Gregory McLoughlin releases new single “Businessman”

Armed with a bass, a kick drum and a foot tambourine, Gregory McLoughlin has spent years transforming sidewalks, parking lots and festival campsites into makeshift venues for spontaneous performances. His approach to music is intimate and truly connective, offering a reminder that songs, at their best, can still bridge the distance between strangers. Now, after decades as a sideman, Gregory steps fully into the spotlight with his eponymous debut album Gregory McLoughlin, set for release on December 12th.

Growing up in Westchester County, New York, his father’s steady rhythm as a runner set the tempo of family life, while the comforting glow of late-night Donna Reed Show reruns provided a refuge from instability. He wasn’t the kid who fit in easily, but he learned early the power of standing apart rather than blending in and music arrived through community, late nights and chance encounters.

A teenage love affair with hair-metal and Headbangers Ball gave way to a serendipitous discovery, a stray Grateful Dead cassette that changed everything. The improvisational freedom of the jam scene drew him in, offering connection through music made in the moment. By his twenties, Gregory was living in the Bronx, pulling an old bass from under the couch and teaching himself by ear. Years of gigs followed, from being fired to finding his footing, eventually joining the groove-driven BuzzUniverse as their bassist, while a songwriting course through Berklee reignited his creative drive, leading him to begin writing songs of his own.

During the pandemic, he built a new kind of stage online, joining the Busking Down the House community and hosting a weekly livestream called TGIM (Thank God It’s Monday). It became a ritual, a virtual village of faces in a chatroom who gathered for his stories and songs. Offline, he invented his own form of busking; one person at a time, no amplifiers or pretense. “Can I play you a song?” he’d ask, bass in hand. Sometimes they said no, sometimes they sang along and every so often, whole campsites joined in. Those moments, small and electric, became the pulse of his debut record.

The album’s lead single titled “Businessman” serves up a guitar-driven track inspired by David McCullough’s book The Johnstown Flood, reflecting on the cost of unchecked power. It captures Gregory’s dual gift of storytelling based in moral context and musicianship that feels alive in the room. Other songs, like “Little Janessa,” lean toward intimacy, unfolding as a three-part letter of love and forgiveness, conceived in a Kauai field and described as “feeling like ocean light.”

On December 13th, Gregory is set to celebrate the album’s release with a performance at Garcia’s at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, a fitting homecoming for an artist who grew out of the jam-band community. The songs on Gregory McLoughlin are handmade, honest and defiantly human, built on basslines that move like heartbeats and stories that stay with you.

Listen to Businessman below

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