another kind of magic. Friend of the group and a New York diva-megafab star in her own rite, Karen Mason winds up the CD belting out Bette like nobody’s business.

If you like a CD with all  fun music… that’s  AllFunMusik!, or if you like a group of hot guys singing to you, or even if you just don’t have enough CDs to fill that new rack you bought at Ikea… get to a music store, the Uptown Express site or do what I did and all the really cool people do, get on iTunes and download it using your American Express card and pay for it next month. And, yes, I did buy it even though I had a free copy. I liked it a lot and hey… these guys gotta eat. Hmmm…. 4 Gay guys… how much are they really going to eat? Then they’ll run to the gym. Hey, maybe I can get a refund and get a hamburger and a pillow. Where was I?… right… buy it. They don’t have to eat, but they have to buy outfits for all those TV and stage appearances. You’ll be seeing and hearing from them quite a bit from now on, I suspect.

OH! Always is on again…. gotta go. Great job guys. You took me there and back! Cheers!

Uptown Express last album review

Uptown Express Official Website

Uptown Express on Facebook

Members: Chris Caswell, John DePalma, David Gurland, Brad Parks, Music Director: James Followell

Vermont-based singer, Gregory Douglass released his new album Battler. The album has a continuation feel from his last album Up & Away. These albums are not to be missed.

Visit his website at http://www.gregorydouglass.com/ or buy the CD at CD Baby or digitally at iTunes.

NYC Metro – this is for you.

Stuck on KTU as your drive time, lunch time and play time dance music?

Have you been dozing off lately at these times? KTU becoming a KT-Yawn?

Drag your radio dial all the way to the left and hit 87.7 the new Pulse Dance Radio. Your drive to the office will energize your day. One drive and you’ve dumped your current station and threw your CDs in the back seat.

Broadcasting as WNYZ FM from “that big blue building in Queens”, the signal isn’t as far reaching to the burbs as KTU’s in midtown, but if you’re into dance mixes of the hottest new music and some surprising ones, the quality of this station is worth it. (I recently heard Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall remixed. I had no idea it was possible!)

Once you get hooked, listen at your desk with the web radio player. Register, sign in, listen all day. www.pulse87.com

Your drive home gets you SHOWBOAT, the dancer/DJ/Asbury Park, NJ go to guy for music you can dance to.

From 7pm-12am ANDRE THE DREDOG takes over your night. For you Grand Theft Auto 3 fans out there Andre is the voice of RISE FM. So, if you want more RISE, go to PULSE!

Does the voice on the Old Navy commercials make you wonder who that girls is? Well, that’s PULSE girl JEWELZ LOPEZ, New York City’s hottest DJ.

The on air talent is great, but amazingly (to me anyway) they’ve got mixers like FRANKIE VAZQUEZ and MIKE RIZZO mixing for PULSE! These guys and the others are the hottest DJs around.

www.pulse87.com along with the online radio player has news, info on the personalities, ways to find those hard to find mix tracks, Pulse videos, online music request and yes… even a hook up page!

As a cherry on top, PULSE has a hot Brit doing the taglines and announcements. Just a bonus.

87.7 FM and www.pulse87.com – get there.

I’m MikeNJ on www.pulse87.com

Thanks to Travis for hookin’ me up with this station!

The Uptown Express boys are spreading their message of hope and tolerance in an even bigger way than usual… their first studio CD. 

The CD starts out on an up beat with the title track, The Four Seasons Walk Like A Man which draws you into their unique style. The CD goes on to songs such as Glow Worm and Slow Boat to China. Yes, of course there’s a medley. It starts out with Melissa Etheridge’s  Come To My Window and completes with Never Can Say Goodbye made famous by the Jackson 5 and later Gloria Gaynor. The CD is a good time mix of songs equally appropriate as dinner music, road trip music or get lucky music.

Under the music direction of James Followell, the Uptown Express boys are Aldrin Arche, Chris Caswell, John DePalma, David Gurland and Brad Parks. They have played Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, from Europe to Miami to the famous cabaret clubs of Manhattan, Uptown gets their crowds in the mood.

Each member brings a uniqueness to the group. Take, for example, Chris Caswell. Chris is the longest running member of Uptown Express and has appeared with the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus in Carnegie Hall, played in productions of Godspell and Company, but is best known for his solo venues, the most recent of which was Hold On at Helen’s. You can get more info on Chris and watch for upcoming shows at his website http://www.christophercaswell.net .

Please visit Uptown Express at their website http://www.uptownexpressnyc.org and take a look around. They list their upcoming performances and there, you can also purchase Walk Like A Man.

So often we are unsure of what we buy and who we’re buying from. Walk Like A Man is an uplifting compilation of songs meant to inspire and entertain performed by five guys that want to inspire and entertain. Wholesome entertainment for a harried world. 

Uptown Express is part of the Big Apple Performing Arts, a non-profit management company supporting LGBT entertainers.

With FaceBook beginning to overshadow MySpace as the meet and greet destination, MySpace is becoming the definitive place where artists park their work. Everyone has a MySpace page to compliment their websites featuring music clips, videos and up to date concert and appearance information.

The good thing (I think) about MySpace is that not only big names have a presence. The small bands starting out have an equal audience share. MySpace is moving from friend builder to fan builder fast and the MySpaces powers that be recognize this and are pouring some money into advertising their new role in music.

The JoBros adorn the first ever outdoor advertising campaign for Myspace Music. The billboards appear in Both Times Square (above) and on the Sunset Strip. The Brothers don’t need the advertising, but MySpace was smart to use them to attract the millions of young people pushing and shoving their way into their fan base.

I feel a bit better thinking that the kids using MySpace are listening to music instead of listening to God-knows-who or what in chats. Formerly anti-MySpace, I say type in myspace.com/ayoneyoucanpossiblythinkof and have a good time! Start with http://myspace.com/jonasbrothers

Don McLean’s American Pie has a permanent place in American Pop Culture and an international ambassadorship for the U.S. American Pie is the musical equivelent of the Statue of Liberty. You never hear this song played without throngs of people screaming the lyrics.

Inspired by the death of Buddy Holly, but really autobiographical, the song tells of the evolution of popular music of the 50s into the 60s. The song came at a profound time for America. The death of John F. Kennedy would change the world. The release of the song also came at a changing time. In 1971, America was at odds over Vietnam and it needed an anthem. American Pie became that anthem. It remains today, forever relevant, forever moving, forever a cheer for and to the land of freedom.

A song like American Pie is a once in a lifetime chance for an artist. To forever travel with history as its Master of Ceremonies, its cheerleader, its voice of where we’ve been and where we could be. The modern-day Star Spangled Banner. The definitive song of opening your eyes to adulthood, responsibility and the very ownership of not only your own destiny, but your place in defining the destiny of those around you. We stand together and sing it; sober or drunk, we know the words. If your kids are talking to you, you sing over them. When the song plays, there is silence for only a moment or two as people stop and think and, then the common voice takes over. A remarkable song.

Of course American Pie overshadowed that album, but another great song would squeak out and make it’s way to the top… Vincent. This song was actually bigger in Europe than it was in America. The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam has a copy of the sheet music along with Vincent’s own brushes buried beneath it in a time capsule. And, let’s face it… it is the main reason we know and cared about who Vincent VanGogh was. The song is hauntingly beautiful in its lyrics and arrangement.

American Pie – A live performance. The way he says people should sing along ‘if’ they know the words is something he didn’t have to add to his concerts after that.

Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) – Also a live performance with a peek at the inspiration… Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over The Rhone

Wake Me Up (Before you Go-Go)
Watch it. We won’t tell anyone.
See it on YouTube HERE.