Host Notes – July Brick & Mortar show

Jul 14, 2010
Category: Brick & Mortar shows, News

The open mic portion of the July Brick and Mortar show at Coffee Social introduced us to new voices. Brian Jones and Bill Tierney, Grant Smith and Adam Kolger sang a couple of songs each, and familiar voices, Bill and Kathy Kostelec, played one song each. It was a wonderful way to open the show. Stay in touch because these folks will be featured writers in the coming months.
Bill Miller, who is a chaplain at Sacred Heart Hospital, was our first featured performer of the evening, and he took us on a very personal spiritual journey. The metaphors he employs are familiar. The bridge to the mystical–what is ignored in the moment–is a way an ordinary man might rediscover the “divine.” The divine in this case is one’s gratitude for life. And it is this thread, awareness of the world and the people in it that makes its way through Bill’s work. He reminds us of the lost connections we often long for as we negotiate daily life. Two of his most interesting songs are story songs about characters Bill has known, “Jack,” and a man who lived in a village in Holland during WWII. Both of these characters are extraordinary in their respective ways, and remind the listener that our attention to the world is what matters.
Our second featured artist was John Watson. He played instrumental selections with a gentle feel in open tunings, and sang songs he had written all of which were reflections on what it means to love. John’s work reminded me of how often in our culture love is something that is best expressed as a journey that moves from being lost to a place in which we are found. Mother Earth is often an expression of what is realized on this journey of rediscovery. I was moved by his song in tribute to his father, and when he sang “I’m lucky to have known you at all” I knew that he was sincere.

Write when you can!
Laddie Ray