Atlanta mayoral candidate and City Council President Ceasar Mitchell supports the movement to install permanent rainbow crosswalks at 10th and Piedmont in...
Best Musician
Amber Taylor (The Sexual Side Effects)
It’s been a huge year for Amber Taylor (www.thesexualsideeffects.com) and the Sexual Side Effects – where she is the lead singer and guitarist — and her work has not gone unnoticed. Besides numerous local gigs, Amber and company debuted the video of their first single, “All She’ll Ever Hurt.” Dylan Michael placed second and Amy Andrews of The Lovely Drifters was in third.
Lesbian folksinger Catie Curtis cruises her “Stretch Limousine on Fire” into Atlanta in May to treat fans to two nights of her signature acoustic guitar and introspective, often inspiring lyrics.
“Stretch Limousine,” the rollicking title song from Curtis’ 11th studio album, released in August, uses dark humor to echo the theme that money doesn’t buy happiness, and to relish a little in the fact that “Trouble comes to everyone no matter how much you can buy.”
The new album features a style that is a bit more raw than previous efforts, but will still be familiar to longtime fans. Curtis will perform songs from the new CD and earlier albums May 8 at Eddie’s Attic, the iconic Decatur acoustic venue, then follow with a show the next night at Duluth’s Red Clay Theatre, the new venue managed by Eddie’s founder Eddie Owen.
Jennifer Knapp, who won a Dove Award for Christian music before coming out as a lesbian in 2010, performs her folk-rock tunes Thursday at The Village church in Hapeville, Ga.
Knapp came out publicly before the 2010 release of "Letting Go," her first album in nine years, which had included a seven-year hiatus in Australia.
"I was just living my life in Australia considering who I was before God. It’s been helpful for me to take that time to become confident in who I am," Knapp told GA Voice in 2010.
"One of the biggest problems for (the fundamentalist Christian community) is that I’m unapologetic," Knapp said. "I think that they would be fine if I just admitted that I had homosexual feelings as opposed to the fact that I’m saying 'Yes, I’m a homosexual and I still have my faith.'… I don’t and won’t justify myself or my faith."
Music fans looking to escape Georgia’s cold snap can head south to the Florida Panhandle, where the 30A Songwriters Festival promises to heat up the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend with a diverse slate of performers that includes several popular lesbian musicians.
The three-day weekend of “hooks, lines and singers” is set for Jan. 13-15. It features more than 125 artists in more than 250 performances at 20 venues along a 15-mile stretch of Highway 30A in Rosemary Beach, Seaside, Alys Beach, Santa Rosa Beach and Grayton Beach.
“What sets the 30A Songwriters Festival apart from others in the country is, one: we create listening rooms in truly unique beach resort venues and two: we book musically diverse artists,” says Russell Carter, event chair and president of Russell Carter Artist Management, whose clients include Indigo Girls.