The Mighty Electric St. Jude Band hits close to home with a song about longing while we are all apart

You can reach me by sailboat

Climb a tree and swing rope to rope

Take a sled and slide down a slope

Into these arms of mine

After delivering a head-bobbing, toe-tapping session of “Hold On, I'm Coming” for their second video performance, The Mighty Electric St. Jude Band went in a different – but no less powerful – direction for the third edition of their “Home Edition” show.

This time, there were fewer band members appearing in the video, perhaps a result of conflicting schedules, or maybe it was intentional because the song lends itself to a sparser grouping: A three-piece band, with one primary voice and one backup voice.

You can jump on a speedy colt

Cross the border in a blaze of hope

I don't care how you get here

Just get here if you can

The original Brenda Russell song “Get Here” was released in 1988 and became a big hit for for jazz singer Oleta Adams, who covered it in the early 1990s. According to news reports at the time, the song was considered to be the unofficial anthem for the first Gulf War.

It very well may turn out be the appropriate anthem for today, too. The way St. Jude pharmacy technician Debra Black wistfully sings it, we are gently reminded that in these socially distant times, we are all missing someone right now.

Whether it is hands on a window pane, a familiar voice on the other end of the line, smiling faces from a balcony across a once-busy street or even a Zoom call with 31 of your colleagues, these are the moments keeping us buoyed until we can be together again.

There are hills and mountains between us

Always something to get over

But if I had my way

Surely you would be closer

I need you closer

That, and the comforting tunes from The Mighty Electric St. Jude Band.