Seven-time San Diego Music Award nominee Gayle Skidmore has written over 2000 songs since she began songwriting at the age of 8. Her natural ability and innate passion for music made her music career inevitable, and her tumultuous life has given her plenty of inspiration. Translating her experiences into song has been more than just personally fulfilling. After winning Best Singer-Songwriter in the 2013 San Diego Music Awards, Best Pop Album for “Sleeping Bear” in 2014, and Best Pop in 2015, Gayle moved abroad to The Netherlands where she won De Beste Singer-Songwriter van het Groene Hart in 2017. Classically trained on the piano from the age of 4, Gayle Skidmore also plays over 20 other instruments, including the mountain dulcimer, banjo, folk harp and balalaika.

Growing up in a musical family in San Diego, California, Gayle was fascinated with music from the start, recording little songs with her sisters from the age of 3. The early loss of her uncle and several childhood friends sparked an intuitive turn to songwriting as a way to process and cope with these events. Gayle started performing these songs in local San Diego venues at the age of 14, and finally recorded her first E.P. at the age of 18. As she began to pursue music more seriously, something that she had always done instinctively became more focused and intentional. Music became a way for Gayle to bring healing into her own life and the lives of others, growing in importance as she waded through an ever-growing mountain of loss and several traumatic events. She continued to record her music and soon started her own record label, Raincoat Records.

In the spring of 2017, Gayle Skidmore released her first full-length vinyl album and colouring book, her 20th independently released project. The Golden West was recorded with her beer sponsor, Ninkasi Brewing at Ninkasi Studios in Eugene, OR, Amusement Park Studios in Lubbock, TX, Singing Serpent Studios in San Diego, CA, and legendary studio Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, CA. It features a range of styles and the singular theme of moving on from heartache and loss. Music Friday Live’s Patrick O’Heffernan said it well:

“ Gayle Skidmore sings in the line between artistry and accessibility, between whimsy and earworms, between what is an what fantastically can be. ”
Gayle’s dedication to her craft has paved the way to opening for the likes of Jason Mraz, Lisa Loeb, Steve Martin, The Jamestown Revival, Sean and Sara Watkins, Sam Phillips, and Coeur d’Pirate. She has recorded with such artists as The Softlightes, Bushwalla, Jason Mraz and Tyrone Wells, and continues to explore new styles. Her song “Only Ever You” features Dave Catching of Eagles of Death Metal on guitar. Recently transplanted to The Netherlands, she continues to enchant with her singular, transportive style, and her heartfelt performances.

Gayle Skidmore finds endless inspiration in the whirlwind of life, has never experienced writer’s block, and is always experimenting with new formats. Gayle Skidmore’s love of whimsy is evidenced by the visual elements she adds to music, which includes three self-illustrated colouring books. Germany’s prominent newspaper, the Seuddeutsche Zeitung, named her “Die Schutzpatronin der Gartenzwerge,” the Patron Saint of Garden Dwarves, which she proudly vaunts. When she isn’t busy learning a new instrument, singing, painting, or writing lyrics and melodies, she composes parts for her cellist and violinist. Gayle enjoys baking cookies and making origami for her fans.

Airshow is a mastering studio in Boulder, Colorado. Please contact us at or 303-247-9035 (CO) to talk to us about your next project. We'd love to hear your work in our room!

Artifications is a global arts platform dedicated to showcasing innovative artists, cultural movements, and creative communities through multimedia storytelling. From in-depth interviews to immersive documentaries, Artifications explores the intersection of art, society, and transformation, connecting audiences with compelling artistic narratives from around the world.

The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. During the 1920s, Mr. Mellon began collecting with the intention of forming a gallery of art for the nation in Washington. In 1937, the year of his death, he promised his collection to the United States. Funds for the construction of the West Building were provided by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. On March 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the completed building and the collections on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

The paintings and works of sculpture given by Andrew Mellon have formed a nucleus of high quality around which the collections have grown. Mr. Mellon's hope that the newly created National Gallery would attract gifts from other collectors was soon realized in the form of major donations of art from Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Joseph Widener, Chester Dale, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, and Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch as well as individual gifts from hundreds of other donors.

The Gallery's East Building, located on land set aside in the original Congressional resolution, was opened in 1978. It accommodates the Gallery's growing collections and expanded exhibition schedule and houses an advanced research center, administrative offices, a great library, and a burgeoning collection of drawings and prints. The building was accepted for the nation on June 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter. Funds for construction were given by Paul Mellon and the late Ailsa Mellon Bruce, the son and daughter of the founder, and by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

On May 23, 1999 the Gallery opened an outdoor sculpture garden designed to offer year-round enjoyment to the public. Located in the 6.1-acre block adjacent to the West Building at 7th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., the garden provides an informal, yet elegant setting for works of modern and contemporary sculpture.

The Collectors Committee, an advisory group of private citizens, has made it possible to acquire paintings and sculpture of the twentieth century. Key works of art have also come to the Gallery through the Patrons' Permanent Fund. In addition, members of the Circle of the National Gallery of Art have provided funds for many special programs and projects. The Sculpture Garden is a gift to the nation from The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.

Intense, soaring vocals and classical-inspired piano amalgamate to concoct dramatic indie rock with a misting of moody goth/doom folk.

Sexy funeral music. When a band’s style is difficult to classify, its interpretations and descriptors can vastly vary. This is just one of many conveyed of the difficult-to-pigeonhole Minor Birds’ (aka singer-songwriter/pianist Chelsea Wilde) sound.

A classically trained pianist and self-taught multi-instrumentalist (including guitar, accordion, and banjo), Wilde has been composing and performing music in different capacities since childhood. Rising from the dust of a creative dry spell brought on by a series of tragic events in her life in 2008, the band, moniker and concept of Minor Birds was hatched. Channeling deep-sea emotional depths, the project finds Wilde exploring life’s mysticism and darkness mixed with a healthy infusion of timeless tales of love - or lack thereof. Musically, Minor Birds weaves together striking mezzo-soprano vocals, ominous baroque-era classical piano, modern guitar work, stand-up bass, cello and various other instrumentation to deliver dramatic indie pop rock with notable elements of goth, doom-folk and grunge.  

Over the near-decade since its inception, Wilde has been writing, performing and continuing to lay the sonic and visionary foundations of the project and experimenting with a variety of soundscapes (including electronica and folk rock). Pulling influences from everything encountered or experienced, she does not set out to copy or tweak any one sound, yet seeks to create truly original works that build and amplify the mood while spinning poetic tales, both otherworldly and familiar. And – that voice! Often oscillating between a silky coo and a guttural howl, Wilde possesses a rare instinctive gift with maneuvering her powerful – yet controlled - vocal mechanism to paint and elicit an emotional atmosphere or response. 

At heart, Wilde’s musical gems take form as emotionally-receptive storytelling – evocative, solemn and dreamy. Her disciplined and culturally-astute academic background is apparent throughout. Yet, rather than remaining rigid and stubborn in structure and delivery, there’s an intuitive freeness and spontaneity to Wilde’s work, letting the music carry her adrift on its unpredictable paths - as it correspondingly does the same for the listener. Intrinsically poetic, Wilde’s music is about the journey, rather than a set destination. 

Minor Birds’ forthcoming EP “The Alchemist” is set for release Fall 2017. 

"There’s nothing sweeter than the pure, honest music, that runs deep into your soul. When you have the pleasure of hearing Minor Birds…the chaotic world around you melts away." - Our City Radio 
“Minor Birds is nothing but major. Eerie crystal clear vocals....” - 360 Magazine ​

Nominated/Runner-up Oaktown Indie Music Award (2013)
Nominated for Modesto Area Music Award (2015)
Moniker Guitars Endorsed Artist

Blues Radio International broadcasts  to listeners on six continents by international shortwave radio, with a simultaneous internet stream.  Our broadcasts reach people beyond the internet-- those living in poverty, war zones, or countries where the government restricts internet access. We feature live performances from the Blues Music Awards, as well as exclusive interviews and private studio recordings for our worldwide audience.  www.bluesradiointernational.net

James Holmes is following