John D. Lamb’s Songwriters Showcase

Last night, we attended John D. Lamb’s Songwriter Showcase at Memphis Smoke in Royal Oak. This event featured seven Michigan songwriters; John D. Lamb, Dave Caruso, Mariam McCarthy aka Silent Violet, Kent Koller, Adam Druckman, Riely O’Connor, and Rod Chism.

The format was reminiscent of the events I attended earlier this year at ASCAP’s Songwriters EXPO in L.A. John set up the night by telling the stories behind some of his songs and then performing them for the audience. He then went down the line of songwriters providing a nice introduction for each artists, explaining their background, asking them questions about their songs, having them tell the back story and then perform the song acoustic. Each artist on the panel had a slightly different style, so the mix of music was very stimulating.

For the second set, John invited each performer to take the stage individually and perform a couple of their songs. During the last song of the night, the final artist to perform, Dave Caruso invited all of the artists to the stage and included a few guests from the audience. He handed everyone a percussion instrument, dictated the rhythm they were to play and then counted off the song. After a few rocky bars, everyone got their bearings. It turned out to be a charming performance and it was obvious everyone was having a good time.