To paraphrase Tom Waits: local author Nickolas Butler’s emotional weather forecast was gloomy with a chance of melancholy. But an unexpected hour in the recording studio with Soren Staff of Them Coulee Boys and Brian Joseph serves as a reminder that the world has not come to a standstill as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artists still craft music to uplift us, to celebrate life. An hour in the year may not mean much, but to this local author, it gives him – and us – a positive perspective that makes a world of difference.

This is the seventh installment of “Visual/Voice,” which features some of the best writers in the region visually vocalizing their words that appear in our pages.