WATCH / SHARE “TAMBOURINE” HERE
GEORDIE GORDON’S NEW ALBUM, TAMBOURINE, OUT TODAY
BUY / STREAM TAMBOURINE HERE
TOUR DATES BEGIN NOVEMBER 22, 2023 | TICKETS HERE
Photo Credit : Jacklyn Barber // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, Geordie Gordon’s new LP, Tambourine, is available everywhere courtesy of Victory Pool Records. The Toronto singer/songwriter who is currently a member of two internationally acclaimed indie acts, U.S. Girls and Islands, is also sharing the new video for the title track.
“‘Tambourine’ is the second song I wrote for the album that would eventually share its title. I had decided to mine pivotal moments from my past, expanding each memory into a song. For this track I delved into the classic literary narrative of the queer coming-of-age story. Growing up, I was so singularly enamoured with creating music that exploring my queer identity took a back seat. That all changed one night when a friend took me into the city to see the album release concert for the Hidden Cameras’ The Smell Of Our Own.
“The band had taken over a church, filling it with yellow streamers with explicit lyrics projected on bedsheets and masked go-go boys. I was so awestruck by the community power harnessed in broadcasting such an unabashed display of queer joy that the feeling has stayed with me to this day. I finally felt all aspects of myself existing in one artform.”
WATCH / SHARE “TAMBOURINE” HERE
MORE ABOUT GEORDIE GORDON & TAMBOURINE
His second solo album, Tambourine, is Geordie’s own coming-of-age story, in more ways than one. It’s the album that will introduce the world to Geordie Gordon’s depth of talent as a singer, arranger, lyricist and melodicist.
Tambourine opens with the title track, about a teenage Geordie (pron. Jordy) taking the bus from his small university town to Toronto to see the Hidden Cameras. There, the closeted teen witnesses an outburst of queer and pansexual joy, where tambourines are passed to the crowd and all are welcome to join the celebration: ‘They were an army of love / With sound raining down from above / lifting their violins / holding their heads high and proud’. The album closes with “Homecoming”, a song written after Geordie listened to an audiobook by activist Cleve Jones. “He worked with Harvey Milk, and in a short few years he went from being this hippie boy in the late ’60s to later running the AIDS quilt after losing all his friends. That song is a tribute to the ancestors for their brave service.”
Geordie Gordon was 16 when gay marriage was made legal in his home province of Ontario. He was raised in an accepting community of hippies and leftist punks. He’s a son of James Gordon, a successful Canadian folk singer covered by the Cowboy Junkies on The Trinity Session. Geordie formed his first band as a teenager, the misnomered Barmitzvah Brothers (featuring Bird City’s Jenny Mitchell). They toured Canada and were on the cover of Toronto’s Now Magazine. They sounded like nothing else on the thriving Canadian indie scene at the time: junkstore instruments, unusual lyrics, and a childlike sense of play—because they were still actual children.
WATCH / SHARE “SPINNING WHEEL” HERE
“I had such a different childhood than most coming-of-age stories,” says Geordie. “Even before high school, I learned that being quirky was a thing. My band never tried to fit in, and yet we were embraced by older people and the indie scene. I had so many sensitive music friends that I wasn’t in a toxic area. It was a unique environment; it wasn’t very typically straight.”
Musically, Tambourine is also a coming-of-age statement, and his boldest project to date. His first album, in 2014, was made with his brother Evan under the name The Magic. His first solo album, The Tower, was a very solitary affair and came out during the pandemic—release shows were hampered by new lockdowns.
WATCH / SHARE “SOUL PROMISE” HERE
This time out, Geordie is writing on tenor guitar for the first time, tapping into the folk influences of his childhood. “My brother and I were never like my dad, a folk festival singer, who goes to workshops and talks about his songs,” he says. “So for me it’s a fun challenge to get closer to that.” Geordie’s not playing folk festivals yet, but he did host secret shows by candlelight in Toronto parks during the pandemic.
Everything about Tambourine is a huge leap forward for Geordie. The layered vocal harmonies explore both his falsetto heights and the lower end of his register. The electronics of The Tower are still present, as are the soft pop vibes of U.S. Girls and Islands.
From teenage awakenings to the wisdom of elders, Tambourine is the record Geordie Gordon was born to make. And he’s just getting started.
PRE-ORDER TAMBOURINE HERE
TOUR DATES
11/22 - Toronto, ON - The Burdock
11/24 - Guelph, ON - Silence
11/26 - Hamilton, ON - Into The Abyss
12/02 - Peterborough, ON - Sadleir House
12/03 - Montreal, QC - Ursa w/ L CON
TAMBOURINE TRACKLIST
01 Tambourine
02 Spinning Wheel
03 Brilliant Dawn
04 Long, Long
05 Obelisk
06 Grey Town
07 Soul Promise
08 Love is a Feel
09 Life Line
10 Heart Murmur
11 The Thought
12 Homecoming