ONES TO WATCH 2015: GAYLE SKIDMORE
ONES TO WATCH 2015: GAYLE SKIDMORE
By Lena Leppard
A born songwriter, Skidmore’s natural ability and innate passion for music made her music career unavoidable.
Gayle Skidmore apparently finds endless inspiration in the whirlwind of life. She has -lucky lady- never experienced writer’s block, and she is always experimenting with new formats.
When she isn’t busy learning a new instrument, singing, painting, or writing lyrics and melodies, she composes parts for her cellist and violinist.
She enjoys baking cookies and making origami for her fans. We want cookies!!
Sleeping Bear won “Best Pop Album” in the 2014 San Diego Music Awards and she previously won the “Best Singer-Songwriter” award in the 2013.
Recently, her song "Paper Box" was featured on HBO's new show "Looking."
Classically trained on the piano from the age of four, Skidmore started writing songs at age eight and, to date, has written more than two thousand songs. She also plays over twenty instruments including guitar, piano, the mountain dulcimer, banjo, folk harp, and balalaika. Her attention to detail and involvement in every step of the creative process, from producing her records to doing the artwork for her albums, show that she is completely dedicated to her craft.
In August 2013, Skidmore released her second full-length album and coloring book, Sleeping Bear, on Raincoat Records. This followed her first 7” vinyl release, “Zombie Heart,” put out by her sponsor, Ninkasi Brewing Co. In 2014 her cover of “Lola” by The Kinks, a collaboration with Brandon O’Connell (of Singing Serpent), was placed on a national commercial.
Skidmore’s love of whimsy, poetry, and magic are evidenced by the sets she creates for her stages, which have included a curtain of origami cranes and a giant octopus holding a teacup. She has opened for the likes of Jason Mraz, Lisa Loeb, Sean and Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek), Sam Phillips, Grant-Lee Phillips, Coeur d’Pirate, and many others. She has recorded with such artists as The Softlightes, Bushwalla, Jason Mraz, and Tyrone Wells, and branched out into several genres including electronic swing, indie rock, and classical music.
Germany’s most prominent newspaper, the Seuddeutsche Zeitung, named her “Die Schutzpatronin der Gartenzwerge,” the Patron Saint of Garden Dwarves, in an interview promoting her tour of Europe, which Skidmore found delightful.
She has also toured nationwide in the US, and in the UK, Asia, and Europe, and was a Sunset Sessions artist in 2012.
