LATEST NEWS
09/23/2023
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Recording at EastSide Sound NYC last week with a 12-musician global ensemble—a recording of my song, "One Home," for a forthcoming music video and tv series. The instrumentalists included slide and acoustic guitars, sitar, kora, erhu, kenacho flute, percussion, bass, accordion, cello, trumpet, with lead vocals by Carmen Borla and Feifei Yang, and producer/sound engineer Marc Urselli at the controls. The song was written for the WeSpeakNYC podcast series to be broadcast on WNYC cable tv next month and was produced for the Mayor's Office of immigrant Affairs and the Mayor's Office of Climate Justice. I composed the music for the series with assistance from Erdem Helvacioglu—and the script and song lyrics are by our friend producer David Hellman.
09/18/2023
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New profile of Gary just published by AM New York and The Villager
09/17/2023
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From Gary: With our friend Mourad Zowie, who was our Angel rescuing us in Nantes and getting us on board and on our way to the enchanted isle off the southwest coast of France we just spent a marvelous week at. Honestly we would never have made the connection in Nantes if he hadn't come up to me out of the blue outside the train station and say "Gary Lucas—GRACE!!"—and then start playing the intro on air guitar.
Photo by Caroline Sinclair
Photo by Caroline Sinclair
09/14/2023
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Gary's heading into the studio with Terry Derkach on Tuesday to cut a new version of Jenny Morris's 80's Aussie hit "She Has to Be Loved" for an Anti-Violence Against Women charity campaign—a bevy of young Australian female vocalists will be over-dubbed Down Under.
Gary: "For a very good cause! Thank you Florencia Esseling and Joe Dadic! I really love Jenny Morris's original version."
Gary: "For a very good cause! Thank you Florencia Esseling and Joe Dadic! I really love Jenny Morris's original version."
09/14/2023
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From the Hamlet Hub: ROCKER GARY LUCAS TO HIT WESTPORT LIBRARY STORYFEST OCT. 22ND
09/06/2023
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By special request of the Hotel Des Voyageurs dans Ile d'Yeu Bretagne, Gary is playing a solo acoustic concert this Fri. Sept. 8th at 6pm on the patio of l'hotel—with special guest vocalists Laure-Lucile Simon and (maybe) Catherine Despont. Free and open to the public!
08/28/2023
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Just confirmed: Gary is performing Nov. 25th at MOSAE ZAPPA in Heerlen NL—both solo and sitting in with the band Wrong Object
08/28/2023
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John Schaefer rebroadcast a live session taped by Gary at home during the pandemic on his New Sounds program on WNYC FM on Saturday night 8/26/23—listen here
08/22/2023
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Gary recently met Jen Long, founder of TheWhaleGuitar.com project (devoted to cleaning up the air, water and environment on a global level) at legendary Carmine Street Guitars in the West Village.
He gladly signed their famous whale guitar which bears many famous guitarists's signatures, and filmed a clip playing "Grace" on the whale guitar.
Please check out the site and donate for a very good cause!
Jen just wrote Gary about her new bandana promotion, check it out here!
He gladly signed their famous whale guitar which bears many famous guitarists's signatures, and filmed a clip playing "Grace" on the whale guitar.
Please check out the site and donate for a very good cause!
Jen just wrote Gary about her new bandana promotion, check it out here!
08/22/2023
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Just confirmed: Tues. Dec. 12th
GARY LUCAS PLAYS "THE GOLEM"
SAN FRANCISCO JCC
as part of their "Jewish Magic" series
photo by Arjen Veldt
More details tba
GARY LUCAS PLAYS "THE GOLEM"
SAN FRANCISCO JCC
as part of their "Jewish Magic" series
photo by Arjen Veldt
More details tba
08/19/2023
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SYD BARRETT!
Check out the new documentary about Pink Floyd's main-man directed by Roddy Bogawa and the late Storm Thorgerson (one half of Hipgnosis).I don't think they could have done a better job frankly. My review of this important doc is now up at Rock's Backpages
Photo by Mick Rock taken at the Show Gallery in Staten Island
Check out the new documentary about Pink Floyd's main-man directed by Roddy Bogawa and the late Storm Thorgerson (one half of Hipgnosis).I don't think they could have done a better job frankly. My review of this important doc is now up at Rock's Backpages
Photo by Mick Rock taken at the Show Gallery in Staten Island
08/10/2023
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Review of "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" film
08/09/2023
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New clip Jeff Buckley — The Song Unsung (feat. Gary Lucas) up now on YouTube—Filmed in Sydney Australia Spring 2023 while Gary was on tour there
07/28/2023
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MY STONES STORY (on the occasion of Sir Mick’s 80th birthday)
07/15/2023
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The new Syd Barrett doc "Have You Got It Yet?" now playing at the Quad Cinema here in NYC is quite good but very sad if not downright tragic and brought tears to my eyes (and I do not cry very easily). Syd's music, both with Pink Floyd and his own solo albums, and his enormously expressive guitar-playing had a profound effect on me, and I never much liked Pink Floyd after he cracked up and left. Some years ago I got a letter from a UK recording engineer (also named Gary Lucas, funnily enough) who'd recorded one of the 6 or so ill-fated Syd Barrett's Stars gigs in Cambridge in 1972. Many years had passed since and EMI, looking for more Syd material to release, contacted Lucas as they heard he'd recorded one of those Cambridge shows, which featured Twink (John Alder) from The Pretty Things and Pink Fairies on drums. They sent a limo to Lucas's home in Cambridge to pick him up with his tape, which he hadn't listened to since recording the gig. They went into a boardroom at EMI, and put on the tape—and after sitting through what was described to me as an extremely shambolic and discordant gig, the head of EMI A&R announced to the room: "THIS TAPE CAN NEVER COME OUT. IT WILL ONLY SERVE TO TARNISH THE LEGACY OF A LEGEND". Anyway, in 1986 or so Rolo McGinty of the Woodentops and I went into Elephant Studios in the Docklands part of East London and recorded this tribute to Syd with ace engineer Harold Burgon. For best audio fidelity listen to our version on my SoundCloud page.
Photo copyright Anton Corbijn
Photo copyright Anton Corbijn
07/11/2023
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Three clips from Gary's new concert program AN EVENING WITH GARY LUCAS, which premiered 7/7/23 at the Royal Theater in Heerlen NL:
The packed audience in the historic 1938 theater was seriously entertained by a performance of Gary's 65 minute live solo guitar score accompanying Orson Welles's 1938 rare silent surrealist comedy 'TOO MUCH JOHNSON'.
After a 20 minute intermission, Gary returned with his one-man CAPTAIN BEEFHEART TRIBUTE, which saw the guitarist perform in front of slides of Don Van Vliet's beautiful art, regaling the audience with tales of the legendary musician and performances of his quirky, knuckle-busting composition "Evening Bell", a medley of Beefheart's "Click Clack" and "Ice Cream for Crow", and much more.
And a splendid time was had by all!
Photo of Gary Lucas copyright Anton Corbijn from his book STAR TRAK (Schirmer-Mosel)
The packed audience in the historic 1938 theater was seriously entertained by a performance of Gary's 65 minute live solo guitar score accompanying Orson Welles's 1938 rare silent surrealist comedy 'TOO MUCH JOHNSON'.
After a 20 minute intermission, Gary returned with his one-man CAPTAIN BEEFHEART TRIBUTE, which saw the guitarist perform in front of slides of Don Van Vliet's beautiful art, regaling the audience with tales of the legendary musician and performances of his quirky, knuckle-busting composition "Evening Bell", a medley of Beefheart's "Click Clack" and "Ice Cream for Crow", and much more.
And a splendid time was had by all!
Photo of Gary Lucas copyright Anton Corbijn from his book STAR TRAK (Schirmer-Mosel)
07/04/2023
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English translation of a new interview with Gary in Heerlen My City
Text: Marco Smeets
Photo: Phil Mango
Text: Marco Smeets
Photo: Phil Mango
06/24/2023
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Gary Lucas and Alison Clancy present "Written on the Body: A Series of Short Films about the Body by 3 Radical Woman Filmmakers" at Roulette in Brooklyn on Sunday Oct. 15th, more info here
06/20/2023
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Check out this fantastic artwork from Scottish cartoonist Nulsh for Gary's Birthday!!
06/18/2023
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Nice review in the Irish Examiner for Gary's FROM BEEFHEART TO BUCKLEY AND BEYOND solo show with his special guest Feifei Yang at City Winery NYC 5/28/23
06/01/2023
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Just confirmed: FRI. JULY 7th Gary is accompanying ORSON WELLES'S legendary 1938 silent farce TOO MUCH JOHNSON with his live solo score followed by his solo tribute to CAPTAIN BEEFHEART at the ROYAL THEATER in HEERLEN NETHERLANDS
06/01/2023
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Just confirmed: DOUBLE DARE (Gary Lucas guitar and vocals and Peter Willems acoustic bass and vocals) play the BimHuis, the Netherlands' premiere jazz club on Thurs. Dec. 7th
05/31/2023
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Watch the clip here!
05/29/2023
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JEFF BUCKLEY—26 YEARS GONE TODAY
See this article from Classic Rock today
See this article from Classic Rock today
05/20/2023
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Just confirmed @ Roulette Brooklyn Sun. Oct 15th:
Gary Lucas and Chuck Smith present
"WRITTEN ON THE BODY: A SERIES OF SHORT FILMS ABOUT THE BODY BY 3 RADICAL WOMAN FILMMAKERS"
w / original solo guitar soundtracks by Gary Lucas
and simultaneous solo dances onstage by Alison Clancy,
principal dancer of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet corps
The films:
Shirley Clarke A Moment in Love (1957)
Maya Deren The Very Eye of Night (1958)
Barbara Rubin Christmas on Earth (1963)—remix by Chuck Smith
Gary Lucas and Chuck Smith present
"WRITTEN ON THE BODY: A SERIES OF SHORT FILMS ABOUT THE BODY BY 3 RADICAL WOMAN FILMMAKERS"
w / original solo guitar soundtracks by Gary Lucas
and simultaneous solo dances onstage by Alison Clancy,
principal dancer of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet corps
The films:
Shirley Clarke A Moment in Love (1957)
Maya Deren The Very Eye of Night (1958)
Barbara Rubin Christmas on Earth (1963)—remix by Chuck Smith
05/18/2023
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Just in from from a fan on Twitter!
05/14/2023
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Nice review of Gary's live solo guitar performance accompanying Orson Welles's rare silent farce TOO MUCH JOHNSON at the James River Film Festival in Richmond Virginia recently:
"Attention lovers of cinema, film programmers, and kids of all ages! Raving maniac of the cinema and musical magician Gary Lucas has done it again. His cinemaniacally-improvised score for Orson Welles's TOO MUCH JOHNSON (1938) performs the ultimate sleight-of-hand, fooling us into believing that he and we are Mercury players screening the dailies for our upcoming multimedia production. Instead of being abandoned for 'Citizen Kane' and lost for years, this unique presentation of 'Too Much Johnson' slapsticks us into an alternate reality, a present-day promised land of creative possibilities."
—James Parrish, co-founder and former vice president of the James River Film Society
"Attention lovers of cinema, film programmers, and kids of all ages! Raving maniac of the cinema and musical magician Gary Lucas has done it again. His cinemaniacally-improvised score for Orson Welles's TOO MUCH JOHNSON (1938) performs the ultimate sleight-of-hand, fooling us into believing that he and we are Mercury players screening the dailies for our upcoming multimedia production. Instead of being abandoned for 'Citizen Kane' and lost for years, this unique presentation of 'Too Much Johnson' slapsticks us into an alternate reality, a present-day promised land of creative possibilities."
—James Parrish, co-founder and former vice president of the James River Film Society
05/09/2023
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"Renowned guitarist/composer Gary Lucas headlined the recent 29th James River Film Festival in Richmond VA on April 22, 2023 at the historic Byrd Theatre. Making a record fifth appearance, Lucas wowed a packed auditorium with his original score for Orson (Citizen Kane) Welles' lost-found film curio, 'Too Much Johnson', starring American actor Joseph Cotten, a wacky slapsticky homage to the silent film comedy of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and the experimentation of the avant-garde. The next day Mr. Lucas led a delegation of fans to Joseph Cotten's grave in nearby Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, VA."
—James River Film Festival major domo Mike Jones
—James River Film Festival major domo Mike Jones
05/02/2023
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WE'RE NUMBER ONE!
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's "Trout Mask Replica" selected as the #1 Weirdest Album Ever in the latest issue of MOJO (UK)
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's "Trout Mask Replica" selected as the #1 Weirdest Album Ever in the latest issue of MOJO (UK)
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