Down at the Duck

Last night was "Songwriters Night" over at the Mucky Duck. This particular evening featured Adam Carroll and Gordy Quist in a song-swap session.

I had heard good things about these guys but had never seen either of them in concert before.

Yesterday morning as I was driving to work I happened to catch part of a live on-air performance by these two on KPFT. Gordy performed a song he called "The Road Ahead" which if I remember correctly he had just written the day before. Adam played the song "Alright" from his new cd. So based on their on-air performance I decided to go check out their show that night.

I was only able to stay for the first set of the concert but now I know why I had been hearing such good things about these two.

Adam Carroll's sound is sometimes compared to John Prine and I could definitely hear some of Prine's influence in his songs. Personally something about his style and delivery reminded me a little of Guy Clark as well. He is also a pretty good harmonica player. Adam played a couple of songs from his cd "Far Away Blues" including: "Low in the Mountains", "Dream On" and "Teardrops".

Gordy Quist has a pretty unique and often very lyrical sound. It's a little hard to draw obvious comparisons but I do think there is a Townes Van Zandt influence to some of his songs. Gordy played some new material and some songs from his cd "Songs Play Me" including: "Ship Song", Green and Blue" and "Skin on Soul".

These are definitely two young songwriters to keep your eye on.