A Revival Like No Other At Cosmic Charlie’s

The Kentucky music family came together to celebrate St. Patty’s Day with the music of Creedence Clearwater Revival as the soundtrack.

From well-known artists to supporters of this site that have nearly no experience performing, this bill was truly a community effort and that was absolutely by design.

Now you may ask why would I give performance spots to someone with little to no experience. It’s really simple, I enjoy helping people. Especially those that are supportive of me. I’m not saying that the next Elvis Presley played on Sunday, but several folks got the opportunity to not only perform but to perform to a crowd. If I spark one person to take a chance on a dream, then I’ve already won.

As for the show itself, there were many memorable performances, so since we had a new vocalist with every tune, I’m going to list a few highlights.

I must begin by saying that I had all the confidence in the world that Bedford was THE band for this show. Not only did they absolutely hit it out of the park, but they also impressed many of the folks they look up to. That’s no easy task and it is definitely a point of pride for those three talented young men.

The first big moment came from Kevin Holm-Hudson. A school teacher by trade, Kevin chose a song that I was going to be protective of. “Fortunate Son” is one of, if not the most successful protest song ever written. I wanted someone who understood the significance of that song and what better person could I find than a school teacher? I’m the lucky one as I got to hear this one twice on Sunday as Kevin sat in with the band for soundcheck.

Harlan County’s Tyler Smith picked one of my favorite songs in “Lookin’ Out My Back Door and he crushed it. I do owe him an apology though, I got held up a bit and didn’t get to photograph him since it was such a short song.

My good friend, Cameron Jayne came up from Nashville for this show. He lives there now, but he’s originally from Salyersville. He sang “Susie Q” and did a great job with the crowd. Asking them to come closer and let go. He’s a talented young man in a multitude of ways. The guitar he was playing was built by Cameron and it has the smoothest and easy action of any guitar I’ve ever touched.

I always rave about John Clay and Josh Mitcham, so it should be no surprise that they were both stellar as they performed “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” and “Green River” respectively.

There were three voices that I KNEW were going to rattle the windows and man, oh man did they deliver.

Sean Whiting belted out “I Put A Spell On You” like only he can. Sean’s voice was seemingly built from and for classic rock. His performance was the last one before the break we took for the band and let me just say that Sean’s performance was the buzz in the room at that point.

During the break, Zachary Curry allowed us to screen his documentary about David Prince that is simply named, “Chico.” The film is about fifteen minutes in length and was a different angle for this year’s tribute show. Usually, I like to have folks play some acoustic songs during the break, but given the opportunity to screen “Chico” was a no-brainer for me. I give a little more information on “Chico” here.

We also had a really cool performance from Lance Rogers, as he sang the song that we wrote from a Facebook post. Pretty cool if ya ask me!!

Now let’s talk about the young lady that I call the Queen of Kentucky. Joslyn Hampton and Marty Charters of Joslyn and the Sweet Compression joined Bedford for one of the top moments on the night. Joslyn chose the Bo Diddley classic “Before You Accuse Me” and let me just say that she lit that room up with her powerful vocals. There were a few folks that hadn’t heard Joslyn yet. I had at least five people ask who she was, so I made sure to tell ’em!!

The last of the three aforementioned powerhouse vocals was the one and only Rachel Crowe. Rachel took on the John Fogerty penned “Proud Mary” and channeled her inner Tina Turner to get almost every butt a-shakin’! The party was officially on!

Evan Curran from Trippin Roots was up next and he brought along a friend in Gregg Erwin of Magnolia Boulevard. Evan performed the classic “Bad Moon Rising” and stirred up a pretty decent sing-a-long chorus from the crowd. Evan’s one of my personal favorite performers and very underrated in my opinion.

Then you throw Gregg Erwin in the mix and Bedford took “Bad Moon Rising” and turned it into a jam session. With Gregg Erwin, Evan Curran and Trevor St. John, we were treated to some of the best guitarists around trading licks. I’m still hyped as I type this up!

Trevor St. John wasn’t finished dazzling. Jeremy Short got up there next and tore through “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.” The band extended this one as well with Jeremy and Trevor going toe to toe trading licks in one of the coolest dueling solos I’ve witnessed. Shew! Here, see it for yourself:

Ben Boggs chose one of the two “secret songs” that we rewarded with the last two spots on the bill. “The Midnight Special” was my Dad’s favorite CCR tune, so it was really cool to feel like I had a small piece of him in the room with me and Ben did a fantastic job.

We saw the documentary about “Chico” and to end the night, we were treated to a performance from the man himself. The Laid Back Country Picker performed my son’s favorite CCR tune in “Cotton Fields”, as only he can. Wearing a shirt that read “Gene Tracy Talks Trash,” Laid Back and Bedford closed out yet another amazing show. A show that will help us all in time.

This event was put together to raise the necessary funds to create a nonprofit, so we can apply for grants to create opportunities in both performing and education. Tentatively, the name will be The Kentucky Music Movement and I’m overwhelmingly ecstatic to say that we reached our goal.

I do want to say that one performance we were unable to witness was Bek Smallwood’s “Who’ll Stop The Rain.” Their family had a fire and they lost a building but saved their home. I told her to take care of family first. She truly wanted to be there, but hopefully, she can perform it on April 28th at the Austin City Saloon as we celebrate Capture Kentucky’s two year anniversary. Bedford, John Clay, and Johnny Conqueroo are also the bill. If ya can, send some good vibes and prayers out for Bek and her family.