We finally made it out to a show at Hugh’s Room last
week. They consistently get all the acts
that we like but it is kind of a trek to get there. But now that we have done it I am sure we
will make it a regular thing. It turns
out that we only have to take one streetcar, the King, to get there and
back. No transfers! The layout is very nice. There are three levels with café style tables
and generous space to get around. As a
result there are wonderful sight lines.
I don’t think there is a bad seat in the house. I doubt the room holds more than a
couple of hundred people so it is quite an intimate setting. The menu is a bit on the pricey side but as
it turns out not over priced. We had a
salmon entrée that we agreed was about as good as we have had.
Oh yes, the music. We
were there to see Gretchen Peters. She
is by no means a household name but she did an album with Tom Russell a few
years ago. She is also pretty well known
around Nashville as a very successful songwriter and has charted hit songs by
Martina McBride, Pam Tillis, Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Neil Diamond,
George Strait, Faith Hill, and Etta James.
Not too bad. She has released a
handful of albums on her own label and that is how I got to know her over the
years.
After a couple of songs Gretchen mentioned that she last
played Toronto seven years ago and that she shared the stage with Tom Russell,
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Sylvia Tyson.
She also mentioned that Sylvia, a Toronto native, was in the audience
tonight. As the room is not large and
there were only about 60 people there we figured we could see her. We kind of craned our necks to see all
the far corners when I suddenly realized that Sylvia Tyson was seated at the
table right next to us the whole time! You
may not know of her either but Sylvia is a pretty big deal in folk music circles; she
is best known as the writer of “You Were On My Mind”, a huge hit in the States
by We Five.
After the show we spoke with Gretchen briefly before she had
to run off for autographs and photos. We
introduced ourselves to her husband, Barry Walsh, and after discussing his
piano style he in turn introduced us to Sylvia.
She was rather shy and soft spoken but didn’t seem in a great hurry to
move on so we got to have a nice long conversation. It was a truly unexpected bonus!
You can listen to some of Gretchen's latest music HERE.
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