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John Gillespie and Alexa Rose/Rebecca Jones, Wake Forest Listening Room, Wake Forest, NC

One of the things I admire about John Gillespie is that he just -IS-. I walked into the Listening Room side of Page 158 Books as John was doing sound check, and he greeted me mid-song and then kept going - He had business to attend to, but by golly he was going to acknowledge his friend from three states away had just shown up for him. The black tee and blue jeans he was wearing were what he wore on stage later. No glitz, no glam, no fuss. Well, he might agonize a bit over which black tee to wear, if he feels like making some sort of statement. Tonight was a plain black tee, one fewer distraction from his performance. Alexa and Rebecca were milling about, setting up her merch, Alexa in denim overalls and a sweater, Rebecca in a buffalo plaid shirt and jeans.

An hour or so later, after a disappointing Mac & Cheese dinner at Strike and Barrel a few doors down, I was back in the Listening Room, greeting the manager, Mike Allen, and a growing number of friends I've made since I began this journey nearly two years ago, while grabbing a drink from the bar and claiming the chair closest to the exit. People continued to stream in and mill about, until Mike bounded up on stage to give his quick announcements (bar, restrooms, merch, please don't talk), and indicate the show would begin soon.


John stepped on stage without much fanfare, but that's where the ordinary ended. His first song out of the gate, "Tell You," took off like a shot. I've never seen him so bold, or heard him project so much of himself into his work. He opens his Live At The Eno House album with the same song, but with a bit more restraint. He cranked this up to 11, and never looked back. Stage banter while tuning is a thing ("we tune because we care"), but this, too, was pure professionalism without being smarmy and scripted, singing the praises of our hosts, the headliner, what had passed and what was to come. In a brief moment of humanity, he paused to take photos of the crowd, surprised that he couldn't fit the entire audience into a single frame. Ricky Garni, the photographer for the evening, brought his wide angle up on stage to help out. (those photos are here!). I truly believe John was feeding on the energy of so many friends there to see him, and that professional high that comes from sharing the stage with an idol. John bursting into tears at the end of his final song was a surprise, but not. He is far too genuine and wholly grateful to be anything but overcome with emotion at the outpouring of love shown to him. The day he shrugs something like that off is the day I walk away from him.

John's Set List:

Tell you
Shine
Radiant
Lies
Alive
I Died Too
A Mark
Not Now
Swimming Test


After a break to re-arrange equipment, Alexa took the stage, a false start at first, having left her tuner elsewhere. She made jokes, citing the lack of recent shows. Never mind that she forgot the lyrics to her first song partway through. "We still love you!" I shouted from the back row, hopefully speaking for all assembled that her showing her humanity made her all the more endearing. The Anti-Diva in a calico prairie dress.

When she opened her mouth, what came out was part sound, part emotion, but all bliss. Ethereal, heavenly, songbird-like; those are the words I can pull forth to describe her voice. Clarity like a bell ringing out, effortless. The word "sound" is not nearly polished enough to do justice to an acoustic guitar - truly acoustic in that she played and sang into a single mic - backed alternately by pedal steel or banjo, also picked up by the same single mic. Voice and strings blended so beautifully, I found myself swimming in the sound. It was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. The intimacy contradicted the 100 people in attendance, the speakers overhead and the brand new sound system creating a room in which Alexa and Rebecca were playing to each person individually, until applause brought us back to the reality of a shared experience. The rapt attention of the near-capacity room is a wonder to behold. Mike told us to be quite, and by golly we were.


If the sounds swirling around were magical, then the words carried on those sounds were something beyond that. I find myself lacking the vocabulary required to describe her words. Maybe I should just let her tell you herself.

Human

I want to go downtown and look some stranger in the face
I want to be myself again, remember why I love this place
I want to wake up now and squeeze the living from the day
I want to believe truly everything's gonna be okay
But I'm only human now
I'm as vacant as a drum
Won't you tell me I'm allowed
to be overcome
I wanna feel clean, shiny and new
I wanna wash myself away til I'm just a mirror before you
I want the glossy sheen of a new leaf in the rain
I want a solid color that the seasons never change
But I'm only human now
I'm as vacant as a drum
Won't you tell me I'm allowed
To be overcome
I'm moving through your love like a paddle in the sand
Pretending that it's water cause I want to be an easy woman
I want to take a swim in some frozen channel to
Remember I was dying when I washed up gratefully over you
But I'm only human now
I'm as vacant as a drum
Won't you tell me I'm allowed
To be overcome
I want to make it clear you don't have to speak up to be heard
Sometimes it's even louder to find some quiet in a word
Don't let em change you, kid, that's what somebody said to me
But you know it gets harder to hear myself over all this humanity
I'm only human now
I'm as vacant as a drum
Won't you tell me I'm allowed
To be overcome
To be overcome
To be overcome


Another heartbreaker of a song was Tried and True

I scribbled down these words as she sang,but could not find the full lyrics online

Storms:
I can't pull the weeds from your head, I have to tend my own garden bed

There are storms in you I never saw. I don't need you to tear out all your walls, but I could use a window.


Throughout their performances, John and Alexa were just two old friends building each other up without a hint of irony or veiled jealousy. The love flowing through that room was the warm hug we all needed that cold Friday night.

-----
Trip #4, Concert #6
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Asheville was the first city to get a repeat visit, but The Eno House is officially the first venue I've been to more than once on this musical road-tripping of mine. John Gillespie of Nikki Meets the Hibachi got to open up for his musical hero Alexa Rose, and it was a delight from start to finish.

[let's get the obvious out of the way. Privately I've slipped and called her "Alexis Rose" and only once, privately, made an "ew David!" crack. No on else appeared to make such faux pas publicly, and for that I was relieved]

Although it was just my second visit, three separate people knew me and greeted me like a long-time friend. First was Richard Greenway, the pastor that runs the place; followed quickly by John, who ran through a flurry of emotions at me actually making the drive to hear him perform; and then Mike Allen, owner of the Wake Forest Listening Room and one-half of the duo responsible for my initial, and personal, introduction to Darren Jessee.

Just like in January, the space filled up quickly, and the energy was amazing. Another one of those "no matter what happens, this will be worth it. I young couple came in just before things got going, and i waved them over to my table. They'd come over from Durham, first-timers, so I shared what I knew of the place. After the usual introductions by Rich, John Gillespie took the stage. It was just him, a microphone, and this odd-to-me little hybrid acoustic/electric guitar. It was John's earnestness that drew me back to see him again, and he did not disappoint. One of the songs he played was just released on Bandcamp - Letter Never Sent. Go give it a listen.

John had the pleasure of introducing the headliner, Alexa Rose. All I knew of her going in was his cover of her song Anywhere, Ohio, and that he was full-on fan-girling over her. His admiration of her was so pure, and he was so overcome with emotion that I don't think he got through any of the intro or her performance without shedding tears.

Only got the one picture of them and what you can't tell is that she's fighting with her tuner and apologizing to us for the trouble. She and Josh Oliver sang and played beautifully, using no amps, just a single mic. They'd move in closer or back up to change the sounds, and it worked beautifully. Bill West (the sound guy) really knows his stuff.
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Anyone who knows me will know that I'm not the good energy, love-and-light kind of woo girl. If that's your thing, great, but I'm far too skeptical and snarky for that. But then I met John. Read more... )
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First concert of the year was last month! I should really write about it.

I drove to Hillsborough, NC to see Mike Garrigan at the Eno House Artists Den. He was the opener for his friends Nikki Meets the Hibachi, and they were both amazing!

On the accessibility front, the Eno House is an old boxy church with half a dozen steps to get inside. There is a ramp up the side, which I'm sure could be used if needed. Once inside, everything was on that one level (including restrooms), and the only issue with navigating would be once the place got packed full and extra chairs were brought out to accommodate everyone. Dunno if it was a sell-out, but it certainly was well-attended. My hopes of seeing other musicians, like Darren or Zach or Mike's former bandmates, were dashed, but there were a LOT of people there I didn't recognize who appeared to be part of the NC/Piedmont music scene, so that's cool.

The place was well-staffed, all with people in black "STAFF" tshirts. Very official. the building is a de-commissioned church, but loosly affiliated with a nearby church, and the money raised was going to help fund a literacy camp for the neighborhood kids. The building serves as a community center now, with all manner of things available. Kinda wish I lived closer so I could attend the weekly writers workshop.

The room was set up with small round tables up front with 4 chairs each, then a few rows of old pews, then tall bistro tables and stools behind that. I picked the table up front on the far right, opposite side of the place from the vintage Steinway. It was set up so Mike would be facing the same direction as me; I couldn't see his face, but I could see his hands. I also prefer to be out of the way and have a view of the whole room, even if I'm not near an exit. He was milling about, talking to people, looking very Corporate Dad. He did not make it over to me, and about 7:15 or so, he started to play. He had an actual set list on his phone, which he set on the piano. He opened with The Architect, which he wrote as an intro-to-a-set piece. He spoke a bit between songs, talking about the new ones and the old, how some of them came to be, etc. he had to turn quite a bit to see the full room. He was playing all of my faves (but let's face it, all of his songs are my faves right now), but he was pretty far in and had not yet played Dive.

You see, at the beginning of the year I signed up to be an annual supporter of his on Bandcamp. He made a post in the community sharing that he'd be recording all of his shows this year, and sharing the best of each, and if we had any requests to please let him know. A few people discussed what they'd like to hear in general. I posted that I would be at the Eno House show, and would like to hear Dive. He said he'd get it on the set list. I didn't know if he'd just play it, and that would be that, or if he would say it was a request and pitch Bandcamp, or what. Near the end of his set, he turned to the audience and asked "Was there someone flying? driving? in from Ohio for the show?" "yep! that's me" i piped up and shot up my hand. He had to turn quite far to see me, but did make eye contact. he turned back to the microphone and asked "and did you have a request you wanted me to play?" and did the huge fake winking thing at me. while people chuckled, he stage whispered "we worked this out in advance" to more laughter. I spoke up, quite clearly, and confirmed "yes, I would love it if you would play Dive" and then did my best to keep my shit together while he sang his heart out. as soon as the song was over, a guy behind me tapped me on the shoulder as he got up and said "good call on requesting Dive" and I thanked him.

As soon as Mike's set was over, he made a beeline over to me. one of his first questions was "so, do you know people down here...?" and was appropriately shocked when I said no. gave him the tl;dr version of living my life, and mentioned I'd be back for Tom Maxwell's book release. after a few minutes, he moved on, and the second band hit the stage.

Nikki Meets the Hibachi is yet another "wow, how did I not know about them???" gems. Elaine and John, on acoustic guitars, singing with harmonies. SOLD. and they are both just the nicest people you'll ever meet. It must be a requirement for NC musicians or something. They had some backing from Amy Ray to get an EP out a while back, but have been at this since the late 80s. there were some tech issues that i didn't really notice but had them fussing, and things ran a bit late ("I promised some people they'd be outta here by 9; some of us have to go to work tomorrow"), but it was just amazing. Got to talk to John Gillespie after the show, and he is also sweet as pie (and has really soft hands - how does a guitarist get soft hands?). mentioned to him and to the Eno House people that they need to get Darren Jessee to play there.

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