VOCAL Songwriter Showcase – July 2014

The July 2014 showcase featured a wide variety of performers, and there was a large, attentive audience present. Gerry Laverty kicked off the evening with his very timely, appropriate song Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. Amen, brother! He brought out the harmonica to accompany his stellar guitar picking for By the Blood of the Nazarene, then gave us a “house tour” of I am a House, Don’t You Know My Name. This is definitely a crowd-pleaser for Gerry. Too Late is an “Appalachian Lullaby”, a Carter-style tune that used to be a slow ballad. He then delivered a couple of blues-style numbers, then transitioned to another crowd favorite Paris (A Dream). Gerry then followed with a Celtic-feeling number Stand in the Gap. He concluded with Zion Crossroads, taking us back many years to this intersection prior to “civilization”.
Jenn Smith then took the stage with several of her friends. David Orcutt did a fine number with Friends are Hard to Find, then gave us Little Fish (not always doing what everybody else is doing). Joanie Valentine then took the stage with Love Me Still, a wonderful piano blues number. David Grant joined the group and delivered a Santana-ish instrumental that conjured up some funky, 60’s psychedelic attitude. Jenn delivered some fine lead guitar on that number. Genesis was a very poignant, pleasant song about the creation of the universe, where there is no distance at all when He is involved. David and Jenn traded vocals, with Jenn on a mellow acoustic guitar. David, Jenn and Joanie then gave us a cool, “slow rock” sound with No Bounds – thought I heard a Hammond organ in there! Jenn, David and Joanie then played a song written by Rosie Robbins, Diamond in my Ring, a really cool minor descending melody. To finish out the evening, another one of Rosie’s songs was then featured, Dear Lord, an ode to online dating. Jenn played lead guitar, with David on keyboards and his “Mac Studio”.