Ginger Doss
Austin, Texas, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
I first saw these talented young women in 2007 at an outdoor concert in Kerrville when Bekah Kelso, together with Ginger Doss, opened for Ray Wylie Hubbard and Mark Beno. Kelso did a well crafted and powerfully performed spoken word piece called Girl Around the Way.
I was immediately hooked. After they were through with their set, I wasn’t sure they shouldn’t have been headlining the event. But in the music world dues must be paid and they were actually just starting out. Together that is.
Come to find out, Bekah and Ginger had been putting long hours, days, months, and years into their craft. Ginger had been playing with the band Dreamtrybe and was seriously thinking of launching a solo career. Bekah had been playing the solo scene for a while and was vigorously working to get herself going in an upwardly mobile direction. The two met and found they were on the same plane, not only career-wise, but on a spiritual level as well. It seemed they were both on a quest and it showed up with a vengeance in their performances, both live and in the studio.
The two are pretty well known, and not just in Texas either. They have received rave reviews in Austin, Atlanta, and Oklahoma City, as well as other places.
A recent post on www.AustinChronicle.com said, “Bekah is a great songwriter and guitarist, and absolutely beautiful, but the reason you will come back again is to hear her sing."
"I was star struck at their performance!" said Madalyn Sklar, Founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, after a recent live show.
Martee Crosson of Amazon.com said of Ginger Doss, "Soul Stirring" may be a well-worn phrase, but it is all I can think of when it comes to [Ginger's] CD. The title song, "Come Down" is fabulous! This CD is well produced, musically rich, lyrically beautiful - and the drums will rule your heartbeat! By far, my absolute favorite CD..."
Earlier this year GBmojo performed at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta, Georgia, in their nationally renowned Open Mic Competition. The two put their GBmojo on in front of a packed house and won! This particular competition is really huge. First of all there is about a two month waiting list for the honor to perform, so getting in was feat all it’s own. However, the key to this entire experience is the fact that winning this competition has proven to be a career launcher.
Even though there hasn’t been an “official” GBmojo release to date, that isn’t entirely true either. In a recent conversation I had with Bekah she stated, “We explain our collaboration by calling ourselves ‘a duo of solo artists’. People seem to get that and it makes them laugh occasionally too.”
She went on to say, “Both of our current releases are solo albums. We did it that way because it was to be a debut release for each of us. We both had our own ideas about how we wanted our first albums to be, and it just made the most sense to do it that way. But as you may have guessed, she sings and plays all over mine and I do the same on hers. There will be a GBmojo release for sure. Ginger still has a few more things she wants to do before we get to that though.”
You can tell the two are very proud of what they have done and are doing. Bekah said, “GBmojo is really special to the both of us and we are very proud of what we’re doing.”
I saw on their website (www.GBmojo.com) that they had been traveling and playing all over the country. They had even done a few house concerts, which seem to be all the rage of late. I asked if there were any plans in the near future of going on the road. She replied, “We are home in Central Texas until the end of September. Then we leave for a ten week tour of the Midwest and Gulf Coast.
The duo just released two new records of solo material, Bekah Kelso’s Mud Blossom and Ginger Doss’ This Cocoon. You can obtain both records by going to their website where they also have some pretty far out looking T-shirts you may want to add to your T-shirt collection.
This has been an enormously entertaining article to write. It’s always fun to meet, and get to know young up and coming artists here in Texas. There is definitely something very special going on here and I can’t wait to see what these two very talented young ladies have in store for us in the future.
I’ll have my ear to the ground as always, listening for the music.
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rames@texasstartribune.com - Texas Star Tribune - Article by "Rebel" Rod Ames, Entertainment Editor
"I was star struck at their performance" - Madalyn Sklar, founder of GoGirlsMusic.com, commenting after a recent performance in Houston TX - Madalyn Sklar - founder of GoGirlsMusic.com
The following story was the featured cover on MI2N.com for the date 3/39/09:
Austin Singer Songwriters Are All Up In Each Other's Music Business!
In a time when the world is buzzing with financial woes, Austin singer/songwriters Ginger Doss and Bekah Kelso are finding creative ways to share the costs and benefits of their indie music careers. From web hosting to promotion, from merchandising to marketing, from booking tours to live performance and now a double CD release campaign, these two are complimenting each other’s efforts on and off stage. They’re working non-stop in a song-swapping collaboration called GBmojo. And to a growing many people, this collaboration sounds very sweet.
“It was a lucky thing we found each other when we did” says Doss, who two years ago was starting her solo career after playing exclusively in bands. “In my different band projects, there were more members which meant more people to help when it came to all the music business and promotion. When you’re going solo for the first time, you’re on your own and there’s so much to do – it takes a lot of drive and time, and money too. That’s when I met Bekah.” The two found in each other a rare musical chemistry in which both artists added lush harmonies and instrumentation to the other’s music. They also discovered they were like- minded peers when it came to creative business innovations and goals involving their music careers. Though they wanted to cultivate this connection, Doss and Kelso wanted to focus on their solo careers. It was then they began working with the idea that they could compliment each other’s music on stage and combine business efforts off stage. Kelso!
explains, “We realized how much we could help each other. We are both trying to get so many balls rolling and by joining our efforts, both our careers benefit doubly. It doesn’t hurt that we absolutely love what we’re doing together and the music we’re making. And our fans really like it too.”
The formula is definitely working. GBmojo has spent the last 2 years working in this “co-op” format gaining momentum and an ever-widening fan base. Listeners love how Doss, with her smoky alto voice and Tori Amos piano style; and Kelso, with her jazzy folk approach and powerful sultry tone, take turns leading the show while the other seamlessly floats to a supporting role. Both artists are now poised to release their respective new albums - Bekah Kelso's "Mud Blossom" and Ginger Doss' "This Cocoon". And just like their live shows, both new records successfully showcase the individual artist’s style as well as delivering that signature harmony sound that has worked so well for them. The two-for-one style, Double CD Release takes place March 27th, 2009 at Austin's legendary underground club Ego's, with Doss music leading the show at 7pm and Kelso taking the reigns at 8:30. More info and special preview clips of the new music available at www.gbmojo.com.
- Mi2N.com
Excerpts from Citypages Magazine, June 2005:
'This Texas girl with a round about way lives her life directed by moments and spirit. She is not the formal education type or a brilliant young novice. What she is, is beautiful, passionate, and one of the most real people I have had the pleasure of meeting. Talking with her conjured the question in me, how can one body hold so much soul? Then of course the answer followed, her music is part of her that is too much to keep inside. It is a soul set free if you will. Her indirect path that has shaped her into a young woman who is not afraid of the road less traveled.'
'As much as talking with her moved my spirit, hearing her music moved my soul. I suppose now I understand better how music can be defined as soul. Her voice is full and strong, full of power and life.' - City Pages Magazine June 05
"... I am still completely overwhelmed by their superior performance. I fell in love, not with them but their ability to connect with the audience...Ginger and Bekah's merging voices create harmony, passion, tears... With much appreciation, I would recommend GBMOJO enthusiastically! "
- Marc Caballero, Owner Center for Healing Arts - Center for Healing Arts
02/26/09 @ Emo's
ATX Elle Acoustique
This show supports Equality Texas, an organization addressing issues facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the Lone Star State. It also highlights more than a dozen Southern female singer-songwriters, including Kristy Lee, Amanda Lepre, Ginger Doss, Britni Hoover, and One-Eyed Doll’s Kimberly Freeman. $15 at the door, but $25 gets you VIP status.
MARGARET MOSER - Austin Chronicle
GBmojo wins Eddies Attic Famous Open Mic Competition February 2nd 2009 and will be back for the finalist shout out on June 6th.
Atlanta radio station WABE 90.1 features GBmojo in their story on Eddie's Attic "Open Mic, Big Dreams"
Hear the full story by cutting and pasting the web address below.
http://publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1477438&sid=4
- WABE Radio Atlanta
2010 - GBmojo places in TOP 10 INDIE BANDS in AUSTIN
2010 - Ginger Doss places in TOP 10 KEYBOARDS in AUSTIN
Years past:
In the Best Keyboardist category, Ginger Places 2nd, (just under Marcia Ball.)
In the Best "None of the Above" band category, Ginger's project Dreamtrybe places 2nd. - Austin Chronicle
"Soul Stirring" may be a well-worn phrase, but it is all I can think of when it comes to this CD. The title song, "Come Down" is fabulous! ... this CD is well produced, musically rich, lyrically beautiful - and the drums will rule your heartbeat! By far, my absolute favorite CD. ...Ginger - give us more"
By Martee Crosson - Amazon.com
Featured as the Editor's Pick for music in the weekly edition of "Hey, Do This", a regular feature in Oklahoma's independent newspaper
"Join singer/songwriters Ginger Doss and Bekah Kelso as Austin roots-folk duo GBmojo returns to Oklahoma City for a 7 p.m. show tonight at Sauced, 2912 Paseo. The chanteuses met while gigging around South Texas in 2002 and joined together in 2007, intertwining Doss' energetic, piano-led rock and Kelso's rootsy guitar work and breathy vocals..." - Oklahoma Gazette
Discography
Hand & Hammer (GBmojo/Ginger Doss 2010)
This Cocoon (Ginger Doss 2009)
Photos
Bio
At six years old I sat down at my first piano lesson. My teacher asked, "Do you know which key is at the middle of the piano?" I looked down and touched middle C. He looked surprised. "That's right!" he said. I still don't know how I knew that - but I'm pretty sure this isn't the first lifetime I've played the piano.
I can remember so clearly a time when my arms were too small to stretch out and touch both ends of the keyboard at the same time. I tried hard. Now I can't remember a time when the piano wasn't central to my life. I started writing music from the moment I could get my fingers to work well enough to play something, anything - little songs that would drive my family crazy as I played them over and over. I studied classical piano from the age of 6 to 16. Then I entered the High School or Performing Arts in Houston, studied jazz and recieved a degree in instrumental music. I began playing in bands in high school and played in a lots of different projects from rock to jazz and in between, all of them original music collaborations.
Deeply spiritual and introverted, I have always used my song writing as a vehicle to express the parts of my experience that are difficult to put into spoken words. In other words why talk when you can sing? And since I started writing songs around the same time I was learning words, my brain quickly discovered in this musical medium a beautiful and emotional outlet to express what was scary to talk about, what I did not feel safe to talk about, in melodic and cryptic ways. The songwriting process never stops surprising me, teaching me and challenging me. I am certain my soul is drawn out through the power and magnetism of the sound as I write. A channel unique to my physical form and to that of the infinite is nurtured and strengthened through my process. When I sit down to write my hands just go - just go on the keys, moving, weaving, guiding, rhythmic and emotional. Words come, like sounds that mean nothing at first, and then open into the deepest part of what my being must express. Songs expand their meaning over and over again and continue to teach me. Its a little weird how revealing and prophetic they can be years down the road. Sometimes I wish they wouldn't be such LOUD teachers to me, like pulling a rune, like seeing the signs, like knowing when you know from the heart with nothing else to go on. But I love it so completely... it is not within my ability to stop.
I've always been a part of a band but now I am discovering and expanding on what I can do as a solo artist. I spend a lot of time working with my music in my studio. It's a great way to explore and expand every aspect of my writing. A canvas of digital colors - mirroring back to me the layers of sound with lights. It hones my vision and allows me to surrender to the instinct that has guided me since I was a child with blind obedience - then save it to hard disk. Thank you lawd.
I am very proud to be an indie musician and songwriter... I love the creative control of producing my own music. My current plan of releasing three self produced and engineered albums by 2012 is almost realized. The first, titled "This Cocoon", was released March 27th 2009. It is a more personal reflection of my song writing. I have to say I love this album. That feels like some sort of dark confession but screw it - when listen to it I really enjoy it - anyone who knows me knows what a stretch that is. I have a super critical ear now that my engineering skills have developed, especially when it comes to my own work. I love that most of the songs here are in 3/4 time, and yet they are so different from one another. I love that I got to rock out on guitar on three of the songs (my second love). Then throw in a couple of heart wrenching ballads, and even an upbeat jazzy love song (who knew I could go there?) Each song is a very different entity, and deeply personal. Listening to them now is very revealing to me. It’s a tribute to my life and emotions during my transition into a solo career - a very intense time. Each song still speaks so clearly to me.
The next album is a collection of songs that have taken on new life as I have been performing them around the country acoustically, bringing them back to the roots of how they were written - just me and the piano. Add to that the sound of the djembe (the African drum that has become more and more apart of my musical expression) and the power of the tribe that shared so many amazingly magical nights of music and sparkling energy over so many miles and you have the next album titled "Hand and Hammer" It was released in May 2010. This work reflects the spirit of my life on the road with GBmojo. There are not enough words to express my gratitude to partner Bekah Kelso and all the people who allowed us into their lives while we adventured across the country. Those years of touring lifted me to place of strength and trust in magic I have never known. I will thankfull
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