the artist: Gabriel James is a Minneapolis singer-songwriter backed by a gifted group of funk jazz musicians. With an extensive roster of clubs and venues strewn across the U.S., Gabriel has followed-up his refreshing songwriting style with intense live performances since 2002. It’s all about the music: Gabriel and Grass Root Records have produced and hosted the Midwest Songwriter Showcase in Minneapolis since 2005, and he continues to promote and facilitate independent local music as vigorously as his own. the album: “Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.” (Dr. Seuss.) When most people hear the words, ‘concept album,’ they immediately assume there’s and off-the-wall story and characters that will need to be remembered-- as though the concept will be testing them when the CD stops. Fits to Pitch, Gabriel’s 3rd studio album, is different; it is a concept album in much the same way as Dark Side of the Moon. Written primarily in 2006, “It wasn’t until I started mixing,” says Gabriel, “that the concept slapped me in the face and said, ‘oh, by the way, you realize all these songs are about growing up, right?’” From that point, Fits focused itself on the ideas of youth: the bliss of ignorance, the sacrifices made for responsibility, how we all stub out toe in the same ways when it comes to love, and the loss of our ability to let go and dream once in a while. “I don’t expect to move mountains with this. But if it makes a few people stop and realize that youth never really goes away, that you can grow up without growing old, that’s as much of a movement as I ever hope to lead.”