Mike Vial and his band, the Great Lake Effect, featuring Ozzie Andrews on stand-up bass and Stuart Tucker on drums, lit up the Wild Rose Moon Radio Hour with a rock and roll-infused presentation of his songs. Mike’s a fine songwriter with a smooth voice and a beautiful falsetto that he knows how to put to good effect. During the first section of the show, he runs through some old favorites, including “Verona,” a song about a breakup that includes the refrain: “Who’s crying now on your birthday . . . Not me.” He also covers a lovely love song for his hometown, “Kalamazoo,” which he plugs in his intro as having a great “music and art scene.”
“Even now. As I pass through this town
My Kalamazoo, I still miss you
Like the first time, I finally
Convinced my heart to leave
Your scenery without saying why.”
At the break, the Loose Associates, Sophia Wilson and Mark Anella, urban farmers, and songwriters from South Bend, shared two short songs from their catalog. The songs, whimsical in nature, including “Free Seeds,” about some bothersome birds plucking seeds from the garden, and “1-4-5,” a bluesy piece addressing the simple chordal pattern that makes up so much of the songwriting craft, provided a good deal of levity. Immediately following this fun, the Shoot the Moon game show ensues, featuring Joel Samuelson and Jason Coffman as unwitting contestants answering a series of questions biographically tied to the band members. The engaging questions relating to Hamtramck, Michigan, the University of North Texas, Japanese Internment hero Fred Korematsu, poet Diane Wikoski, and the Great Lake’s, “lake effect,” weather phenomenon all help flesh out more interesting stories about the band’s background,
The show concludes with a poignant final segment featuring two more of Mike Vial's heartfelt songs. The first, a nostalgic journey reminiscent of Buddy Holly, is a love song that paints the hopeful prayer he sang to his wife on his wedding day.
“We don’t need to be anything other than
We don’t need to be anything more
We don’t need to be anything other than
We don’t need to be anything more–than two love birds
that love each other more–
than anyone–anyone . . . in . . .the . . . world.”
The song cooks along–the glorious rhythm section infecting our ears with Ozzie’s bubbling bass, Stuart Tucker’s swinging drums, and Mike Vial’s big dreadnought guitar anchoring his sweet, cheerful, Holly-esque melody with big strums and staccato rhythms.
After the song, Mike tells the story of his being hit by a car and saved by the guitar he was wearing–which helped cushion the blow. Ironically enough, he mentions, “I was hit by a physics professor!”
The show ends with Mike's beautiful paean to Keshia Thomas called “Two Angels.” Kesia became well known as an African American Woman who threw herself atop a Klu Klux Klan member to protect him from an angry mob. She went on to become a human rights worker and peace advocate. Mike’s song begins tenderly, with a steady pulse of the guitar as he sings, “Feel it in your bones, feel it in your feet, anger is an action that only kindness can beat.” He follows that with another simple line, “From a common spring, to a river slow, throw a rock in water how far the ripples will go!” The song continues to build until he launches into the chorus:
Two angels,
Lay me down,
Make me a mountain,
Make my mamma proud
Two angels,
Stop this crowd,
You might feel alone,
But you’re not alone.
The song drives on, insistent in its message of kindness and caring, until Mike breaks loose, speaking the beautiful story of Keshia’s fine work–delivering it to the pulsing rhythm while still inserting the sung mantra gently, “I will sing in the round!” – then punctuating the piece at the end with an archetypal howl. This last line functions like a grunge scream – hoping the pure idea of love, represented by Keshia, will take hold of the world. It’s an amazing performance–of just this one song. Mike Vial and The Great Lake Effect had blown into the room, and afterwards, for quite a while, we remained adrift in a big wave of love.