John’s second songbook, “It’s Only Life,” contains the music for the 13 songs and 1 instrumental, from the Ovation Award-winning musical revue and CD of the same name, that are not already in the first (“Grateful”) songbook. The songs are in the same keys as on the recording, and group numbers are written here as solos. There is one duet, “Love Will Find You In Its Time.” The songs included are:

1. The Artist at 40
2. Painting My Kitchen
3. Playbill
4. Love Quiz
5. A Contact High
6. What You Need
7. When You’re Here
8. I’m Not Waiting
9. Progression (piano solo)
10. It’s Only Life
11. Love Will Find You In Its Time (duet for tenor and soprano)
12. On My Bedside Table
13. I’ve Learned To Let Things Go
14. A Glimpse Of The Weave

A foreward by legendary lyricist (Fiddler on the Roof) Sheldon Harnick:

John Bucchino is a remarkable songwriter. If you purchased this collection of his songs, most likely you know that already; if you are simply browsing through this songbook out of curiosity, you have an exciting discovery ahead of you. What will you find?

For one thing, you’ll discover a unique voice, a voice like no other songwriter writing today. That distinctive voice is more than the sum of its parts, an amalgam of enviable gifts. To begin with, John is a true poet, with a poet’s sensitivity to language and the ability to capture thoughts and feelings in memorable phrases. And when it comes to sharing those thoughts and feelings – including his worries, his anxieties, his desires – John is as fearless as he is candid. You’ll discover songs that are intensely personal; yet to know these songs is to develop a sense of camaraderie with John: yes, I’ve thought that! I’ve felt that! I’ve experienced that!

He is a master craftsman but we’re rarely aware of that aspect of his artistry; for John, the creation of a song seems as effortless and as natural as breathing. Anything he chooses to express, no matter how complex an idea, no matter how elusive a feeling, he manages to put into words and music. And as the thoughts and melodies pour out of him in what seems to be a free flowing stream of consciousness, instead of creating verbal and musical chaos, he invariably finds musical forms which make everything coherent. (Not only that: engaging rhymes keep popping up, often where you least expect them. Likewise, morsels of John’s wry wit.) What else will you discover? A wonderfully rich harmonic palette and a melodic gift which enables him to give us music of ineffable tenderness as well as music of sheer animal excitement (along with everything that falls between those two extremes).Enough. The songbook is in your hands; the songs are waiting to be relished. Expect the unexpected. John Bucchino is a remarkable songwriter.