Bobby Gosh Live

Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff

"Bobby Gosh Live," featuring a live performance, Sept. 27, 2003 at Randolph's Chandler Music Hall, by Brookfield singer-songwriter Bobby Gosh, with lyricist-composer Carol Hall and fiddler Harold Luce, has been released by the Bygosh Music Corporation in DVD (BGM 33361) and CD (33371-2).

Bobby Gosh is a professional songwriter - professional because he has written everything from jingles for well-known television commercials to world-hit songs.

Gosh is also a professional entertainer - he was pianist and conductor for Paul Anka, has opened for Barbra Streisand and Billy Joel, and performed on Johnny Carson's and David Frost's national television shows.

Gosh has lived in Brookfield for more than 30 years. Last year, he performed a concert at Randolph's Chandler Music Hall to benefit the Brookfield Old Town Hall restoration project, joined by Chelsea fiddler Harold Luce and Carol Hall, lyricist-composer of "The Best Little Whore House in Texas." The Sept. 27, 2003, concert was released on DVD and CD this summer by Gosh's Bygosh Music Corporation.

"Bobby Gosh Live" is more than the chronicle of an entertaining evening, it is a showcase of the music and the character of a man who has touched many Americans and has chosen Vermont as his home. The evening also sheds new light on Luce, a native celebrity, as well as Hall, a Broadway composer.

The evening revealed Gosh as a musician of broad sensibilities. On the one hand, there is plenty of the expected, music that is skillfully written, always attractive and appropriate, easy to respond to. On the other hand, there is nearly always a subtle lick or nuance that gives it a unique flair. And there is music that is genuinely inspired. But, regardless, there isn't a moment that isn't heartfelt by this genuinely sentimental artist.

The evening included what is likely Gosh's biggest hit, the Dr. Hook rock classic, "A Little Bit More." It was delivered touchingly by Gosh. Accompanying himself ably on Chandler's Steinway concert grand piano, Gosh sang with a raspy, though mellow baritone that delivered his heart to an appreciative audience.

Perhaps more recognizable, and certainly funnier, was a short medley of a few of the more than 200 national television and radio commercials Gosh has composed, produced or sung. Delivered with panache, and a show of financial gratitude, were theme songs for Burger King, Pepsi-Cola, Post Honeycomb cereal, and the F.A.O. Schwarz classic, "Welcome to Our World of Toys."

Delivered with a bit more seriousness - and heart - was "A Song for Erik," Gosh's impassioned setting of the Rudyard Kipling poem "If." The song was written for Gosh's son, and he dedicated this 2003 performance to his then-9-month-old grandson.

Luce, a local legend, provided the plaintive fiddle obbligato for Gosh's tender paean to Vermont, "More Cows than People." And, in the major feat of the evening, Luce fiddled and sang the square-dance classic "Wabash Cannon Ball" - while accompanying himself on piano with his feet! Luce has devised a mechanical device allowing him to press piano chords with levers from foot pedals. It's no wonder he's a legend!

Luce was part of another paean to Vermont. In Gosh's "Two for a Dollar," Luce plays and Gosh sings and plays as they accompany a very short but charming film depicting a country auction by Hall's husband, Leonard Majzlin.

Perhaps the tenderest moment of the evening was achieved through the miracle of electronics. Gosh was joined by popular gospel singer Tammy Fletcher and a synthesized band in "Touch Me Softly." Here, Gosh has taken Johann Pachelbel's (1653-1706) famous Canon, arranged it, and added his own words, resulting in a tasty and tender love song. It first appeared in Gosh's 2001 album, "Love Stories." At the time of the Chandler performance, Fletcher was in the Caribbean getting married, so Gosh sang to tracks from the album - and it seemed to work.

Gosh operates a recording studio attached to his home in Brookfield, where he continues to create music - both commercial and personal. And he continues to involve himself in his chosen community.

Appropriately, Gosh closed the evening with a protest song he had written in a different era, "The Garden of Earthly Delights," which seemed as if it were written for today.

Illustration: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus

On Sept. 27, 2003, Brookfield entertainer Bobby Gosh performed a concert at Randolph's Chandler Music Hall to benefit the Brookfield Old Town Hall restoration project. That concert is now available on DVD and CD.

Copyright, The Times Argus