I don’t see morning much doing what I do, so it never fails that when I wake up before noon I find myself disoriented by the light. The intensity, color and angle of 9 a.m. is so unfamiliar that I always spend a moment wondering if I am still dreaming, the illumination too surreal for my waking life lived with the sun at slants perpendicular or more.
This morning finds me in a coffeeshop flooded with that foreign light and the added reflection of it off the southern delta of the Mississippi River. We first saw the 61 Coffeehouse in the Civil War siege town of Vicksburg , MS, last night before playing our show here. Today we sip mochas and click away before moving on to my beloved city of New Orleans within two hours.
And only 48 hours or so ago we were still in Decatur, GA, basking in an incredibly unexpected second win at the Eddie’s Attic Open Mic Shootout. Since playing at Eddie’s Attic on our way to the Kerrville Folk Festival summer before last, we’ve become much more familiar with its national influence. The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge models itself on this open mic contest, as does the songwriter contest at the Cape Fear Folk Festival. The Indigo Girls got their start here . Daniel Lee, John Mayer, and Sugarland are just a few winners of the open mic shootout finals.
Every week, upwards of 20 performers play two songs apiece and a few judges pick three of those acts to come back up to play one more song. Then they choose a winner, who is then granted a slot in the big, twice-a-year contest. We’ve done that once, and it’s something.
Three hundred people crammed into a space so tight they make the musicians stay out on the patio watching on closed-circuit television and lead the acts through the kitchen just before it’s time for them to play. They run the big contest like the March Madness basketball brackets. 26 musicians draw to see who they will go up against in the first heat, single-round elimination. A couple years ago, our Austin friends Porterdavis lost their first heat while we moved on, only to lose in our second heat to the duo that went on to win the night. I was just pleased to clear the first round, being that my parents and brother had suprised us by coming down to see the show and I would have been disappointed if they’d driven all that way for one song.
The talent is incredible. People travel from all over just to play the weekly open mic.
And the talent the other night was no exception, a long night made easier by the flow of talent. Small bands, singer-songwriters, an instrumentalist with aspirations of penning movie soundtracks, blues, a Dylan clone, country, gravelly and pristine voices alike.
Even with all the talent, the announcement of the final three had me surprised only by our inclusion with the likes of Knoxville’s Kirk Fleta and Tallahassee’s Sarah Mac Band – the first, a warm-voiced singer-songwriter, and the latter, a grit-and-sweetness chick lead singer with a smooth guitar player and a great bassist. Seriously, go check them both out RIGHT NOW. I can wait.
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We played Choke Cherry to a couple of enthusiastic whoops and applause before we’d even finished the song, and yet I was still no less than shocked when they announced us as the winners.
I like that we won with a completely different set of songs than the first time we came to Eddie’s Attic. Then it was Loosen, Illinois is Overflowing and Will for the win. This time, it was Allergy, Simile Blue and Choke Cherry. So now, we’re two for two. The big show is the first weekend in June.
