A great and intimate way to experience wonderful music by the very best up & comers is a house concert. The simple explanation is a host opens their home to these musicians, setting a very nominal cover - $10-20. A pot luck for food brought by the guests with a selection of beverages provided by your hosts is the food portion of the event.
These are the very same musicians that I and many others have been raving about for a while.
To have them in your home, with your friends, food and 'social lubrication' as the hostess for my first show put it, and you have the makings of a wonderful experience.
No tacky dives, no loud raucous crowds, unless that is the spirit of the room.
It's not a strict concert, either - think dinner party with very good live entertainment. Although most people sat raptly watching the people that played, there was a certain amount of coming and going.
As I said, this was my first. The show was produced, and I say that because every detail was considered and artistically executed, by a very good friend of mine. She lives on the East Coast as does my mother so I took her invitation as impetus to make a trek to the right side.
The trip was an adventure from the moment I arrived in NYC, where my mother burst a front tire - I changed tires in Harlem at 2 a.m.
Saturday evening at my friend's house, Caleb Hawley was the headliner.I saw Caleb perform in Los Angeles and was very much impressed with him.
Besides being a very capable lyricist, indeed he charges his words with deep emotions, he is a masterful guitarist. A Berklee graduate, he has talent in heaps. He played a wildly eclectic list of popular tunes (Stevie Wonder, Bruce Hornsby) and some of the best originals tunes I have heard in a very long time.
In a previous entry...maybe when I began this page, I spoke of talented people that can thrill both the emotional and the intellectual people inside me.
Caleb is indeed, one of these.
Okay, now throw in the facts that he is charming, personable, open, very friendly and warm...honest, too.
Can you tell I am really enjoying him?
I was incredibly pumped after seeing that show.
So now I am seated with friends watching Caleb at his best - looking into the eyes of the audience.
Of course, he did not disappoint.
And the setting was poetry. A tiny cabin full of love and warmth by the two that live there. I mentioned to her that it had almost a Disneyland effect; the child in me was in awe and the adult could marvel at the many little touches sprinkled all around.
At one point, I was chatting with the host when I heard someone calling my name.
As I walked into the living room my friend announced that this was my first house concert and that I came all the way from California to see Caleb and mom.
And now Caleb and I were going to play a number...breathe, two, three, four...(I don't get nervous before I play, I get very high from it)
I walked up to the fireplace and picked up the opener's guitar (a very able musician by the name of Bob Kasper - Keith knows him) and leaned in while Caleb told me the chords he wanted and that I'd get a solo.
It was Bill Withers tune, Use Me.
As he starts playing, someone asked him a question...he didn't stop...so I started noodling over it.
"Oh, you're gonna solo already?" he asked with that impish grin.
We played, I joined in to sing a chorus, I played my little solo.
It ended, and the room applauded, Caleb turned to me and was grinning like a jackal.
I leaned towards him and said, "You can make shit sound good. Thanks for making me sound good, man."
A micro second later and his grin grew even further.
We simultaneously gripped our picks in our teeth and had a high five knuckle bump thing.
What a blast.
Oh yeah, if you get a chance, go see Caleb - he was a contestant on American Idol and has three CDs available.
Better yet, go see him at a house concert.
Bring your pick.
