Morristown ONSTAGE finalist James Gedeon is no stranger to big shows

James Gedeon. Photo by Katharine Boyle
James Gedeon. Photo by Katharine Boyle
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James Gedeon. Photo by Katharine Boyle
James Gedeon. Photo by Katharine Boyle

James Gedeon, 51, of New Vernon is a singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is a finalist for Morristown ONSTAGE, a spectacular amateur talent show on Feb. 24, 2016, at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. The show is a major fundraiser for the Morris Educational Foundation.

By Peggy Carroll

James Gedeon says that the most frequently asked question people ask is: “What is your real job?”

“They assume that if you don’t have a record deal, if you’re not radio shows, you can’t survive in music,” he says. “Music isn’t a conventional nine-to-five job, but it is a real job – just in a different way.”

morristown onstage logoGedeon admits that music has had a secondary role in his life. In the years since he graduated from Niagara University (he grew up in Niagara Falls), he has done everything from bartending, to teaching at St. John’s University (where he earned a master’s degree in government and politics) to corporate recruiting.

At present, he works with a post-production company.

But his music has always been there – ever since he took up the guitar at 14 and taught himself to play. And in recent years, it has been pushing to the forefront.

He began playing in New York soon after he arrived there as a graduate student in the late ’80s. His résumé includes gigs at legendary venues like the Village Gate, the Back Fence, and the Red Lion.

Morristown ONSTAGE

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, at 7 pm

Fifteen Greater Morristown amateur acts compete for prizes and bragging rights

Tickets: $25-$75 at the Mayo Performing Arts Center,  973-539-8008

Proceeds benefit Morris School District programs

Since then, he has played at New York’s LaCirque, the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf Astoria grand ballroom where he was part of the opening band for Dan Aykroyd and the Blues Brothers. He has also performed in Washington DC at the Smithsonian, at the Harvard Club, at the Pebble Beach Club in California.

In 2008 he played at Howard Stern’s wedding, an event he called  “a professional highlight.” During the ceremony Gedeon accompanied Dixie Chick Natalie Maines on the couple’s wedding song, and followed that up by performing three duets with music icon Billy Joel.

Later that same night, as a member of the house band, Gedeon backed up Phoebe Snow in addition to Pat Monahan of the band Train. He has also opened for The Marshall Tucker Band and Livingston Taylor.

He heard about Morristown ONSTAGE from the manager at Provesi, the restaurant where on Friday nights he plays what he calls  “adult contemporary” from artists like Billy Joel, James Brown, John Denver, Jackson Brown and others of their generation.

James Gedeon. Photo by Paulo Frazao
James Gedeon. Photo by Paulo Frazao

For the Feb. 24 competition, he plans to sing one of those songs: James Taylor’s Shower the People.

“I wanted to sing a positive song,” he explained,” about how time is fleeting and not to miss an opportunity to connect with people you care about.”

This will not bet he largest crowd he has entertained. He was a frequent singer for games played by the minor league Rockland County Boulders before as many as 5,000 people.

“But when you are singing,” he said, “you lose sight of how many people there are.”

What would winning mean to him?

“If I win, it will be surprising,” he said. “I would be humbled. There is great talent in the show. Winning would give me encouragement to keep going forward, that maybe I am on the right track, that it is not time to hang up the guitar.

“It would be validation – no pun intended – that I seem to be hitting the right chord.”

The money that goes with the honor will go to his daughter, Grace. She is now 16, just a few years from college. The $1,000, he said, will fatten her education fund.

His next goals: To finish a CD of his own music. He hopes to complete it by the end of the year and make it available on iTunes and CD Baby. And he wants to complete a two-hour James Taylor show, covering more than 40 years of his music.

MORE ABOUT MORRISTOWN ONSTAGE 2016

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