Gordon Vincent visits the show

(MQ Murphy photo)

The Saturday, August 13 show featured a visit from a real live singer/songwriter. Gordon Vincent, of New Jersey, Tennessee, and New Jersey again. Gordon released a new CD last week and stopped by the studio to talk about the disk and play a couple of selections live.

Gordon has recorded four CDs now - varying his production approach each time - his last disk, "Confessions of a Hummingbird Farmer" was self produced and Gordon played all instruments himself. The latest - "Mechanical Breakdown" - was also self-produced and recorded but also features singers and players from Cape May and Nashville. His own guitar and keyboard playing are masterful and well crafted - the 13 cuts on the disk (plus one surprise cut and a brief homage to John Cage) show a broad range of well-absorbed influences from the delicate "Annie's Garden" to the happily bopping "Happy" and the Prince-evoking "Reason to Leave - Alt".

His website provides a schedule of appearances and links to venues.

Gordon previously visited Six Degrees on March 26th of this year, along with Pete Mroz, Rachel Owen, Jim Counter and J.M. Kearns.

Long time since last post . . .

(image stolen and modified by MQMurphy)

You might guess there's been a lot going on. You'd be right. So much to catch up on - we must be somewhere near 200 broadcasts of Six Degrees (the show that keeps the 'tic' in eclectic) by now.

Since last post the Singer/Songwriter Cape May has rolled through town again - March 26th and 27th, 2011 found our little town crawling with old and young instrument-toting folks. It's a delicious and slightly agonizing event - delicious for obvious reasons - agonizing because there's no way to catch it all.

The 3/26/11 Six Degrees show played host to almost half a dozen songwriters who had a history of writing and playing together when they were all living in Nashville. They were reunited for the weekend as a few of them were scheduled to perform at SS Cape May. The show featured live performances by Pete Mroz, Gordon Vincent, Rachel Owen, Jim Counter and J.M. Kearns. You might've been one of the lucky folks who caught the impromptu (thanks to Vickie Watson) performance at The Merion Inn on Saturday afternoon.

J.M. Kearns (he who writes books) was also a guest on the Six Degrees "Unlimited New Year's Day" show. JM played a few of his favorite tunes.

JM and Gordon have been playing a lot in the Cape May Area - JM (Mike to his friends) can be heard on a regular basis this Summer at the Pilot House on Tuesday nights, sitting in at the fabulous Barry Tischler-hosted Open Mic on Fridays, hosting Open Mics occasionally at the Mad Batter and appearing with the Song Slingers a couple of times at The Batter this Summer.

Gordon has been making pretty regular appearances at Higher Grounds Coffee House and Hawk Haven Vineyard in Cape May and traveling up to Espressit Coffee House in Haddon Township, NJ for Sunday morning gigs. Gordon also drops in occasionally at the Pilot House Open Mic Night (PHOMN) and pretty much leaves everyone stupefied with his masterful performances.

Me, I've been trying to spend my Sunday mornings doing my favorite kind of research - sitting up in bed with a fine cup of coffee reading my favorite music blogs like Music Fog, the LA Times' Pop and Hiss and the Guardian UK music blog.

Been promising friends that the SixDegrees.FM website would be up soon - still promising. Stay tuned.