Michael Gutierrez-Could Shines Gentle on Historical past and Hope with “Gentle Nonetheless Shines The Identical” and Songwriting Showcase
On Sunday, June 1, 2025, singer-songwriter and storyteller Michael Gutierrez-Could will take the stage on the Lodge Vernon Shiproom in Worcester for a particular ISSA Boston/Northeast Songwriting Showcase, joined by fellow artists Bernie Drury, Tim Maynard, and Peter L’Esperance. From 3 to five PM, audiences will hear songs rooted within the land, lived expertise, and enduring truths. However for Gutierrez-Could, this efficiency additionally shines a highlight on his criminal activity single and album centerpiece, “Gentle Nonetheless Shines The Identical.”
Launched in December 2024 as a part of the album of the identical title, “Gentle Nonetheless Shines The Identical” is a lyrical and meditative reckoning with the legacy of colonization in North America. The tune displays on the European settlement of Indigenous lands and the generations of wrestle that adopted. But it doesn’t cease at despair — as a substitute, it calls consideration to resilience, unity, and the unchanging mild of the Nice Spirit that shines on all folks.
“You construct a city within the wilderness… / Took the wooden from the timber / Water for the factories / They usually attributed this to progress,” Gutierrez-Could sings with quiet urgency. However the chorus gives hope: “The sunshine nonetheless shines the identical on everybody.”
The monitor was produced by Stephen B. Martin and recorded at Ultrasound Studios in Hanover, MA by engineer Joe Clapp. A key contributor to the tune is guitarist Cliff Goodwin, finest recognized for his work as music director for Joe Cocker. Goodwin’s expressive lead guitar anchors the monitor in each custom and originality, a trademark of your entire album.
Gutierrez-Could’s music blends folks, indie rock, and refined world music influences. The album consists of collaborations with Carley Baer, Elizabeth Grey, and Sean Ryder, all of whom helped form the musical and emotional panorama of the challenge. Extra musical visitors embrace Raianne Richards, Pete Nelson, Suzanne McNeil, and bassist Elizabeth Grey, a punk-era veteran now a part of the duo Field of Kittens.
Michael’s lyrics stroll a line between the non-public and political, weaving themes of loss, resilience, reconciliation, and even humor. “Future” tells the story of a younger girl’s defiance within the face of social expectations, whereas “She Was My Angel” is a shifting ballad about grief and long-term love. “Apology Music” and “5 Twenty 4” present Gutierrez-Could’s skill to maneuver seamlessly between reflection, contrition, and compassion.
The album was impressed by the lack of three shut associates and mentors in 2023 — David Rumpler, Andy Holiner, and Eric “Snake” Gulliksen. “This album is devoted to their reminiscence,” Gutierrez-Could shares. “Their encouragement made all of the distinction.”
Michael Gutierrez-Could’s path to music has been something however standard. A longtime community-based psychotherapist by day and live performance organizer by night time, he’s now recognized for his heartfelt songs, grounded in historical past and humanity. He has launched three earlier studio albums and performs all through New England, typically in assist of group and profit occasions.
The June 1 showcase is each a celebration of tune and a reminder of what folks music does finest: inform tales that matter.
As Gutierrez-Could places it,
“We stand on our connectedness, by means of the current time and thru the ages.”
Hello Michael! Good to satisfy you! Care to introduce your self to the readers for these not aware of your music?
Hey to you additionally. I’m a singer-songwriter at present dwelling within the better Worcester space, not removed from Boston and Windfall, RI, who has been concerned with folks and acoustic music for the reason that Nineteen Eighties. At one level within the Nineteen Eighties, I managed a folks music coffeehouse in Jamaica Plain, MA, for 3 years. I’ve written my very own songs since I used to be 16 years outdated. I’ve three professionally recorded albums so far, the newest accomplished in December 2024. I describe my music as a mixture of people, indie rock, and world music. I additionally work as a medical social employee and therapist by day, and my tagline is social employee by vocation, author and musician by avocation.
“Gentle Nonetheless Shines The Identical” is such a strong title. What impressed that phrase, and the way did the tune come to life?
Thanks for that go with. My niece Ashley Mauzy has been the graphic designer for all three of my albums and for Gentle Nonetheless Shines The Identical, I had her render {a photograph} of a lighthouse close to Plymouth, MA in such a approach that it seems just like the lighthouse has been there for 400 years, for the reason that time of the pilgrim settlement. My inspiration is my perception that we’re all one folks and customary inhabitants of the identical earth, and that the sunshine doesn’t shine extra on one nationality or tradition over others, sharing widespread floor.
This album grapples with the legacy of colonization however ends with a message of unity. How do you stability confronting historic fact with providing hope?
I feel it’s within the curiosity of all of us to stay collectively and study from one another. If there may be solely a White European tradition dominating all others, it’s a shallow and hole approach of existence, and we’re a lot richer when we’ve a multicultural and multilingual perspective on our world. I personally am Irish American on my mom’s facet and Puerto Rican on my father’s facet. I’m a real believer in range, fairness, and inclusion, and my hope is rooted in selling better understanding and tolerance.
You’ve stated the album is devoted to a few associates and mentors you misplaced in 2023. How did their reminiscence form your songwriting and recording course of?
David, Andy, and Eric actually taught me to worth a life devoted to music. Every of them was captivated with performing and expressing themselves by means of their music. David performed Brazilian samba and jazz piano, and he and I had been roommates for a 12 months in Jamaica Plain. His loss hit me exhausting. Andy was the chief of the Jamaica Plain music group within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, and his performances and recordings embraced musical range. Eric, aka Snake, produced my first album and was an excellent bass participant, beginning with the group Orpheus. He was a choosy son of a gun, however he believed in me and my inventive expertise.
You’ve described folks music as a approach of standing on “our connectedness by means of the ages.” What does that connectedness imply to you proper now, in 2025?
Regardless of the narrow-minded and at occasions prejudiced and hateful dialogue that has taken maintain within the USA at the moment, we as people are a civilization that has endured and moved ahead as a result of, at our core, we want one another. This has introduced us ahead regardless of the horrible issues which have occurred and regardless of our self-destructive, mean-spiritedness. Being a therapist helps me see this extra clearly. I’m all about therapeutic in my vocation and my musical avocation, and as a way to heal, we have to be related.
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