Words by Zakk Pea, writer and musician at Eccie The Dog and event organiser at Plot Twist
First of all, I love folk music. Secondly, there’s bloody loads of them. Normally I’d pick out the instruments by ear, but the man himself was happy to furnish me with the details. Show & Tell begins gently with soft and plucky bass guitar, evoking images of an old upright bass on a dusty porch. The acoustic guitar strums softly on the off-beat, borrowing from genres like Ska and Reggae, but still retaining that Irish Country feel. This is bolstered by Greg’s beautifully bright but well-textured voice that carries the motion for a couple of stanzas until the trumpet and drums appear.
The drums keep it light, and the trumpet rings out in sunny stabs, until the chorus kicks in. You get more of the low drums against falling trumpets and soaring vocals, with the introduction of some electric guitar that turns the warmth from the trumpet to a more powerful heat, and all of it punctuated by a little mournful violin. Which puts me in mind of the meaning behind it all.
Greg tells us that Show & Tell is ‘a love song about two people who dream of growing old together, but fear they probably won’t’. The first verse talks about putting our hearts on the line, will our love be requited? Not only that, but will our heart be held to the end of our days? Until then our hearts reside in the US, which has long been the escape for many Irish people, or Tir Na Nog, some far Western isle where everyone stays young and happy. It’s about that fantastic excitement for what might become of us.
The second verse paints a fragmented vignette of that final embrace, the last time we walk away from someone we were once so desperate to love. We all enter into romance with this beautiful optimism, and dreams of what might lay on the horizon, but so often we fall short through no exceptional fault of our own, and I feel the music of Show & Tell expertly illustrates these conflicting emotions.
Released June 28, you can listen to Show & Tell here:
