Swirl is an innovative work and a unique experience for audiences due in part to Lenny Rountree’s humor, songwriting, arranging skills, multi-faceted musicianship, and insightful story-telling. Through a cast of characters young and old, notable and obscure, sweet and sour, Lenny wittingly raises questions and concerns having to do with bullying, education, immigration, and parenting. His songs, ten in all, lyrically provide responses and hint at the inner workings of the characters, such as in “What’s Your Dream?”

In the story, Arma Rest plays a cruel prank on keyboardist Eighty-eight by tying his shoes laces together as he plays the piano. She halfheartedly tries to make amends in accordance with the bullying contract she received from her school. Searching to find the home of Eighty-eight she and her little brother Un run into calypso legend Diamond Duds who asks them what they want to be when they grow up. They are joined by their siblings along with the Notables. The Notables and Rest siblings are in competition and conflict, like two warring factions. Diamond Duds intervenes, with the song “What’s Your Dream,” leading all into a limbo dance as some declare their dreams specifically. Diamond Duds declares at the end, “You’ve got to have vision people.” This song, opening with a soaring, singing guitar, is a joyous and celebratory groove about striving. Swirl is based in part on the children’s book, “The Notable Characters” available at Amazon.com