Songbook—The Songs of Jenny Stafford

Okay, this will be a little bit weird. Jennifer Stafford (official name—she goes by Jenny) is a lyricist. So her songs include the work of composer(s) as well. On Monday night, we heard the music of Willem Oosthusyen, Anna K. Jacobs, Niko Tsakalakos, Brandon Aronson, and Will Aronson.

I would list all of the vocalists and the band but we’d be here all night. Suffice it to say that all sang and played very well. I was impressed that one of the vocalists shied away from the standing microphones—and she was heard very clearly in the house. I like that un-enhanced sound. The band was great, too.

Songbook is a look into budding theater songwriters/lyricists. Ms. Stafford’s examples included stand-alone songs as well as portions of the shows Prodigy, and The Artist and the Scientist.

Prodigy has characters including our protagonist (a female prodigy wannabe), her cello, her mom, and Mozart. I’m not making this up, you know! It all works. I liked “I Do” best, a song sung by the character of the cello. There is a love lost/lost love relationship there, including the lyric (referring to the flesh-and-blood boyfriend (not the cello himself)), “Can he hear the broken heart like I do?” Powerful stuff.

Of the stand-alone songs, “My Award” was interesting (if a bit introverted and ‘woe is me’) and I particularly liked “Mrs. Bixby’s Letter.” This is a fictionalized response to a letter sent by President Lincoln to a woman who had five sons killed in the Civil (hah!) War. Her response was scathing. We are dealing with a lyricist here, and I managed to scribble down, “black and blue and gray.” Pretty fitting, I think.

The songs from The Artist and the Scientist also had rather unconventional characters, including the Artist, Creativity, the Scientist, etc. Interesting concepts. Do they translate into a musical?

Ms. Stafford writes good lyrics; she seems to have teamed up with some good composers. Do we have the next big team on our plate? Only time will tell. Keep an eye out for her name, though.

ConcertMeister