Thursday, February 12, 2009

Plugged In Entertainment Writers Night, Blue Bar, 2/11/09

My bemoaning saga of too many great things going on in one night in this town continues...

As I promised readers I would do, I checked out a writer's night that I hadn't yet been to. But first, I stopped in on the Wild Oats Records showcase at the Commodore to hear Steve Haggard and Kimberly King and Joel Alan Lehman. Then conveniently, it was on to the nearby Blue Bar to catch the Wednesday evening Plugged In Entertainment writer's night run by Joy Collins and my friend (and everybody's) Joe Hrasna, hosted this evening by Lacie Madison. I got there a little early so I got to hear the last of a set by a duo whose regular Blue Bar gig ads I'd seen on TV, O'Shea. They have a strong following and are powerful performers.

I picked this evening to come in support of Kim McLean and Devon O'Day. Kim has a fabulous new release called "Rapunzel's Escape" and she, Devin and bass player Chris (assisted by Matthew Burgess, who was awesome in backing everyone on percussion) did five songs from the CD. (Kim and Devon, by the way, will be guests on my radio show Never Too Old on the 22nd.)

There were many other great writers that evening...those I did get to hear were some favorites of mine, Scott Southworth and Stephanie Layne, Rachel Williams (whose autographed picture I got from her at the 2007 CMA Fest hangs on my office wall), and some new to me writers: Terrie Long and Sarah Gayle Taylor (sorry to be ignorant of names, but Sarah had an excellent fellow with her who did one song..I think his name was Mick. If I find out more, I'll edit the info). I could only stay a short time and couldn't make the rest of the evening, so my apologies to all the other writers I missed and hope to catch you elsewhere soon!

What is always so amusing and so wonderful is running into a lot of the same people at these events, even if I've seen them only a night or two before. That was the case at the Blue Bar, too. We laugh about it and we hug, and we enjoy that we're all there for the same reason: supporting these artists.

Next stop: a place I have heard a lot of buzz about, Red Tree Coffeehouse in Kingston Springs. Stay tuned.

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