It\'s very rare that you discover an artist that you can trust within only an hour of listening to their music. I had snagged a copy of 2006\'s Up & Away from one of my favorite torrenting sites without any expectations. All I knew was the man\'s name from a Wikipedia listing. It was only gonna cost me a mere 100MB to give it a shot. Not exactly \"breaking bank.\" I turned the album up and got ready to be disappointed by yet another independant gay artist. I was waiting for the pretentiously bad lyrics and hack-neyed production, but I never got it. Instead, I was treating to songs that were bare-- some light, some heavy. All enjoyable. I really couldn\'t turn the record off.

The next two hours were spent searching the internet for any information I could find. Lyrics, pictures, tour dates, other albums, reviews, etc. Then I stumble across the many ways in which I could get more. Because Mr. Douglass\'s music is so obscure, it\'s not exactly to pirate. I was lucky enough to find Up & Away. But, before I even looked for his albums in the seediest of internet places, I was looking at CDBaby, a site that I first heard of during my Tiffany phase. There I discovered a good five or six other releases. After sifting through reviews, I learned that Up & Away was seen as more of a sister record with earlier records Stark and Pseudo-Rotary. I decided to put my entire faith into how much I loved U&A and ordered the latter. As I had never heard a track from either Stark OR Pseudo-Rotary, I just went with song titles that caught my eye. Plus it just has such a cool album cover.

So, I get the album a week later. I rip it as any Audiophile would (EAC in V0/VBR with Lame 3.98, for all you digital music geeks). And I pop it on my Zune while on route to get some take out. I was shocked within the first nano second of this record. I had nevr heard any of his older material, and I had no idea that he also dabbled in other terrorities. Up & Away was a strict piano record, very rich (almost to the point of decadent), which usually irks me. Pseudo-Rotary, however, mixes the piano with bongo drums, syntheziers, variations of guitar, and experimentations in vocal effects. The blend makes for a stunning record.

The first song I remember have to listen to twice in a row was the amazing \"Rise.\" Dripping in a later-Peter Gabriel sound, this song particularly made my ears smile. It\'s a consistant and spacy song, also reminiscent of Björk\'s Homogenic era. Other highlights include the amazing \"Wall to Wall,\" \"I Wanted to Run,\" and \"Hush.\" I must say that I was nervous in playing this record. It had to live up to the expectations that U&A set. And that bar was set pretty high. I find myself actually listening to Pseudo-Rotary more than Up & Away at this point. The great thing about this record is that it has so much amazing atmosphere while still being a very easy record to listen to. \"I Wanted to Run\" is the most commercial song on the record. Fans of Springsteen could definitely find a comfortable chord or two in this song. The great thing about Douglass\'s music is that even though a song is more marketable, it doesn\'t lose any merit. Both his complex tracks and his simplistic tracks are just as respectable.

I\'ve also got to give Mr. Douglass credit for actually using male pronouns in his music, rather than completely avoiding the idea of homosexual like oh so many out musicians

Standouts: I Wanted to Run, Wall to Wall, Usual Denials, Hush, Rise

Fans of Keane, Snow Patrol, Stars, Kate Bush and Bruce Springsteen should definitely check this record out. I don\'t really get the musical comparison to Rufus Wainwright, but fans of his work would probably love Up & Away (all piano.)
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Gregory - You are an awesome musician.  I have Pseudo Rotary/Stark/Up&Away.  They are the first 3 CDs in my Cd changer and I listen to nothing but these.  I love all the songs and even bring the CDs to my office and listen to them during the day. 

Please continue to make great music and I will look forward to any upcoming releases.  Next month I will probably buy the rest of your CDs to make it a full collection.  

Thanks again.
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I first saw his video, wanted to run and ever since then I wanted to get his CD. It's great!! Thanks Gregory for sharing your music. I look forward picking up more of your CD.
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I saw the video for I Wanted to Run and couldn't wait to get the CD.  The songs Quiet in the Shade and Gone gave me chills when I first heard them.  I can't seem to put this CD down for long and I'm so glad I can get another taste of Gregory's voice, lyrics and music.
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