June 2020 Showcase
Welcome to the new method of showcasing our members original music, the virtual Facebook performance. Tonight’s performers included Matthew Costello, Jim Pickett and Matt Manion. As usual: Matthew opened up the program with one his songs “All That Matters To Me'” as a way of segueing into our first songwriter, Jim Puckett.
Puckett is a fairly newcomer to the VOCAL family, but is past showcases performances have always been well received. Tonight was no exception. Possessing a strong vocal presence, Jim kicked off his set with “To These Times’ an older song, but relevant to today’s current unrest. Included in the lyrics was this apropos line “selfish stupidity unfortunately follows where we go.” Indeed, “One More Life” wished the singer had more time to live parts of his life again. Reaching for an alternate tuned guitar, Jim presented “The Only Stars” which was a forlorn tale of lost love, where the stars in her eyes now were only the stars in the sky. Switching back and adding a harp to his next song, he gave us “Sleeping In Today” which surely met the apporval of the listeners who would like to get a day off and do nothing but laze around. “In Richmond” was a song he wrote for a radio station contest a few years back, (he didn’t win) which took us for a tour of the city and detailing many of it’s attractions. Closing out his set, Jim picked the tempo up and hit us with “Stand In The James” a rouser that invited her to come and stand in the river along side him and enjoy the view.
Switching screens, albeit sideways, we were introduced to Matt Manion, as the second performer of the night. Matt is a long standing member of VOCAL and appears in showcases throughout the year, especially for the Christmas show. Tonight he kicked off his set with “Power Play” which I mssed due to a screen mishap. Next he performed one of his standard songs “Life Can Be Funky Down Along the Pamunkey” And it could very well be, as he described many of the life forms and attractions that permeate the river area, such as the different birds, flowers and fish. “Devil’s Half Acre” refers to the place where Lumpkin’s Jail once stood in Richmond and was where slaves were imprisoned and sold. A sad commentary on this town’s past history and well told. In that vein of history, “Necessary Trouble, Good Trouble” was a title Matt turned into song, from the speech of John Lewis, a compatriot of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a well known civil rights activist. Sometimes it’s necessary to “rock the boat’ to up end the status quo and make waves for a change in a new direction toward freeedom and justice. Next song “Blue Springs Hideaway”was co -written with Matt and was a picturesque montage of nature, including views from mountain tops and forest floor alike. Saluting a local institution, “Crossroads” (coffee house) Matt delights in wishing he could play and song his songs there, we hope he will. “I Don’t Need To Be Perfect” really means just that in this self anaylyzing lyric where he hopes “I don’t want to be right” “I don’t want to be macho” “I don’t want to be bright”, “I just want to be me”. To close his set, Matt performed one of his standard tunes about the dangers of associating with cheaters “Don’t Stand By Me” as he imagines what might happen to him if he stands on stage next to a philandering trumpet player who could be shot by an angry husband and accidentally get hit instead. Let’s hope it’s only fiction.
And with that, the showcase ended and all that was left was to read the kudos posted along side the video. Great show, guys.
