The holy trinity of artist, audience and venue were impeccably in place to create a wondrous moment of unfiltered music. Songs, sounds and guitar playing melted into an intimate air. The fixated attentive gaze of each audience member absorbed a pulse evoking a mindful retreat. Some are grounded, intoxicated by every movement whether caressing a string or sharing a lyric, others drift into an alternate state serenaded by the sweet murmur of a softly spun piece of performative art.
A place - warm, friendly and comfortably populated - providing a realm to enable raw music to flourish. Tens of pairs of listening ears tuned to a performer crystallising the space afforded them. A musician-writer- purveyor of sonic emotion maximising the heights of a calling. The stage a natural domain. Stories told through words - sung and spoken, feelings conveyed through a pair of lightly touched guitars breathing a life in unison with their player.
The Kitchen Garden, an enabler of organic music for nearly twenty years. Katie Spencer, casting spells with her ingrained music in places like this for nearly ten years. An audience, loyal to a tee and providing the means for both host and guest to operate in their chosen worlds.
An evening like so many others floated into a darkened suburban sky in the company of two finely crafted parting shots. 'Cold Stone' journeys from the burning soul of a guitarist saying more in an array of mesmeric touches and strokes than any cacophony of instruments. 'Goodbye' closed one chapter and opened another.
The perfect ending to a gracious evening and a momentous personal voyage. So, goodbye from a person both compelled and impelled to write nearly 1500 reviews in nearly 14 years. The writing continues though in an offline real world with music still playing its part to inspire and conjure moments while cajoling creative instincts lurking beyond the surface of a mere mortal.
