July 2020 VOCAL Showcase

VOCAL July 2020 Virtual Showcase

Keeping the tradition alive, a continuous monthly showcase for over 30 years. Though, of course, we are now in virtual territory, that is, presenting songwriters on Facebook, rather than live. Tonight was no exception.

Introducing the showcase was the president, Matthew Costello, who began the night with his song, “train Of Thought”.

Following that, we switched to the home of Keely Burn, one of our very talented younger members. She kicked off her set with “You’ll Like Me More When I’m Not me”, a request to the singee to be tolerant and understanding of her pecadillos. One such as she’d be more attractive if she were less reactive. This was followed by “Sky Song”. And, then, she closed with her new offering “The Flood”. She states, “nothing else matters when the world is in tatters,” which is pretty much a true reference for today’s problems.

Steve Nuckolls is a frequent showcase performer who is a great songwriter. He popped on the screen next with a set of 5 songs. One his classics, “everything is Just Two (Too) Good”, eas thte first, and it describes the attributes of the his love, such as two good arms to hold me” “two good eyes to see me” etc. on most of her body parts. “Higher Bar’ salutes two young high schoolers who became unlikely heroes. “6 Feet Away” capitalized on the current pandemic, doing his part to social distance and keep all safe with the line “rather 6 feet away than 6 feet in the ground”. Amen. “Rocky Top” another one of his classics, wishes there were more towns that had that country feeling of his own hometown. Lastly: “Black and Blue” a new song, tells the story of a (black) kid and (white)cop who learned to appreciate their differences , through getting to know each other.

Filling out tonight’s bill, was Russell Lawson, a long time VOCAL member who’s been sorely missing from the showcase stage, this tonight on his 46th anniversary. He began with “Suddenly My Life Has Changed” referring to the changes love causes in a relationship over time. “If You Call Me Now” gave us a tale of broken love, she left, he hit the bottle and now he’s in a bad state and if she should call, she would hear him crying. The “Tunnel Song” tells the story of hwat happened when the Church Hill railroad tunnel collapsed on a train that was passing through and the fact that rather than excavate and retrieve the engine, they just buried it in the tunnel and there it lies today. This was followed by “Any Port In A Storm” which was composed of various pictures of weather conditions . “Mission Trip to the Blackfoot Nation” had detailed descriptions of the Montana Wide terrain, while the singer went about spreading God’s word to Native Americans. Back to a bottle song, Lawson told is the story of family woe precipitated by “Jack Daniels Was Daddy’s Best Friend”. Taking inspiration from his daughter’s wedding, “together Forever From This Day On” presented a compendium of vows that were presented on that occasion. Matthew Brady was a famous Civil War photographer, and Lawson along with Co-writer Josh Jones, took us a journey through the photo records that Brady captured in the 1860’s. Last song in the set was “Days Gone By” and in it, we are advised to forget about all the past in our lives and we will be welcomed when we reach Heaven’s gate.

Closing out the showcase, Matthew bid us all a good night and thanked us for viewing.