Tom McCormack: Putting a human face on queer music
Woke up today: found out I'd been missing
Woke up today: found out out I'd been gone
No sign of violence
Disappeared into silence
And left no trace that I had moved on..."
(opening lyrics from Tom McCormack's song "Missing")
Wake up to Tom McCormack's music, and you'll find he's definitely one person who's not missing. Singer, songwriter, piano player, co-creator and currently co-executive producer of the Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA), his is a vital presence in the burgeoning genre of queer music these days. The Village Voice has described him as one of the "most talented openly gay performing songwriters in the country." Billboard magazine has called his songs "a wake-up call to prejudiced minds," and his music is now starting to make its way onto the soundtracks of various movies.
McCormack's songs are melodic without being saccharine, emotional without being sentimental, lyrically pungent without being bitter. Much of his work lies squarely within the pop-folk tradition associated with Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez or Bob Dylan, and explores the experience of gay/lesbian/queer folk living in a world that does not always welcome them or their experiences.
"The sources of my music?" says McCormack when interviewed about his work. "I grew up listening to a lot of singer-songwriters, so I've always identified that way. And from early on - age six or so - I felt a big connection with the piano. Like Elton John said in the liner notes to one of his albums, from the first time I saw a piano, I intuitively knew I could play it.
"As for the content of my songs," he continues, "I was kind of shy as a kid. But by the end of hight school I had learned that music was a way I could access the vulnerable parts of myself. It was the place I could turn to in order to find out who I was or what was going on in my head and communicate with others about it. My music is never confessional in terms of the events in my life but it's always emotionally autobiographical. I try to deal with my own fears and concerns in a way that will help listeners access those feelings in themselves."
Clearly listeners are responding. McCormack's rendition of "Missing," the title song from his CD Missing, is heard in Leslie L. Smith's recent movie "David Searching" (which stars Anthony Rapp of Broadway's Rent fame), while "In Secret" from the same album has been tapped by Tag Purvis for use in "Red Dirt," Purvis's coming-of-age feature film set in rural Mississippi that is now in production. Moreover, McCormack has drawn rave reviews in personal appearances across the country, at venues as varied as colleges and universities, churches, clubs, Pride events, music showcases and festivals, and even correctional facilities.
In terms of personal appearances, McCormacka is perhaps best known for his one-man show "Hate Speech & Love Songs," in which he takes on hate and homophobia in a program combining his music, descriptions of his personal experience and dialogue with the audience. "The basic idea is we fear things that we don't understand, and we hate things that we don't understand or that we fear. I introduce the show with a couple of isolated examples from the news, or perhaps an incident on campus if I'm at a school, that have to do with hate - say racism or homophobia - then move into my own material. I don't focus on a lot of examples of hate speech because I don't feel that's necessarily very productive. But I use myself as an example, the message being: "The next time you hear someone call a person 'faggot,' replace the word with my name. Remember my face. Let's put a human face on this problem."
How is his show received? "It goes over phenomenally," says McCormack. "The first time I performed it was at a small Catholic college in New Hampshire. They guy who brought me in had been producing a Peace and Social Justice series for quite a while, and he said,'This is the best thing we've ever done.'"
McCormack is also well known for his connection with GLAMA. Asked why he and GLAMA co-creator Michael Mitchell started the organization, he answers, "If you're upfront about who you are, you can have a hard time of it in the mainstream recording business. We also knew there were a lot of marginalized artists who weren't being recognized for their work even within the lesbian/gay/queer media because it was coming out on independent labels, not the majors. We decided it was time to have an award show that would acknowledge the work of queer recording artists and bring attention to their music."
In this area also, McCormack has seen his efforts meet with success. With comedy headliners Harvey Fierstein, Jason Stuart and Suzanne Westenhoefer emceeing the three GLAMA ceremonies held so far, and award recipients like k.d. lang and RuPaul attending and speaking at the events, both the mainstream and queer media have begun to take notice. Moreover, major labels like Columbia Records, Epic Records, Warner Bros., and Atlantic Records have signed on as sponsors of various GLAMA events, showing they too have started paying attention to the queer music genre.
Asked about future plans, McCormack notes that the Third Annual Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards are already scheduled for March 1999 (sic) in NYC.
In regard to his own music, he says, "I'm working with a band right now developing new songs, and hope to be doing some recording later in the year with the idea of releasing another album. this fall I'll also be touring again, in the Midwest and Northeast."
No, Tom McCormack is definitely not missing. And - referring again to the lyrics from his song quoted above - it looks like he'll continue to leave plenty of impressive traces as he keeps moving on.-- Lester Strong
September1998
©1998 The Alabama Forum
