GLIDE MAGAZINE: Greg Loiacono Delivers Retro Flavored Soul/R&B On Spirited “Giving It All Away”

Greg Loiacono’s second single, “Giving It All Away”, the title track from his forthcoming third solo record exhibits a real depth of collaboration not only through the musicians he played with on the track but also that his son, Noah Loiacono, created the accompanying video with his partner Isaac Goff and their friend Pheobe Zheng in New York City. “Giving It All Away” is a more mellow follow-up to his last single, a sweet take on Genesis’ ”That’s All”. “Giving It All Away” takes us back to Greg’s softer side but this time with a dose of Soul that is immediately retrievable. In fact, Loiacono said, “The ‘you can’t take it with you when you go’ back-up vocals were my attempt at doing a ‘Pips” thing as in Gladys Knight and the Pips.” The song’s meaning, however, digs deeper and makes use of a beautiful thought as Greg continues, “ . . . the sentiment was taken from an insight meditation by Jack Kornfield. My mom gave me a bunch of cassettes of some of his old talks and I used to listen to them all the time when I drove around . . . a long time back . . . long enough to have a tape player in my car. He said it very off the cuff. I envision the shoulder shrug of an old Rabi with it, ‘Well, you can’t take it with you when you go, so . . . ‘ And as pointed out, “Giving It All Away” is decidedly softer than his first single release and this is due to the influences intermixed here. In addition to Gladys Knight and the Pips influences, another influence can be heard as well. “I listen to a lot of Sade. I had ‘Hang On To Your Love’ on the turntable last summer . . . just falling in love with her and her band all over again. And I wanted to respond to her lyric about hanging onto love with giving love all away . . . ‘Don’t hang onto your love.’” And this mix of Gladys Knight and the Pips along with the silkiness of the Sade influence makes for a scintillating track and the video balances this with Noah Loicacono being sure to slather on a healthy dose of psychedelic imagery over the top of an urban cityscape. The personnel involved in and playing on this track are wide-ranging and impressive featuring Michael Urbano on drums (Cracker), Dave Schools on bass guitar (Widespread Panic), Danny Eisenberg (The Mother Hips) on Hammond organ, Kelly McFarling on backing vocals and Scott Hirsch (Hiss Golden Messenger) on acoustic guitar With Hirsch producing the track as well.