Today, perhaps more than ever, the idea of the community coming together to help each other through hardship and adversity is something we need more of. And, in the case of Johnny Vitulli, it is to his beloved Bronx home, always a place of tough streets and equally tough people, that he looks for inspiration for his latest song, “Bronx Love,” a song full of such sentiment.
The title is a phrase that he remembers his father used to describe the unity of the borough and the ability to be optimistic and strong in the face of difficulties. Over a buoyant indie-pop groove, he finds the goodness in his home, from the warmth of its community spirit to the crack of a ball on a bat coming from Yankee Stadium, a place that holds the position of refugee, dreams, and an almost religious beacon for many.
Vitulli may have traveled the globe and now calls a different city home, but “Bronx Love” speaks of the connection everyone has with the place where they were raised. As a wise man once said in the song, “I never saw my hometown ‘til I went around the world.”
Quite so.
