August 2024 VOCAL Songwriters Showcase
The August 2024 showcase featured the 2024 VOCAL Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year winners. Veteran writer Glen King was honored with Songwriter of the Year at our annual banquet and long-time VOCAL member Doug Patrick received the Song of the Year award. Jim Puckett and Steve Nuckolls rounded out the slate of performers.
Jim Puckett kicked off the evening with three of his well-crafted tunes. Learning How to Say Goodbye is a love-gone-wrong song about coming to grips with the fact your lover is gone and trying not to cry about it. “Don’t let my heart get in your way” and “writing another letter to the trash can” describe it all! Vegas By Now is an ode to doing stupid things you regret and now you find yourself in the county lockup instead of winning lots of money and getting married in “Lost Wages”. Mab Sky is a tribute to his ancestors who lived and worked in the mining camps, where his grandad drove a grocery truck delivering to the miners. They gave it their best while there but worked hard to escape the camp and find a better life.
Glen King then took the stage with his keyboard and backing tracks and treated us to six songs from his vast catalog. A Rainy Day With You is a jazzy, uplifting tune about being with your lover on a rainy day, not a care in the world about the stormy, wet weather outside. What We Leave Behind is an award-winning ecology song depicting all the environmental abuses going on today, such as the wave of plastic floating on the sea, oil spills, etc. A Song on the Radio reflects his thoughts on the tune he hears continuously over the air, reminding him of this lover and wishing he had said those words about her. It’s Always Sunny is a beautiful love song to his wife, a testimony that everything is great when she’s around, no cloudy skies, brighter than all the summers since the dawn of creation! Glen recounts the wonderful memories of his beloved cat with You Left Your Mark on Me. They watched the young cat as he learned his way and cared for each other when one was under the weather. We all know how sad it is to lose a close furry friend. I Don’t Mind The Rain is an optimistic tune telling us it’s okay to enjoy the rain and all that goes with it as the sun will shine another day! This song involved audience participation in accompanying Glen on the chorus.
Steve Nuckolls then took the stage with three of his tunes. The first was Morning Glories, a song co-written with Glen describing a couple’s life along with the happiness and sadness accompanying it. The song’s setting always ended where the morning glories grow wild by the road. One Half of the Man and Dog is a new song describing a man and his dog who are often seen panhandling along the median in the city streets. You Get To is another new song recounting his father’s words of wisdom, that you don’t have to do something, you get to and should see it as an opportunity!
Doug Patrick finished up the evening with four of his finely-crafted numbers, including the Song of the Year. He opened his set with the self-described “dysfunctional relationship” song You Don’t Cross My Mind. Yes, he certainly remembers all the good times they had but the bad memories are much more vivid and forgettable and now he can do what he wants when he wants! He then took us to the horse track with his memorable Watch That Red Horse Run, a tribute to the horse racing champion Secretariat. It’s a cool tune with great imagery about being at the race track, numbers in hand, just waiting for that underdog to blow everyone away! He then performed his Song of the Year winner Where the Wild Wind Blows. This is a beautifully finger-picked song about his life on a desolate mountaintop and the woman he loved. She was all he needed to fill the hole in his heart, but she couldn’t resist the pull of the city lights so left him high and dry. He still sees her silhouette today against the pure white snow. He ended his set with an ecology song Leave It Like We Found It, offering some very sound advice on some simple things we can do to help the planet and leave no trace.
A great time was had by all listening to excellent original music!
Showcase Photos
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Photo Credits: Matthew Costello
