2014 December Showcase
2014 December VOCAL Showcase
Once again it was the time for the fabulous VOCAL Christmas showcase, featuring an eight member program. With a large crowd assembled at O’Tooles Bar and Grille, The festivities were kicked off by John Ellis on electric guitar, who helped MC the event. The premise for the showcase was that each performer would do at least one Christmas related song in their set, so John began with “Me and My Baby On a Cold Winter Day”, the first of many long titled songs throughout the night, which gave us a picture of how good it is to be cuddling inside when winter is raging outdoors. He next did “Winter Solstice” an instrumental which featured some tinkling arpeggios reminiscent of icicles. Torch, as she’s known, stepped to the mike next with her acoustic/electric and started her set with “Playing Christmas Songs Before Thanksgiving” which gave us a humorous picture of how radio pushes the season. Torch wowed the crowd with her whistling interlude and then finished off her set with “I know, you know that I know You Love Me”. Frank Lucas, who seldom does showcases, began his set with a look at Christmas behind prison bars in the song “Christmas At Milon (sp.)” which is a prison in Michigan. Joined by Gary Shaver on flute, he next did “Everytime She Says Mine” a cute love song about how his heart beats tighter when she says those words. During breaks between sets, John Ellis gave away door prizes some of which included gift cards to various local chain outlets and VOCAL items.
Marcus Blowfish (Mark Branch) came up front next and did a bluesy version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” and then launched into the soul style music he is known for with a song about nothing titled “She Keeps Calling Me” which is pretty self descriptive and ended his set with “Jody” a tale about a dog. Nancy Cunningham, a first time showcase performer, did an acapella version of her song “A Modern Sonnet” about a love affair. She was followed onstage by Glenda Creamer and her guitar who first performed a Christmas Carol and then her own songs
“Them Magazines” a humorous take on how she let magazines dictate her life, and “After Christmas” another funny song about the dismantling of all those Christmas displays after the holiday is over. Guy Gorman was up next with guitar and harp to perform “I feel So Warm Out In The Cold” a song that described how nothing winter could throw at him could chill his love for the singee. “I Just Want To Love You For Christmas” was self explanatory. Steve Fisher was the closing act for the night and he started off with “For Better or For Worse” with the message that we have to rely on each other to get through adversity. That was followed by “All We Have” a song of hope and then “In The Fields
of The Lord” based on his experiences in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, from where much of his music drew inspiration. To close out his performance, Steve did his own version of The Beatles “Norwegian Wood”. Following the showcase, John Ellis invited the audience to sing along with his version of Chuck Berry’s “Run Run Rudolph”.
Happy Holidays from VOCAL
