Tom Goss

On Saturday, Nov. 9 the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale presented a return engagement of Tom Goss in concert with special guest Richard Cortez.

The concert was also the CD release event for Cortez's latest EP: "Heartsore: Songs for Justin." Steeped in loss and melancholy, this disc tells the story of a failed relationship through the eyes of its broken-hearted other half. With his dark baritone voice, a few personal stories and an acoustic guitar, Cortez carried the audience on his own journey from heartbreak, to rage, depression and finally redemption.

Opening with the very cheerful and upbeat "Make Believe," Goss couldn't have been more of a contrast. Dressed in a sky blue shirt and trademark flip-flops, he let the audience know in no uncertain terms they were there to have fun. What followed was sixty minutes of nonstop energy. With boyish good looks and a slightly impish charm, Goss deftly bridged the gap between rock, country, folk and even hip-hop.

While most of Goss' songs celebrate the joys of love and the happiness of life, one stands out in total opposition. "Lover" is at once a love song and a song of being alone. Primarily a piano with just a modest guitar undertone, it explores what it means to totally love someone and at the same time find yourself completely alone. There were more than a few teary eyes and a few clasped hands in the audience.

Following the concert we had the opportunity to sit down with Tom Goss and dig a little deeper into the man behind the flip-flops, and it only takes a few minutes to realize Tom Goss the performer is really quite different than Tom Goss the man.

In the five years since he first burst onto the scene much has been written about his initial stint in a Catholic seminary. While it's not unusual for a musician to have religious roots it is a bit of a departure from your typical gay performer.

When asked how his time in the seminary effects what he is doing now, he says "I joined seminary because I wanted to work in reconciliation and interfaith dialogue, and I feel that I am still doing that just with a different platform... I want to help people heal and bring people together; I don't think that much has changed at all."

As the Development Coordinator for Charlie's Place in Washington, D.C., he continues this mission and still finds time to record, tour and even break into acting.

With over 10K Facebook fans, 6K twitter followers and video viewership approaching 500K, Goss shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, he's just getting started. Touring for more than twelve weeks at a time and telecommuting when possible with his day job back in D.C doesn't leave much time for a personal life. There are many times he returns home to an empty house as his partner (now husband) of eight years is a road warrior himself. It's these days and night alone that give him time to dream up the ideas for the videos that have made him so popular.

It was during one such break in the madness that the idea for one of his most recent videos was born. Featuring a blend of stop motion animation and body painting, "Make Believe" has proven to be quite popular, netting more than 100K views in the last year, not bad statistics for an artist that depends on word of mouth and no radio airplay.

When asked how he dreams up the concepts for his videos, Goss replies "I sit around and think about them a lot. Videos really are the medium to get music out to people these days. At the end of the day I think of myself just as much of a storyteller as I do a songwriter."

In the next month Goss will have just started on his next project as an actor, playing the character of Justin Jaymes in the forthcoming film "Out to Kill" by writer/director Rob Williams. On his character: "there is this really redemptive moment where he is playing the guitar and singing a song and I started thinking about why this person is angry and what we can take from it... he's a horrible asshole, and everybody hates him, but he has this one opportunity in like two minutes to turn in all around by singing something."

Tom Goss believes totally in the redemptive power of music. He sees it as his mission to bring people together and, if the past few years are any indication, he is on the right track. Whether it's serving meals to the homeless or singing to the masses, he is slowly bringing disparate groups together.