Some nights are just magical, and from the moment that #TEAMw21 walked through the doors of Analog, on the second floor of The Hutton Hotel we knew that we had arrived somewhere special. This was sumptuous, a stage of 6 high stools sat in front of plush red curtains each with it's own guitar. Above the stools a modernist sculptured chandelier. Things were equally pleasant for the audience with plush leather sofas and other comfy chairs to view the action from. Cameras were set up for a live stream and the menu was a step above the fare on offer at every other venue we had visited, so far - crab fritters no less!!
In truth we had been drawn to Analog by the presence of Alyssa Flaherty whose opening few singles #TEAMw21 have championed - naturally she declined to play any of them and so we sat through 25 songs from artists we had little idea about at the time. Little did we know that by the time we left we would be firm fans of all of them, after witnessing one of the best songwriters rounds ever!
Rather than a round by round breakdown let's shine a spotlight on each individual artist. Dave Kennedy was the host, the gel that held the whole evening together, speaking to him after the event, his passion for the Southern Nights brand shone through and rightly so. The masterstroke that this event would pull, was to have an additional musician in the mix. It could be a dobro, or a mandolin player, this month we had Natalie Murphy on violin and backing vocals who was able to add an additional dimension to the overall sound.
All of the guys seemed to have crossed paths and written songs with each other at some part which made for an easy atmosphere and Alyssa was warmly welcomed, deserving to be in such company.
Dave Kennedy's opening song was bizarrely born from a pottery documentary in Lockdown, where cracked pots were found to let in a little light - his co writer would observe it was like a heart. This would lead into a short observation about the election which was possibly the most erudite thing we heard during our stay about trying to bring people together rather than tearing them apart.
"How The Light Gets In" would reveal Dave to have a rich warm soulful country voice. This was top drawer stuff to make you pause and think as you listened
"Everybody breaks every now and then
That's just how the light gets in"
The biggest surprise was that this song seems yet to be released.
Dave's final song of the evening was an old song "When The Morning Comes Around" and would date back to his time in a band called Kelsey's Woods. A more upbeat guitar style was matched by the fiddle and it must be said a very impressive vocal performance from Dave who moved to a more full throated soulful delivery as if backed by a band. It rightly drew a large round of applause.
Vinnie Paolizzi would open proceedings, he'd be the butt of many of Dave's jokes, but took them in good spirits. His opening song would emerge from a late quote from a failed writing session - "The Song That Makes Me Rich". it details the the path that will be taken when Vinnie pens that "big old hit"
"It'll be 3 chords and anything but true"
The song that makes me rich won't be about you".
Vinnie's second contribution could easily fool someone from the UK, it's spelt Cairo but in the US pronounced K - Row. It's a town in Illinois where Vinnie would suffer a speeding ticket in dubious circumstances. It was about never wanting to return to "Cairo". With the first verse a retelling of his fateful day, and the rest invented, Vinnie would softly relay the events in the most storyteller of ways, that you waited in anticipation for every line.
Vinnie's ability to take tiny moments and weave extraordinary narratives from them was amazing - "I Already Do" was inspired from seeing his daughter to be on a pre natal scan - any parents will just know how vividly real each line to this song is and the tone in Vinnie's voice managed to exactly convey that feeling.
"They put your picture on the screen - I saw your heart and watched it beat
Just a little ray of light, crystal clear in black and white
It's only been 11 weeks but it's finally real to me
You got 10 fingers and 10 toes all you gotta do is grow"
Vinnie manages to ponder all those questions that every expectant parent wonders about and those inner feelings and brought them into a truly moving song.
The second half of the evening would start with Vinnie reflecting on how both Jack and himself have descended from blue collar working families.
The way it is, is the way it's always been - working hard to never work too hard again
We've all got a lot of the little we need . Money don't grow on the Family Tree"
Natalie and Dave would add additional backing vocals on this tribute to the working man
Vinnie's final contribution "What You See Ain't Always What You Get" came with an introduction that would be referenced during the first verse about a broken down tour bus - it seemed quite light hearted at first then he hit us with the second verse!
"I bought a quarter carat riding on a gold band
I thought it would fit perfect on her left hand
She said "Yes" then she said "No" , then she said "Goodbye"
Now if you want to find that diamond it's doing pawn shop time"
Delivered with a real sense of what might have been, Vinnie was able to reel us into the world that he had just created.
It wasn't all I'd hoped it'd - I let my eyes play tricks on me
It sure looked good in the pictures, but now a picture is all that I got left
What you see ain't always what you get"
Hugely enjoyable on the night it was only subsequently after returning to the UK did we realise that we had a tangential connection with Vinnie in the shape of #TEAMw21 favourite Joe Martin with whom he wrote "It Doesn''t Rain In LA" for which he also released his own version that for some reason we started a review of yet never quite got round to finishing.
Chris Canterbury was to prove a different kettle of fish entirely, Dave would introduce his first effort with the line "He only plays happy tunes" knowing full well it would be nothing off the sort. With his cap on tightly and his head bowed much of the evening it was hard to get a clear look at Chris however it was easy to be impressed by his catalogue of tunes.
He would play left handed, and for his first round offered to do one that both he and Dave both knew allowing Dave to provide additional vocals on the chorus. He chose "Back To You" during which he managed build the tension by doing less and less, leaving ever more little silent gaps.
"Midnight lonesome - I'm broke and alone
A thousand miles away from home
In a motel room with an empty view
I'm gonna find my way back to you
Rarely have so few words, conjured up quite such a well rounded image of someone in torment. With Dave adding and those extra vocals and Natalie providing a perfect fiddle line - this was already jaw dropping stuff.
Chris's voice would gradually build in volume throughout in this quite special performance.
There was little introduction to Chris's second song other than it was written with Jack McKeon. The opening was gently picked out on his guitar and as the first verse opened, so compelling was the narrative, the characters all but appeared before our very eyes. it was like having a novel read to us - where was it going next?
"There's a padlock hanging from a double door
A vaulted ceiling and a pinewood floor
A teacher and a banker and a traffic cop
Congregating round a coffee pot"
It is only as we near the end of the second verse that the song slowly started to reveal itself
""Even God don't know the shape I'm in
Like 18 strangers in a high school gym"
The character of the song are lightly suggested with just a line about them, yet such is the quality of the writing they are so vivid
"Charlie got his chip for 30 days, Randall found peace in a different way
There's a new kid asking about the 12 step plan, it's going to bring him home from Afghanistan"
At the end even Dave would look across shaking his head at just what a marvellous song we had just heard.
For his third entry Chris Canterbury would play a waltz, after recalling a story about Steve Earle pawning his guitars. It would be the inspiration for a desperately grim yet totally absorbing song - the guitar strokes were more deliberately louder, the pace still gentle, the atmosphere electric.
"Chasing these rainbows - it's dragging me down
To a burned out apartment on the South side of town
Where the whiskey and the misery cut straight to my bone
Its a damned lonesome feeling - Keeping up with the Jones"
The delivery was passionate, that of a man who knows his life is in a spiral yet can't find a way to escape.
It's a damned vicious cycle this life that I choose
Walking in circles with the Backsliding Blues"
For the second half Dave would say that Chris was going to start with a polka!, You might imagine that a run of slow dark songs might prove overwhelming and downbeat but such was the way that they were crafted that you were just sucked into the world of Chris's making, one he could dissolve each time he played the final chord of a song. Written with Vinnie, "The Devil, The Dealer & Me" would keep that run going.
"And no, my mind, I don't wanna lose it
A heart only breaks when you use it
All the things I don't wanna see
The devil, the dealer, and the dark side of me"
It was another song where you just held on and waited to see where the next line would take you.
Chris's final song "Fall Apart" would come with no spoken introduction, just a slow gently picked one on his guitar, as if mentally preparing himself for the next few minutes ahead.
"Two lane roads and cheap motels
Sure beats the devil out of staying still
And I don't know where I am
I never stayed long enough to give a damn"
by the third verse you were watching transfixed
"Silver wings and a pound of grass
I've been sleepin' under an overpass
On the outskirts of a sundown town
Makes a guy like me wanna turn around"
An absolutely compelling performer, from start to finish - it is hard to truly get across just how special Chris's contributions were.
Jack McKeon from New York State's first entry was written with Vinnie, and was a ghost story conjured up from Vinnie receiving mail at his rental address for the previous owner. From such slight beginnings and a quick address change to "Willow Road", came a song beautifully packed with tiny details about the house like the "Cracks in the wall". It would touch on the nature of a house that stays the same while the residents come and go and the mysterious lady herself. Upbeat guitar playing as opposed to Chris's slower style, yet in it's own way equally compelling.
His second contribution "It Happens All The Time" was another masterful piece of writing, contrasting seemingly bad things happening with something good seeing looking out for each other as a starting point to rebuild from the election. Enhanced even further by the additional fiddle, this was a time to sit back and savour each line -
"Single Mum on the shoulder stuck with a flat
A kind hearted stranger stops - "Can I help with that?"
She couldn't believe he'd take the time to ask
It happens all the time
Well that same stranger had just got laid off
After 20 long years in the same old job
Didn't feel like helping, something told him to stop
It happens all the time"
This was a song full of wry observations, and it was easy to see how it could address America at this time
"The day that you wish could just go on forever, is the same day someone wishes they could forget
Even the heart that's got it all held together, someday is just hanging on by a thread"
This set of writers ability to conjure up a moving phrase or moment seemed limitless
"Hospital bed, someones talking to the Lord,saying "Thank You for the time", asking a little more
Few flights up, there's a baby being born - It happens all the time"
Vinnie could be seen mouthing along and on completion it was not just the audience but the artists themselves that broke into applause.
Jack's third song "Last Slice Of Heaven In This Town", saw inspiration in a man looking to hang on to his small holding while those around him are selling up their land for building on.
"Every field is a row of houses, waiting to be built"
Jack's fourth song "Easy Ride" was a new one that was actually a song about life, particularly as a Nashville based musician, which is never going to be an "Easy Ride" and about not comparing your journey against others.
"You can cut you teeth chasing after dollars
Can chew you up and spit you right back out
It's a long way to the top when you start climbing
Then your flying and just like that you're falling to the ground"
It did a perfect job of highlighting the ying and yang of the exuberance of things when they go well against the reality of those nights when they don't.
Jacks final song "Crooked Teeth" was observational from sitting in a diner. A Saturday morning spent there would yield yet another jaw dropping good song - as Jack sketched out a couple of the people within,
How is this for an opening salvo
"There's a woman in an apron
Standing in the kitchen
Bruise on left arm
Where the needle keeps missing"
"Eveyone's a Christian till someone needs some help"
Sitting at the far end of the row of performers was Alyssa Flaherty, the raison d'etre for us being there. We'd spent much of the pre show talking to her friends and family, who were all excited about her future. With her shoulder length blonde hair tussling out from under her black hat and with the largest guitar of all of the players, Alyssa only 21 in August would play no songs that we knew, but then she laid down 5 brand new ones for us to get our teeth into .
Hailing from Annapols Maryland but now resident in Nashville she would break up the run of male voices with "Sawdust Settles". Her vocals initially a little richer and deeper than we imagined they would be, it was to be a song dedicated to the guys who go out each weekend to charm a different girl. The opening verse would be as if ripped from a charmers playbook.
"They gave you the textbook, second look,
Hat tipped down kind of smile
That makes you weak at the knees"
"I bet he said he that he don't dance much
but let's go ahead and give it a whirl"
It all leads to a great pay off line
"You'll find out you're dancing with the devil
When the "Sawdust Settles", the word Sawdust elongated in the most country of ways.
With strident upbeat guitar playing embellished with the additional fiddle, this was a promising start.
Alyssa's second contribution was making it's debut - "Lucky You", which takes the idea of seeing an ex with their new partner but takes it in a different sassy direction finding positives rather than dwelling on negatives..
"You must have had all the right fingers crossed, yes she looks like a dream come true
You must have been thanking all your lucky stars and right now I'm thanking mine to
I thought seeing you with her would hurt like hell but it don't,
Lucky me I'm doing good on my own, guess I'm lucky you let me go"
Our admiration for Alyssa was growing with each passing round, her third song "Inside Out" would only enforce that opinion more. Her whole vision as a young songwriter seemed to be very wide and not confined to the subjects someone just in their twenties tends to use as a basis for songs. After a gentle guitar introduction, she makes observatiosn from just driving around
"The grass is green the rose is red, the front yard, front gate picket fence get painted every June
The sign is brighter than the neighbours, no weeds growing through the pavers, a that looks brand new
Alyssa takes the perfect facades and just wonders if perhaps behind the scenes thing are not as picture postcard perfect as they seem,
Alyssa's fourth round entry "Know You By Heart" contrasted the feelings of moving from knowing someones life intimately when you are together to then not knowing them at all once you have parted. It was packed with little personal details and was powerfully sung with real feeling
I used to know you by heart
Which is why it is so damned hard
To you know you by heartbreak, heartache"
Alyssa would close out the evening with "Better Memory Than You" for which she would alternate between delivering the absolute sweetest of vocals with some fantastically controlled powerful delivery..
"I should be looking back, smiling at old photographs
but maybe I've moved past the moving on
Cos I got through the heartache, I learned to face the truth
I'm better of now, it looks good is the best I got from you
After all the love I gave you and the hell you put me through
I deserve a better memory than you"
The word "Through" was delivered as if by a passing angel as it was sung so sweetly and elongated out over many syllables.
Our initial disappointment of Alyssa Flaherty not playing a song we knew was easily outweighed by the quality of the new songs that we were privileged to get to hear tonight. Speaking to her afterwards she was so charming and it seems she has many more songs to come.
Providing fiddle accompaniment for each of the performers and totally transforming the whole evening would be Natalie Murphy. Instinctively able to find the correct lines to play, her interventions were always welcome, each time adding a little something special without ever threatening to overwhelm any song that she played on.
Her contributions were all the more special for not having heard the songs before so she relied on pure instinct alone. The second round would close with Dave handing over his spot and indeed his guitar over to Natalie to show her abilities as a singer in her own right.
The review may not make it clear but she played on every single song from the evening and was as much a reason for the success of the whole night. as each of the other impressive performers.
Her contribution "Proving Me Wrong" was another excellent piece of songwriting which will surely chime with many listeners - who suffer from that feeling of not being good enough - this song would be a reminder that you are good enough and that you can achieve.
Natalies guitar playing was as impeccable as her fiddling, and her ability to give light to both those insecurities while amply demonstrating her astonishing abilities was heartwarming and hopefully an inspiration to others.
"From the voices in my head that were screaming
Never going to make it - You're a fool for dreaming
You're not good enough, girl give it up"
To hell with them all -
I kind of always love me, steady on my own feet proving me wrong"
If you are even in Nashville and Southern Rounds is on - It is an absolute MUST SEE
If you want to see and hear rather than just read about how good it was settle down with the livestream
Maybe even investigate earlier shows as that is what we intend doing.
