I walked into Red Tree Coffee this evening and immediately felt nostalgic.
You see, I spent about 15 years supporting local singer/songwriters on the coffeehouse circuit in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. I credit that time in my life for opening the door for the support I'm blessed with doing here today for the Nashville singer/songwriter community. In the Twin Cities I bonded with many artists and coffeehouses and saw them come and go and change with the times. We rejoiced when we watched singers and writers progress from debuting their first CDs in such coffeehouses to making a living with their music and becoming touring artists.
Red Tree is one such sweet coffeehouse in Kingston Springs that holds that intimate, friendly atmosphere I've loved so much. Two sisters from Arkansas, Amy and Katie, serve up tasty coffee and other goodies and are two "cheerleaders" with great enthusiasm for the music they present every Friday night. This evening, the musical feature was one favorite singer of mine and one new to me.
Now, if you are a true fan of someone and you go to their show, the one thing you want to have happen most is to see that artist or group succeed with a great crowd that is totally attentive and enthusiastic. Those of you who have been reading this blog for some time know I've been on record about George Adams and how I think he's one of this town's greatest talents with a heartbreakingly beautiful, hit the tuning fork of the heart, flip your soul upside down and backwards voice. This night pulled together the best elements of the last couple of times I've seen him. His 45 minute set combined his own strong material with some covers. As I told you last October, George adds first class artistry to well-known songs, and in particular he brought it with "What's Going On", showing off that awesome vocal range of his, and Larry Gatlin's "I've Done Enough Dying Today." He had a good sized, mega-receptive crowd. I couldn't have been more thrilled for him.
It was also a pleasure to hear Louise Mosrie, a fine singer/songwriter with a lovely voice, solid material and engaging presence. One favorite of mine was "Don't Come Looking For Me" and the aforementioned Amy and Katie obviously loved "God Lives In Arkansas". Louise will be playing a few shows around town and is working on a new CD, so I'll be keeping an ear out for her, I'm sure.
As for Red Tree, I'll be back...they've got a couple of good friends of mine playing there in the coming weeks.
I'm very thankful for the presence of some friends who I invited to come down to join me for the show and help show support. I also thought about the friends I've been bumping into at all these events on this jam-packed schedule of mine (see the previous blog entry). How fitting it was that, as I was heading home, I turned on the radio and heard Michael W. Smith singing "Friends" on the Grand Ole Opry. I know it had to be God winking. I felt very lucky on this Friday the 13th.
I love my friends in this town and I love this town.
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