Acoustic Cafe

This past Tuesday an Acoustic Cafe was held in the HUB Fireplace Lounge featuring two up and coming singer/songwriters, Connor Garvey and David Andrew Smith.

Garvey opened up the evening with his earthy acoustic blend of Dispatch-y sing-alongs, stringing together a solid set of original numbers with a quick covers medley thrown in. Garvey bopped his head along and slapped rhythmically on the body of his guitar while playing. His voice is very soulful and took on an almost Jack Johnson vibe as he breezed through songs like "Go Deep" and "Seed". He broke out a ukulele after a few songs and churned out an excellent rendition of Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay," which segued into a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstitious."

Garvey tossed a little humor into his set by playing a song inspired by a particularly gross smoothie and another song about playing his ukulele while driving, which he does not recommend for safety reasons. Garvey bowed out with a song called "Lead Pipe" inspired by the game of Clue. He really had a cool "sitting around the campfire" vibe going.

Closing out the evening was Baltimore's own David Andrew Smith. Smith has a really cool 90's alternative rock tone to his voice that works very well with his style of guitar playing. He sounds like a combination of Ed Kowalczyk from Live and Steven Page from the Barenaked Ladies. Smith opened up with a couple songs from his album "Sweet Sweet Nothing," making ample use of a looping pedal while doing so, before asking the crowd for cover suggestions. When "Counting Crows!" was yelled out, Smith leapt into their 1994 classic "Round Here" without hesitation. He went on to kill a few more requests throughout the evening, including Dave Matthews' "Ants Marching," "High & Dry" by Radiohead, "Selling the Drama" by Live and an excellent rendition of "Old Apartment" by the Barenaked Ladies. All went over well even if Smith had a few problems with the lyrics on the latter song. Smith is a captivating performer, not necessarily because of his in between song banter but because of his intense and involved demeanor while playing. He was playing in front of a small crowd, even for an Acoustic Café show, and the guys just went for it. As good as he proved t be at pulling off other peoples' songs, Smith's originals were even more enjoyable. Songs like "Sweet Sweet Nothing" and "OK Marie" really tug at the heartstrings. No doubt about it, this guy can really write a great hook. It's not hard to imagine an arena singing along to his lyrics."Wits' End" and "Ditto" were two other strong cuts from Smith's set, which he offered to end with a cover but instead the crowd insisted he play another original.

Andrew David Smith is definitely a name to remember, and hopefully he makes his way back up to Plymouth sometime, either with just his guitar or his Baltimore rock band Rew Smith. You can check out Connor Garvey at myspace.com/connorgarveysongs and David Andrew Smith at myspace.com/davidandrewsmith.