By Megan McClure | Photos Courtesy of Jerome Albertini MUSIC

Jeffrey Gaines Life in the Slow Lane

Last time I played the winery, I think I hugged every person in that place. – Jeffrey Gaines

Jeffrey Gaines likes visiting the big city, suburbs of Philadelphia allows Gaines to but he doesn’t like staying too long. While connect to nature, winding country roads the singer-songwriter needs to be in New and even his youth: “I come home and can York and Los Angeles when he’s working on easily assign the smells, the scenery and even various projects, he sees no need to set down the sky to moments from my childhood.” roots in either of the entertainment capitals. “L.A. is a cool influence, in a way,” Gaines He labels his parents as his earliest says, and, for him, it starts the minute influences. “I would look to what my mother he walks off the plane. “I start to carry was listening to and think, ‘Look what’s myself better.” But too much time spent in bringing mom joy,’” Gaines remembers. So Hollywood would turn him into a different he started listening to Ike and Tina Turner. kind of entertainer – courting slash status Then there was Kiss and Cheap Trick in and becoming something like a singer/actor/ his teen years. and the Cars game-show host. “I have to come home and worked overtime on his stereo after getting shovel people out of the snow.” his first guitar. And in culling sounds from various genres and eras and learning his So home base is Haverford Township in craft, Gaines discovered his sound. In the Delaware County. Being able to return to the ‘90s, he landed first record deal.

12 54mag.com 13 By Megan McClure | Photos Courtesy of Jerome Albertini

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From his eponymous debut, Gaines What Gaines does not favor, however, is Always Live. Always Entertaining. achieved radio success with the single playing to a bar crowd. “Going on at “Hero In Me,” followed by his cover of 11 p.m. – that’s not my scene anymore,” he ’s “In Your Eyes,” which says. Instead, Gaines prefers performing in quickly became a fan favorite. But it theaters and art houses, where the shows wasn’t until almost a decade later, in 2001, end about that time. Then he likes go back when he recorded the song for his fourth to his hotel, read the paper and get a good album, “Always Be,” everyone else caught night’s sleep before his noon check-out /,1 *Ê , 7 Ê " * 9Ê"Ê 7Ê"* on. The song stayed on Billboard’s Adult and the drive to his next date. ,/Ê ,Ê°Ê, /Ê"" Ê°Ê6 Ê 1- Contemporary chart for 22 weeks. A self-proclaimed “lollygagger,” Gaines But while Gaines doesn’t like living large, doesn’t like to do anything that feels 7 - Ê-/Ê19Ê£ÇÊ£ä* Êfx he sure likes playing that way. When rushed. He likes to drink in every moment, asked whether he prefers big venues or stopping along the way to see the sights, / Ê7"" Ê ,"/ ,-Ê/1 Ê19ÊÓäʙ* more intimate locales, Gaines doesn’t enjoying the life he feels so fortunate to /  /-\Ê/ÀˆÕ“« Ài܈˜} iÜœ«i°/ˆVŽȉi>«°Vœ“ hesitate. “A person like me – I like the be living. “I feel lucky and a little bit bad, big shows. It reminds me that I’m living because it wasn’t too hard for me,” he says. / Ê Ê, Ê/1Ê19ÊÓÓʙ* a fantasy,” he says. “Those shows are a “Damn if it isn’t happening just as I had /  /-\Ê/ÀˆÕ“« Ài܈˜} iÜœ«i°/ˆVŽȉi>«°Vœ“ dream come true.” He loves the laminates, imagined it would.” the backstage passes and the tour buses. -* / , Ê-1 / -/Ê19ÊÓ{Ê£ä* ÊfÇ Although Gaines is typically the first to What’s up next for Gaines? He’ll be touring take the stage – he’s opened for Tom Petty, with Joe Jackson in Europe come fall, but / Ê  -7Ê "9-Ê,Ê19ÊÎäÊ£ä* Êf£ä and , to name a few says, “I’ve been ignoring my productivity.” heavyweights – for 40 minutes, the fans He’ll likely re-enter the studio before and /,1 *Ê , 7 Ê " * 9 are all his. “You have to embrace the truth after the tour: “The whole thing is wide **9Ê"1, of the moment,” Gaines says. But at the open for me.” {ääÊ1 " Ê-+1, " ‡,ÊÊxʇÇ* more intimate venues, he gets to embrace 7Ê"* Ê fÎÊ ,/Ê , the audience: “Last time I played the [New Jeffrey Gaines will play the New Hope ­Ó£x®ÊnÈӇnÎää f{Ê7 - Hope] winery, I think I hugged every Winery on Saturday, July 17 at 8 p.m. fxÊ7 Ê , - person in that place.” Go online at jeffreygaines.com. /,1 * , 7 ° " 6-/Ê"1,ÊÎÊ" /" -\Ê*, /" Ê°Ê 7Ê"* Ê°Ê* *ÊEÊ"1,Ê7 -/ \Ê/,1 * , 7 ° "

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