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January Songwriters Showcase

Pops Walker
James Lester

Awhile back Pops Walker, the man behind The Shenandoah River SongFest, made contact with VOCAL to trade informaiton and share announcements. It came about that Pops was available to do a showcase and the 15th is the night.

Opening for Pops is the ever popular James Lester.

Come join us for a night of great live music!

Pops Walker

Pops has been entertaining a small but ever growing group of avid fans for some twenty years. He’s performed in various venues around the world. And has fans in Europe, Asia, Hawaii, and throughout the continental USA. He’s been part of several duos/trios, but now performs solo as a performing songwriter, with a penchant for “acoustic blues”. And while up-tempo blues is his favorite style, it’s only part of his repertoire. Listening to any of his recordings, one can hear dashes of folk, jazz, country, and a tidy little genre called Southern Fried Zen Mojo, a phrase coined just for him.

He’s a true independent artist, and instead of joining the mainstream, he’s forged his own unique approach to the music industry. Though he’s a member of ASCAP, he releases his recordings independently via his own publishing company, Icknob Publishing. He rarely, if ever, plays bars or lounges, but instead has targeted acoustic listening rooms and the performing songwriter circuit, especially house-concerts. Pops also hosts the Shenandoah River Songfest, a large annual event for performing songwriters, and The Wetlands Series, a small, intimate event that takes place about four times a year. His CD sales come mainly from his live shows, and are augmented by on-line sales at CDBaby. As a rule, he doesn’t tour. Indeed, he’s turned down a couple of offers for overseas tours. He tries to perform about twice a month, and is quite happy with that pace.

James Lester

Living in the VA countryside, most of his songs are written while relaxing on his front porch. Many of the lyrics come to him as he travels the surrounding country roads. James hopes they give the listener the same sense of peaceful joy and happiness that he gets from writing and playing them.

One of the important and most misunderstood skills of songwriting is performance, and that’s why the VOCAL Songwriters Showcase has been going full tilt for over 20 years. In a local venue (currently Richbrau Taphouse in the Shockoe Slip), in front of a real crowd (fortunately, mostly songwriters like yourself), you can hone the craft of delivering stories set to melody.

Each month on the third Monday, we gather from 8:00 p.m. till 9:30 p.m. to see and hear three or four of Virginia’s songwriting musicians let us in on their best stuff. The performance list is open to all VOCAL members and the Showcase is open to the public. With slots assigned generally on a first come-first serve basis at least a week prior to the show, it’s not just another open mic night.

You’re expected to show up with your woodshedding done, yet more than a few showcase performances have been introduced with the comment, “I just wrote this today, and I’d really like to know what you think.”

Fresh, fearless and always friendly, the VOCAL Songwriters Showcase is one of the great benefits of VOCAL membership, a real stage where you can get your “C” legs and find out first hand how audiences react to your compositions. Come on down one third Monday and hear for yourself!

- Russell Lawson

© Virginia Organization of Composers and Lyricists