Saturday, June 22, 2019

Gigi Love, Amtrak And The NPS Partnership

By Robert Cox


Amtrak can often be a great way to get from point a to point b, whether going on a short day trip or a long excursion. When on longer trips, travelers may encounter Gigi Love performing as part of a partnership between the National Park system and Amtrak. For, Love is a rails and trails troubadour which visits the National parks, then writes songs which are later performed on-board various long distance routes.

While singing onboard is one aspect of the joint program, Gigi, having visited over 2 dozen parks where the singer-songwriter absorbed the surroundings, learned the history and wrote songs is an even bigger aspect. In fact, a number of songs are included on a full length album titled National Parks Centennial Songs. According to the Acoustic Outpost, a few songs which topped the 100 songs from Folk stations between 2016 and 2017.

In the Summer and Fall of 2017, Gigi continued in the partnership with the parks and Amtrak. Once again, the young singer-songwriter graced a number of trains singing songs old and new. Although, during this journey, while still writing new songs, the artist also performed at a number of parks during each visit.

The artist writes lyrics which are often bluesy honest songs that tell stories of the singer-song writer's experiences, dreams, travels and vision quests. In most cases, the lyrics capture the attention of audiences which take most of those in attendance on a musical journey. Gigi, having started singing at the early age of 7, then performing at Texas venues by age 12, definitely has the know-how and experience to do so.

If the artist's name sounds familiar, it could be due to performing at the Olympic Closing Ceremonies held in Salt Lake or opening for the Dave Matthews Band at the Columbia River Gorge. Based largely on the singer songwriter's performance at the Winter Olympics, Freedom Zone picked up the artist, the same company which represents Mountain Dew. After which, Love toured areas of the country west of the Mississippi and Texas, thus gaining airplay on community and college radio stations around the United States.

The singer-songwriter debuted new work at the New England Regional Folk Alliance's Susan Wollenberg Folk DJ Showcase in 2016. Whereas, the artist has also toured alongside Utah Phillips' son, Kate McLeod, Duncan Phillips and others. In fact, one of Utah's songs, "Going Away, " performed by Love is now available on Pandora radio. Whereas, there are also a few videos on YouTube which provide a brief history and music by the artist.

The singer-songwriter has also graced the stage of several folk festivals including Nedfest, Arise, Moab, Desert Rocks and Kate Wolf. In doing so, the artists has now shared the stage with the likes of Christine Lavin, Tim Reynolds and John Gorka. As such, Gigi will most likely be seeing even more radio airplay while being invited to other festivals in the future.

If interested in booking or finding more information on Gigi, the NPS rails and trails program or other info, visit the artist website at gigilove dot com slash national-parks-songwriting-project-and-bio-2017. Love's ultimate mission and message works to care for, and preserve the parks by promoting causes which result in clean water and air for all living beings.




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