By Alec Clayton
Award winning singer-songwriter Steve Schalchlin (pronounced SHACK-lin) takes the stage at Traditions Fair Trade on Saturday, January 25 for two concerts. Alongside Schalchlin will be the popular local all-woman group The Righteous Mothers in a benefit concert for PFLAG-Olympia and Pizza Klatch.
Schalchlin first performed with The Righteous Mothers in January 2012 at Traditions in two sold-out shows. The upcoming performance will be a repeat of that successful ventures. Attendees can expect to hear new songs from Schalchlin’s “Tales from the Bonus Round.”
“The Righteous Mothers are hilarious and inspiring as writers, performers and musicians. When we sing together, it’s always an electrifying adventure,” Schalchlin said.
“When we played with Steve two years ago, it was both extremely fun and transcendent. We simply can’t wait to collaborate with him once again,” said Righteous Mothers band member, Lisa Brodoff.
Almost twenty years ago Schalchlin was dying of AIDS. He is well-known for creating one of the first blogs to chronicle his last days on earth. When he responded to an experimental treatment, Schalchlin began writing songs about his experience. He later said writing those songs was the only thing that kept him alive.
“As we approached May of 1997, I was failing, eventually hooked up to feeding tubes. I had weeks left to live, if that. And I was telling the whole story online, which nobody had ever really done before because the Internet was so new, nobody had really done anything on it yet except make flashing buttons and other zowie graphics,” said Schalchlin in reference to his writing.
“Because I was too sick at the time to do much else, the diary gave me a chance to just tell everything what was going on with me. To make me feel not so alone. But still, I was dying. I didn’t say that out loud, but that’s what was happening,” he said through his blog.
“And then, by chance — because my name was picked in a lottery for a new medication — I did not die and The Death Watch became The Bonus Round — that little extra time you get at the end of a show to go for broke and win all the prizes,” he continued. “A year later, packed with those original songs I wrote just to keep me alive, The Last Session was playing Off-Broadway to glorious reviews.”
The Last Session grew out of those songs combined with the book by his life partner, actor and playwright Jim Brochu. Schalchlin said, at the time, that his fervent hope was simply to live long enough to see his musical performed. He hoped for, at best, a staged reading. What he got was a full Off-Broadway musical with fanatic fans who followed the show to Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas and eventually to London.
The Last Session was followed by The Big Voice: God or Merman, another hit play by Schalchlin and Brochu. The semi-autobiographic musical was about a gay couple. Both plays have been performed Off-Broadway and all over the United States, and have won major theatrical awards including GLAAD Media Awards, LA Drama Critics Circle, PFLAG LA Oscar Wilde Award and the LA Ovation Award. The Last Session was nominated for a New York Drama League award. There was a recent successful revival in London starring Darren Day.
Schalchlin’s song cycle for peace, New World Waking premiered at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, performed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. It has since been performed in major performance halls and intimate cabaret theaters from Miami to Olympia, where Schalchlin performed with students from South Puget Sound Community College in August 2011.
New York Music critic Stephen Hanks recently wrote of Schalchlin’s cabaret performance: “It’s rare to encounter an entire cabaret offering that is so personal, sensitive, and emotionally compelling on a number of levels as to leave you feeling satisfyingly drained by the end of it. When a show can do that without a hint of sadness, self-indulgence, or sickeningly sweet sentimentality, what you’ve experienced is nothing short of a dramatic triumph. That’s pretty much what singer/songwriter Steve Schalchlin accomplished on October 27 with his new show at the Metropolitan Room.”
His lyrics are funny, sad and inspirational. His songs tell stories about living with AIDS, about love and loss, about living in the closet and coming out, about war and peace. His musical style combines gospel, rock, folk and the tradition of show tunes, all delivered with passion and sincerity.
It’s a style that fits beautifully with The Righteous Mothers, four women from Olympia and Seattle who are known for powerful, tender and outrageously funny songs that blend quirky folk tunes with rock, gospel and other genres. Among their popular hits are “Old Fat Naked Women for Peace,” “Lesbian Honeymoon Holiday” and “60,000 Naked Hoosiers.”
The subjects of Righteous Mothers songs run the gamut from Supreme Court decisions to labor pains to how we really need lawyers after all. They play multiple instruments and sing intricate harmonies developed over 26 years performing together. The Seattle Weekly described them as a combination of The Roches, Bette Midler and The Weavers.
The Righteous Mothers include Clare Meeker, who plays the piano, sings, composes, and arranges tunes, Marla Beth Elliot, who plays percussion and is one of the group’s principal songwriters, Wendy Crocker, acoustic guitar and keyboard, and Lisa Brodoff , electric bass and vocals. Meeker and Crocker both live in Seattle. Elliot teaches theatre and interdisciplinary studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, and Brodoff lives in Lacey and commutes to Seattle where she is a clinical law professor at Seattle University School of Law.
As an added treat, the newly formed Olympia Gay Men’s Choir will join Schalchlin and The Righteous Mothers for a few songs.
All proceeds from the show will benefit PFLAG-Olympia and Pizza Klatch.
PFLAG provides support, education and advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning persons and their family, friends and allies. PFLAG-Olympia meets every second Sunday from 2-4:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 1224 Legion Way SE, at Boundary Street, Olympia. It is handicap-accessible.
Pizza Klatch provides lunchtime support for LGBTQ students at area schools. There are two trained facilitators for each group, offering a convenient and safe forum for discussion and education. There are 15 Pizza Klatch groups in eight Thurston County high schools.
Find Schalchlin and The Righteous Mothers on January 25 for two concerts – 5:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at Traditions Fair Trade. Traditions is located at 300 5th Avenue in downtown Olympia.
Tickets are a suggested donation of $30 to $60. Those who can afford to donate more are asked to donate the price of a ticket for someone who can’t afford it. Send donations of PFLAG-Olympia, P.O. Box 12732, Olympia, WA 98508-2732. To reserve tickets call 360-705-2819.
