Welcome to the Driftwood
They went to Boston where they could sit quietly, coffee in hand, and listen to musicians pound out rhythms with their guitars and voices, where the sights and sounds of life filter through an artist's eye.
It was intimate and immediate and cool, like river water running over rocks. They cleared their heads in the collective atmosphere of notes and the shuffling of chords before climbing into their cars, refreshed and somehow regenerated.
For them, life without art and music drains, pulls the body down toward the ground through a gravitational pull of worry. And for local attorney Lynn Holdsworth, scientist and singer/songwriter Carlyn Hutchins and multi-instrumentalist Annie Wenz, music elevates.
Find it, roll around in it, become one with it. Bring it to Plymouth.
The three friends decided it was about time Plymouth had its own folk music venue, so they founded the nonprofit Driftwood Folk Café, complete with a lineup of performances that will leave you hungry for more.
"One of the criteria we found ourselves using inadvertently was we wanted people who weren't just great performers but who respect the audience as much as the audience admires them," Holdsworth said. "We want folks to feel like they really got to know the performer. That's one of the things that happens in a listening space."
Driftwood Folk Café embarks on its maiden voyage at 7:30 p.m. next Saturday, Sept. 13, at the First Parish Church in Town Square with folk singer/songwriter Natalia Zukerman performing. New Yorker magazine reporter Andy Friedman gets it right when he describes Zukerman.
"Natalia's voice could send an orchid into bloom, while her guitar playing can open a beer bottle with its teeth."
Driftwood Folk Café shows will be held the second Saturday of each month during the fall and spring seasons downstairs in the church's 85-seat Kendall Hall, which will feature café style seats, four per table. Home-baked yummies will be served with plenty of tea, sodas and, of course, coffee. The venue is alcohol-free and non-smoking, so children younger than 18 are welcome with adult supervision.
"We have an amazing lineup we're really excited about," Holdsworth said. "We've got Cliff Eberhard in October. Chris O'Brien and Anne Heaton in November. There are spectacular openers as well."
A folk phenomenon in her own right, Trina Hamlin will open for Zukerman Sept. 13.
The name Driftwood Folk Café is the child of Holdsworth and Hutchins.
"We were wandering near the water and stumbled upon some driftwood," Holdsworth added. "She's a songwriter, and I'm a poet, and it has that feel we're looking for. People will wash in off the beaches and come check out the music."
The town is abuzz about Driftwood, however, so don't wait to get your tickets. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.driftwoodfolkcafe.com or through the Myspace site by the same name.
If you go, be prepared for a "listening space," as Holdsworth calls it. This isn't a venue where you yell over the music to a friend about the guy she's dating. You grab your coffee, take a seat, sit back and listen to the music.
"I think people are hungry for this," Holdsworth said. "I think they'll be dancing and singing in the streets after the show's over."