In Case You Missed World Accordion Day in 2020
In preparing my updated website, I came across this marvelous rendition of my music (“Anna” from Spinning World: 13 Ways of Looking at a Waltz). Her name is Reet Laube, she is from Estonia, and …
MCMGM is HERE
What’s a musician to do in a pandemic? Inward, grasshopper, go inward. What lurks in the unreachable inner regions? Rhythm, reptilian motion, electrical impulses. What are you talking about? Electronica, IDM, Jazztronica. How do I …
The Q.T., my front seat at a Hustler Bar
We have a silly little owl from Japan that waves when the sun is shining. He stopped waving some months ago, and this weekend I took time to fix it. A wire was loose, needed …
Animator for Hire – Totally Rockin’
When someone calls you up and asks if you can make their rocks come to life, always tell them “yes”. That’s how I got my latest job, animating a video for family music artist …
Where Did the Songs about Food Come From?
My brain is always thinking, drifting off hither and yon. I like leaving it off leash, seeing where it goes… Here’s some brief info on the inspiration for the songs on “I Am Your Food” …
Guzzette Issue #2019 – All the news from 2019!
HERE’S THE LATEST EMAIL NEWSLETTER FROM GUNNAR Dear Everybody, I get so busy doing cool stuff that I forget to tell you about it 🙂 This is just some of the cool things …
Video premiere "Every Morning the Birdies"!
When the birds wake and sing, why not sing with them? My latest music video creation, from the album “The Power of a Hat“. Enjoy! More animated videos on YouTube Subscribe to YouTube Channel …
Easy Listening for Advanced Listeners – Summer Sounds!
This is an ear-worm from my childhood that I never knew the name of, just one of those cheesy instrumentals from the late 50’s and early 60’s that played everywhere, all the time. When I …
The Shaggs! The Movie of the Musical!
At the beginning of our current century, I began work on the stage musical The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World. Along the way there were readings, workshops and productions at The Powerhouse in Los Angeles; …
Letter to Oliver Sacks
I’ve long appreciated Oliver Sacks’ work, and was excited when I received his new book, Musicophilia, as a gift shortly after it came out. I eagerly began to read it, but then, only a third …
Gunnar on Desert Island Jazz Friday 9am
“I Am Your Food” caught the ear of Jazzinista host Alisa Clancy at KCSM Jazz 91, and she’s been playing some tracks. She has now invited me to come join her on her Desert …
Sheet Music Sale – 5 days only!
If you were affected by the recent winds blowing sheet music out of your shopping cart, take advantage of this 5-Day Sheet Music Blow-Out Sale! For 5 days starting today (09/25/2018), you can have ANY …
I Am Your Food wins Parent’s Choice Gold!
Today the winners of the Parent’s Choice Audio Awards were announced, and am pleased and proud to say that “I Am Your Food” won their highest commendation, the Gold award. Only 6 others pulled down …
Sheet Music Sales are UP again!
I was alerted to a problem with my sheet music store by a lovely customer from Germany. She claimed that whenever she added sheet music to her cart, a wind came up and blew it …
My Plate is Full – CD Release Day!
I’m shouting it from the rooftops! I’m coding and messaging and posting in preparation for the worldwide premiere of “I Am Your Food” tomorrow, June 15. Here it comes, babies. Enjoy the videos, here, or …
Video premiere of 10,000 Pancakes!
Today, Zooblobble (the cool site for cool music for families) gave me the honor of premiering the 1st video from my forthcoming album “I Am Your Food.” Stefan, the man behind the zooglobble curtain, says …
Coming Soon – I Am Your Food
I’ve been quiet lately. Been working hard on writing songs for the screen adaptation of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World musical, keeping my family on an even keel, and keeping myself healthy. Oh, yeah …
My neighborhood heroes (firefighters)
I live 3 doors away from Berkeley Fire Engine Co. 6 and the Berkeley training facility for firefighters. For years I’ve enjoyed hearing the yelling of commands, the ratcheting clank of extension ladders, the …
When I was 14
I was 14 when my older sister (17) got a job as a nanny in Wyoming and was gone for the whole summer. Her room in our home in Palo Alto was a 6×6 foot …
Made in America Week
Hey, it’s me – I’m made in America! Granted, I contain a lot of foreign parts, but they were imported decades ago, back when foreigners were allowed in. I’m American! It’s Made in America Week! …
Granddaddy was Illegal
During the 60’s we spent every Christmas day at my grandparents’ house in Los Gatos, CA. Cousins from out of town were sometimes there with their moms and dads. It was noisy and fun. When …
Three Beautiful Human Minutes Experiment
This short video (from Denmark) can make us all feel better. Come on, open up, open wide…
My right hand again…
I seem to be finally passing out of stage 1 of the 49 stages of grief, and am getting back to putting dinner on the table in a timely fashion. A couple weeks ago, …
After the election, my right hand speaks
My dad had passed away 2 weeks before, I was still in a fog from that. On Tuesday I was coming down with a cold, by Tuesday night had the shivers, fever. Wednesday morning awoke …
My Country ’tis of They
I feel as if some far-off inheritance that I’d been expecting, but not depending on, has been taken away. You know, some kind of solidity that gives you a sense of security, that allows …
Goodbye, Dad
The Power of a Hat by Gunnar Madsen After a long decline into Alzheimer’s, my dad passed away on Wednesday. Peacefully. As a young man he was incredibly dynamic. In middle to older age he …
Collaboration with my son, Part 2 – Rock out
This is one of my favorite early songs my son wrote (age 9). The guitar lick is classic rock style. Again, he sang it to me, I played it. He wrote it, baby. He produced …
Collab with my son
5 years ago, when our son was 9 years old, he became interested in writing music and songs. He was a very good beat-boxer, and a fearless vocalist, but he didn’t know how to play …
How one Bass Player Makes Magic
I grew up not really realizing what the bass does for music. I could hear guitars, pianos, voices, drums. But what happened on the bottom was invisible to my ears. A degree in music later, …
New GM music – on Spotify, iTunes, Soundcloud
“Great Again!” got a whirlwind of postings/repostings via Facebook, BandCamp and SoundCloud, and it’s just been released on Spotify, iTunes, and other heavyweight commercial carriers. It was also featured on the redoubtable Dr. Demento Show …
Woman Sings to Become Trump's 4th Wife!
With this year’s resistable rise of Mr. T(rump), I got inspired by the question “What do women see in him?”. Some lyrics soon followed, then a melody, now a recording. The Bandcamp player on the …
Pennies from YouTube Heaven?
When you listen to and download my music directly on this website, I get paid a better percentage from these direct downloads than from anywhere else on the wonderful wide web. But this website serves …
Travels in Japan
I’ve long had a fascination with Japan. My very first tape recorder was from there, as was my first transistor radio. So what? No, for a boy in the early 1960’s obsessed with music …
Shaggs Cast album released, Zombies Take over the World, and MORE!
Hi Friends, According to Broadway lore, the average musical takes 10 years to write, and the average cast album takes 3 years to produce – Well, so far I’m right on schedule! Ladies, Gentlemen, I …
Berkeley Rep hosts work on New Musical
I recently spent a fruitful and exciting week at Berkeley Rep’s “Ground Floor”, their new summer development residency program, to begin work on a new music theatre project. I’m working with longtime collaborator Kathryn Keats …
Shaggs Musical Nominated for Drama Desk/Lortel Awards!
Our musical, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, has recently been nominated for some shiny awards. The Drama Desk Award (nominations announced this morning), is one of the most prestigious in the Theatre World. It …
Father/Son Rock/Roll
I’ve been too busy to blog, people. Busy flying to NY to record the band tracks for the cast recording of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World (due out later next year), busy helping my …
Spotify – the New Radio?
Radio is not dead – you can still turn it on and listen to a baseball game or NPR or someone yelling at the top of their lungs about how unfair they think life is. …
Can’t quit Shaggin’ ’round…
All Shaggs, all the time… Here’s a great little video for those of you who can’t make it to NY for the show. Enjoy! In case you missed it, the NYTimes wrote an article about …
Dave Werry, Shaggs and Electric Guitars
(The Shaggs open May 12! Click for tix) The first time I ever touched an electric guitar, I was awestruck. I tried plucking a note, tried to make it sing like the Beatles could, but …
Shaggs Time in NYC
Dear friends, I’ve been meaning to write for the longest time, but I’ve been consumed with preparations for the Off-Broadway production of “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World”. There’s not only a ton of work …
Favorite Recordings of 2010
The end of another year approaches. I generally don’t have much time to listen to music, but this year, somehow (was it the ipod I bought and ended up jogging and walking to?) I’ve been …
Listening for Grammys
It’s the nominating season for the Grammy Awards. In the mailboxes of recording academy members like myself, CDs are arriving in droves, hungry to be considered worthy of nomination in their respective categories. (My own …
Bertolt Brecht and Me…
In 1976, at the beginning of my Junior year of college, I was working at a little desk in the basement of the music department, handing out keys to the practice rooms. A professor of …
Edward Albee and I Chat in NY
Edward Albee will moderate while I and all the other creators of dramatic works for Playwrights Horizons will chat. Onstage, with you in the audience tossing questions our way. And we’ll enlighten you about the …
They say the Neon Lights are Bright…
…On Off-Broadway! It’s official, the musical based on the life story of The Shaggs, “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World”, created by Joy Gregory, John Langs and Yours Truly, is headed for a major production …
Svetlana Village now on DVD/Download!
In the fall of 2000, I traveled to Russia to make a documentary film about a farm that my brother had been working at for the previous 5 years. A Camphill Village, where half of …
I’m Alive!!!
I’m alive, baby. I’m vibrating at ultra-high frequencies, even. Below are 4 reasons why you haven’t heard from me lately: 1. Rewrite of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World for another reading at Playwright’s Horizons …
I love the recording studio.
I still feel a thrill every time I’m in a recording studio, with the huge consoles full of buttons, the mics, the speakers, the layers of glass between the control room and the recording space. …
Happy New Year
Here’s a note of thanks for the year just past. Thanks for a son who is insatiably curious and who has a fantastic sense of humor. Thanks for a partner who also has a fantastic …
My Romantic Tendencies
I have always been a closet romantic. I enjoy the sentimental side of things. As a pre-teen, listening to my little panasonic transistor radio every night late into the night, it was almost all love …
The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World LIVES!
It’s been a few years since The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World was produced. The legal problems which held it back were recently lifted, and an exciting developmental reading is slated for early December at …
Recording Bandon at Skywalker (video)
Here’s another video taken from the recording session for “Two Hands”. It’s not the take that is on the CD (that take was not caught on camera). If you compare them you can hear the …
Our Amazing Brains (aka My Sony Tape Deck)
When I was 15, a friend and I worked most of the summer painting my family’s house. With the money I earned I bought a reel to reel tape recorder. It was one of my …
All in Three Quarter Time
Here’s something you might not have noticed: All the music on “Two Hands” is in 3/4 time. I didn’t really plan it that way. I did have it in my mind to someday do a …
Desert Rocks and Gunnar – the Connection?
Rob Jenkins – master of the lens. None of us involved in putting “Two Hands” together can explain why Rob’s photo (of the mysterious rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley) seemed the perfect compliment …
Marie Antoinette & Gunnar – The connection?
I’ve known Kent Sparling, the producer of “Two Hands”, since he was a young man. I’ve known his music since he was a teenager. Back in the early 80’s I had a few piano students, …
Miles Davis and Gunnar – What’s the connection?
Janet Boye Jenkins is the creator of the glorious design for Two Hands. It is by no means her first CD cover. Straight out of Pratt Institute (where she was my wife’s irrepressible roommate) she …
Recording Nino and Me (video)
I did not wish a camera crew to intrude on the intimate, sequestered recording process of “Two Hands”, but we did set up a stationary camera to capture some of the proceedings. Here is an …
Embarrassing tales from a piano player
Piano is really my main instrument. I taught myself guitar and piano from the age of 15, and then started classical piano lessons at the age of 17 (practicing 4 hours a day), then went …
Jobs I’ve Had
I find it reassuring when I read of someone successful that I admire, and find that they’ve had a series of ‘normal’ jobs and lived a pretty much ‘normal’ life before they found their success. …
Best $10 I Ever Spent
There are things, little things, little manufactured things, that I am grateful for every day. They are, like, miracles. They make life so much easier. And none of them require you to win the lottery …
Dads in Uniforms
Coming from the library the other day I passed by our local uniform store. Pleated, boring cotton/poly blend workclothes and uniforms were awkwardly displayed behind barred windows. And I suddenly felt comforted. Comforted? I’ve always …
Gout – from an MRI?
A year ago, while I was out jogging, I had a strange episode. Coming to a cross street, I glanced to the right to check for traffic, and just then I lost a piece of …
It’s Good to be the King
I feel like a king. A good king. I had such a royal time recording at Skywalker Sound. When you drive through the gate, your jaw drops at the beauty of the place, the rolling …
Santa Cruz Concert Saturday!
I’m taking a break from practicing to REMIND you of my first solo concert in over 4 years: This Saturday at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. April 11, 4pm. I’ll be performing songs …
1st Concert in 4 years, Piano Fingers on Fire!
I’ve been sequestered, not pestered, alone with me and a piano for weeks now. For a few hours a day at least. Then it’s time to pick up our son from school and do daddy …
The Ultimate Rejection Letter
I used to dream of being on a major label. When I was with The Bobs we dreamed of it, and held out for a few years, waiting for the offer that never came. (That’s …
Performing as Catharsis
I was watching Janis Joplin in “Festival Express” recently. She was cathartic. I don’t think she knew how to hold anything back. Performing for her seemed like an all-or-nothing thing. I was thinking how other …
New Year, New Hope, New Stuff…
I promised in my last blog entry, some time back, that I would be working on new piano instrumental pieces. I have been, eagerly, and I’m very pleased with the results. All I need now …
New Piano Works in the works
A couple of years ago I got a case of pneumonia. NOT the rockin’ pneumonia. Just the too-tired-to-get-outta-bed-and-my-lungs-hurt pneumonia. A shot of rhythm and blues did not, alas, cure it. But as I slowly began …
Tibetan Book of Balding
When you start to go bald, you face yourself squarely. You didn’t cause it, you didn’t earn it. It is not retribution or karma. It is simply destiny rising up in front of you. You …
The thing about Singing Telegrams is…
Okay, so you’ve just graduated with a bachelors degree. You studied music theory and composition. You’ve somehow got to make some money. You’ve got to get a job. You write music for (and direct music …
Wedding Lover “Vows” to use Gunnar’s Music
Take a tip from the pros – if you’re planning a wedding, get the wedding music that hard-core wedding afficianados get – Music by Gunnar Madsen. From “News of the World”: Andrea Tsarbos makes wedding …
What is Jazz?
I was in the drugstore a few weeks ago, picking up a prescription. While I was waiting a young pharmacist, a guy in his early 20’s, was telling a co-worker about Harvey Mason’s drumming on …
Back to School for Dad
School year started. Man, oh, man, I had no idea the world worked on some kind of schedule. Oh, sure, I was once a kid, I remember the long lazy days of summer, the “Back-to-school” …
Mongolian Camel Bell Ringtone
I was at home with Q last Sunday when the phone rang. It was M, our wife and mother and fun companion. She’d found these beautiful Mongolian Camel Bells and wanted to buy one for …
Graham Cracker Smacker Rube Goldberg
Here’s how it all started. My son, Q, is fascinated by all things mechanical. He has a book in the ISpy series in which there’s a picture of a convoluted balloon-popping contraption: It involves dominoes, …
Novelty? No thanks.
Novelty songs. I generally don’t like them. Yet I do like humor in music. Obviously. (see “The Bobs” or my family music) But just because I end up writing humorous songs sometimes, I don’t really …
I Wish I Were a Troubadour
A couple years ago I was in New York and went to Little, Brown & Co. to meet, for the first time, my editor for the book of “Old Mr. Mackle Hackle”. I came into …
Strangers in the Night – A song that won’t leave me alone
Some songs just don’t go away. Even when it seems like they should. Even when every fibre of my being screams that a song is no good, I am sometimes drawn, against my will, into …
Haruki Murakami
There’s a novelist whose invention and soul and style I am so in love with: Haruki Murakami. His is the kind of writing that I’d like to think I would do if I were a …
Evolution of a Musician Part 2
The Listening Years… Up until February of 1964 (when I was 7), music just didn’t really mean much to me. On that particular night, we were at my grandparents house in Los Gatos, California, and …
My Solution to Global Warming
“It’s also a great Axe grinder!” Here’s my idea. Some kind of huge pedal-powered flywheel. I mean huge. 6 feet in diameter, one foot in width, made of stone or metal. I’m not a physicist, …
Dancing with Heavy Machinery
Did I say I never get to watch movies? Well, not entirely true. I love movies so much that I generally won’t watch them if I can’t arrange to sit through a film in its …
TV shows that are better than movies?
We’ve been watching a lot of TV lately. Well, not TV, not stuff that comes on a cable or over the airwaves, but shows we’re renting from Netflix. We miss watching full-length movies, but by …
Crowing, crowing…gone
Goodbye, little crow… On the ides of May, I found the little crow dead. The parents had already gotten the news, and though they still hung around in the trees for a couple of days, …
I’m Crowing
I’ve had a few days of being hectored and cawed at by nervous, anxious parental crows. Their fledgling disappeared the day after it was found here, and the Mom and Dad have kept a hawk-like …
Crows in my Yard
This morning there’s a pair of crows cawing raucously all around my studio. Here’s why… As I was about to open the door to my back stoop yesterday morning, I noticed a small crow sitting …
45’s were sleazy, mp3s are…?
Early on (like, when I was 10 years old) I had a moral judgment against 45 singles. They were a ripoff (LPs had a much better song-per-dollar ratio); they were a shallow glimpse into an …
Music Doesn’t Smell
Don’t know why this crossed my mind, or if it’s even true, but it seems to me that music doesn’t smell. For such a powerful, visceral, emotional art form, that’s a strange thing. But I …
What do kids’ musicians listen to in their off hours?
What do kids’ musicians listen to when we’re not on the job? Do we worship the Wiggles? Boogie down to some Barney? Relax to Raffi? Sip some Chardonnay on Sesame Street? Get real. We’re grown-ups. …
Touch the Sound – What a film!
I saw the most beautiful film the other week. It’s called “Touch the Sound”, about the soulful and amazing percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who happens to be deaf. She lives and breathes music, and she has …
Evolution of a musician – Part 1
Before I saw/heard the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show along with the rest of America in 1964, music was not a passion of mine. There were no musical instruments in our house. My parents …
How to Find Good Music
Listened to some of an interview/guest DJ spot with Ray Davies on All Songs Considered over breakfast this morning. (Great interview, btw) He recounted radio in the UK back in the 50’s, how there were …
Too Good for Kids?
I just had a little email conversation with Bill Harley, about a comment he received after a recent concert. The person told him “You’re too good to sing for kids.” Well, that’s a nice compliment …