June 2026 VOCAL Songwriters Showcase
Three acts were on stage at O’Toole’s Restaurant and Pub for the June 15 Showcase in June: Russell Lawson, Matthew Costello, and Gene & Gayla Mills. That concluded the 39th year for the organization, which will celebrate its 40-year anniversary in July.
Russell Lawson
The evening kicked off with Russell Lawson’s tale of love lost by guilty misbehavior resulting in the “Life Sentence” of the singer, who admitted his wrongs and ruefully accepted the judgement against him as “my life sentence without you.” The “Rock Creek Blues” was a true story, mostly, about the destruction and flooding that followed when “last night it started raining, the skies just opened wide [and] beneath the bolts of lightning we could see the waters rise.” The story of a small neighborhood spot with live music that was lost to progress was “Wayne and Maggie’s Grill” where “every folk and country singer who’d play for tips and drinks and dinner came...when they’d hit town.”
“Pause” recognized a deep sorrow that was briefly interrupted when “the sun shown so brightly today that it drove all my sad tears away” and allowed him to “practice my old dusty smile.” “Church Hill Tunnel” was an imaginative interpretation of a real event that happened in Richmond in 1926 as the C&O tunnel under Church Hill collapsed on a train. Told by the fictitious singer who was a child when his train engineer father was lost to the tragedy, we learned “that Church Hill tunnel claimed so many lives, the railroad sealed it so no one else would die, a locomotive engine still buried deep inside, train whistles still make Momma cry.” Russell wrapped up with a tune that came from a mission trip with church teenagers to the Blackfeet Nation in Montana where they discovered the vistas and mission work showed God’s love was “Montana Wide.”
Matthew Costello
Matthew began with a reminiscence about the summer of love and infamous Woodstock music festival over “3 Days in 69” when “a stone of love caused ripples in the river of time.” Chilling events and strange sounds threaded through an old home in “Ghosts of Centre Hill” in Matthew’s next selection where ghostly apparitions, cold spots and “whispers on the stairs” suggested beings “living in the shadows.” His homage to a 19th century painter filled “The Artist That Hung the Moon” with biographical details and descriptions of memorable works that often cast landscapes in moonlit tones.
The familiar “Shadows of September” evoked the end of summer as the sun sinks in the sky and “I listen for the silent songs” because “there is magic in those shadows.” Matthew’s distinctive and percussive guitar playing led “The Breeze” that recalled “that perfect moment” when the swaying flowers and trees made the wind visible and stirred thoughts of what might have been the origin of the gust…and resulted in realizing “joy reflects peace in what we see.” He concluded with recounting a walk taken on a day while searching for writing inspiration and realizing that everything he experienced and saw could allow him to “Catch A Ride” when he “[trusts] the muse will provide, Cars that pass promise inspiration, Stick out my thumb, catch a ride.”
Gene and Gayle Mills
Gene and Gayle, our final and featured act, brought their stellar musicianship and warm harmonies to the appreciative crowd. Their first tune told of a flight from a hurricane on “Eight Lanes Headed West” and was the first of many to showcase Gene’s fluid flatpicking over Gayla’s solid bass lines. “Anna Mae” was sparked by news of a coal mining accident and imagined the lead character suffering the loss of her husband despite her precaution of “A coal miner's wife walks gently on the ground 'til her husband returns safe and sound.” “Ghost Town” recounted the struggle with memories of a past that couldn’t be escaped unless “I find a place that seems like it can hide me from the bitter winds of memory that's where I'll stay.”
Gayla took lead vocals on “Here We Are”, a tender promise that the singer and her beloved would be “side by side…on this winding ride” no matter where they might be. Gene’s jaunty “Carburetor” (at one time featured on the well-loved NPR “Car Talk” radio show with the Tappett brothers) was a comic screed against modern technology by a man who wants “a car with a carburetor, I want my coffee from a percolator, Write my letters with pen and paper.” “The Dying Fire” was a lovely instrumental where Gene’s graceful finger-picking treaded the line between Celtic and Appalachian idioms with ease.
Gene’s “Working Below” was a story of not taking his father’s advice only to be later offering the same advice to a younger audience. “Earl Thomas Johnson” reflected on the gentrification present in a residential neighborhood that drives a down on his luck former resident to homelessness where “ he's got the Lee Bridge overhead to keep away the rain and a 12-pack of Milwaukee's best to keep away the pain.” “Blue Runway Lights” took the perspective of someone departing by plane in which the “engine’s humming my lonesome lullaby” while “[I] see in the clouds the contours of your face.”
“Forks of Buffalo” recalled the singer’s leaving of his hometown to “make my way to look for fun and better pay” and eventually returning to “houses open to the rain all their colors washed away”, finding the town no longer existed. “Thriving” was a clever narration about eating one’s fruits and vegetables only they were consumed in their fermented state: “Now I’m drinking my grapes, red, white and rosé, I’m drinking corn at least twice a day… olives are good with a little vermouth.” This tune brought many smiles among the crowd. The concluding “Another Day” recalled the prayer of a medieval monk who greeted each morning “here’s another day, another chance to get it right” with the singer struggling unsuccessful to keep up the effort for the entire day.
Showcase Photos
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Photo Credits: Matthew Costello, Matt Manion
