For space is wide and good friends are too few.
Vor is the name we won from our fathers.
Vor is the love that our mothers provide.
Vor is the honor we share with our brothers.
Vor is the duty that keeps us alive.
“Vor,” by Bill Sutton – a good, old-fashioned space hymn for the Vorkosigan Saga. This version features Bill and Brenda Sutton, plus Betsy Tinney on cello, Chas Somdahl on guitar, and Dave Clement, Becca Leathers, and Michelle Dockrey providing backing vocals – including a beautiful Russian counterpoint, written by Michelle.
And the tales of our creations never change with what we tell
How we dream of something better than ourselves
“The Collars,” by Escape Key. “We all want a better life for our children” gets tricky when your child is an illegally constructed artificial intelligence. Based on a short story by Matthew Dockrey, the singer’s husband, but the song stands alone well.
They raid your liquor cabinet, though they’re not of age to drink
They’re staging tango competitions in the kitchen sink
They’re critiquing your new painting (your perspective’s off, they say)
And they’re analyzing your décor for optimal feng shui
“Eight-Legged Blues,” by special-edition four-member Vixy & Tony (Michelle Dockrey, Tony Fabris, Betsy Tinney, and Sunnie Larsen)
The part of the spiders is credited to Betsy’s cello, Raven.
I usually prefer to get studio recordings when I can, if only to make it more likely that all the words will be intelligible but…this one is special. They set out to create a geek anthem, and boy did they ever.
Michelle Dockrey said this about writing this song:
Background: this was commissioned by Tony, who wanted a geek anthem. I got partway through writing it and found myself blocked. Thinking of all the things still wrong, and things that were going on at the time both in and out of fandom– harrassment, backlash over representation, lack of protections still for so many– I just didn’t see how I could write a song about how much it got better.
I confessed this tearfully to Tony, who said, essentially, “write it the way you see it.”
“We Are Who We Are,” by Vixy & Tony, lead vocals by Michelle Dockrey with Tony Fabris on guitar, Betsy Tinney on cello, Sunnie Larsen on violin, and the attendants of FilkCONtinental 2014…as themselves. Lyrics and more information here
I’ll show you heights of stone and steel, a city brave and bold
That the rainfall turns to silver and the sunset turns to gold
Nestled down in velvet mountains and water’s satin foam
Where alchemy is everyday routine
And of all the jewels I’ve seen
Emerald green is the color of my home
I love a song that paints a fantasy picture of a real place. “Emerald Green,” a song for the Pacific Northwest, by Vixy & Tony
But you only knew me in winter
When the leaves had all finished their fall
Yes you only knew me in winter
So how could you know me at all?
According to Michelle Dockrey, “’Persephone’ is, essentially, about falling in love with someone who’s not right for you.”
Lyrics and chords here
Have a nice, post-apocalyptic song.
Lyrics and chords available here.