Songwriters singin'

Last weekend, intrepid spouse and I dropped the kids at a relative's house and went with some friends (who did the same with their offspring) to see singer/songwriters David Wilcox and Justin Roth perform in Westfield, as part of the Coffee with Conscience series.

This was the first I'd heard of the series, and that's a shame. Both John Flynn and Susan Werner were there this year and we would have loved to see them. Better late than never, I guess; we had a great time at this show.

I'd also never heard of Justin Roth. His instrumental pieces were probably his best songs but his lyrics were great too. A standout was "Dead Horse Trampoline." (Yes, it is what you think it is. You can find the lyrics on his site but I suggest you go listen to him play it instead.) He also told a great story about dueling GPS devices on the drive to Jersey

David Wilcox was his usual impressive self. If you've never heard any of his music, you've missed much. East Asheville Hardware is a collection of live music to give you an idea what he's all about, and Airstream is his newest. The first album of his I had was How Did You Find Me Here, which my friend Papagoose introduced me to in college. (In some type of strange poetic justice, I lent my copy to the brother of a friend, who never gave it back. That same friend married Papagoose and they were the couple with whom we went to the show. Go figure.)

Singer/songwriter shows can be a lot of fun, especially if they include good coffee like this one did. We very much enjoyed the intimate nature of the location as well as the good seats that only a small space can provide. Papagoose identified the several types of fans who are always in attendance at these shows:

• The Personal Friend: waves his hand and tries to get the artist's attention. "David? David!"
• The Song Shouter: calls out the name of his favorite song before each and every song, hoping the artist will play it. "Rusty Old American Dream!" ("Free Bird!")
• The First Clapper: claps after the first chord of every song, to make sure EVERYONE knows that HE identified the song FIRST.
• The Sing-Alongs: that's pretty self-explanatory. We all fall into this category sometimes.

After the great show, we hit J.J. Bittings, but the kitchen was closing and it was way loud after our folksy evening. So we decided to toilet paper our good friends' house instead.

Luckily for them, they were home so we couldn't go TPing. We invaded their home and stayed until 3AM eating junk food we picked up at the gas station. Hell, we had babysitters. We were staying out as late as we could possibly muster.