When we walked into Café 290, the crowd was lighter than I expected (in more ways than one), so we were able to get a good seat with no problem. For a moment, I thought there was an opening act on stage, because I didn’t recognize the funky-cute white guy strumming away on his guitar or the teddy-bear-cute brother sitting on the far right of the stage, nor did I recognize the song that they were singing. But what I did recognize was some damned good music – a mix of deep, soulful sounds intertwined with highly inspirational lyrics. Once my eyes adjusted to the dark room, I also recognized that the guy seated with head bowed in the middle of the two strangers was Anthony David.

Just then, one of the other patrons stopped by our table and eagerly shared his assessment with me, “Man, these guys are really good. I’ve never heard them before, but they sound great! And they’ve been going for over an hour solid!” Almost on cue, the guys finished their song, and AD announced that they’d be taking a break.

During the lull, I got a chance to quiz AD. “So who’s this group? Have you performed with them before?” He informed me that the guitar player was Chris Cauley and the teddy-bear was Chinua Hawk. “Yeah, Chris and I just exchanged messages and kind of hit it off. He said he was performing tonight and asked if I wanted to join in and trade a few songs. We’ve never performed together before.”

A few minutes later and the trio was back onstage to continue the music marathon. The way they played together, I would never have known that they hadn’t been doing so forever. Cauley has a vocal sound that reminds me of both Robin Thicke (when he’s not doing that whispery-falsetto thing) and John Mayer. And Chinua? Whoo, Chinua! Every time he opened his mouth, it’s like his voice jumped off the stage, walked over to the table and grabbed me by the ears, making me completely forget what I was in the middle of doing, saying, drinking, or thinking about. I couldn’t help quoting that line from Coming to America, “That boy can sang…he can sang!”

But the highlight of the evening for me was Anthony David. Unfortunately, due to the ‘system down’ debacle, I missed a good portion of the songs he performed, but after the break he did some cuts from both of his albums – 3 Chords & the Truth and The Red Clay Chronicles – including some of my personal faves: Spittin’ Game, Georgia Peach, and Smoke One. For me, Anthony’s voice invokes a vision of a highball glass filled with a healthy pour of fine cognac and one rock. It’s smooth and mellow with a hint of cool and just enough of an edge to let you know that this ain’t no experience for yunguns.

For the next hour or so (I did mention the word marathon, right?), Chris, Chinua, and Anthony did a stellar job of entertaining the crowd (and themselves), performing an array of their own songs and a diverse selection of covers, including: Rock Me Tonight, a snippet from DJ Flexx’s Waterdance, and Bill Withers’ classic, ‘Grandma’s Hands’, which they deftly flipped into the Blackstreet tune – No Diggity. Yeah…Hilarious! Even more so, was that Chris Cauley knew ALL the words.

They say all’s well that ends well. Despite the slow start, I got a chance to see one of my favorite artists perform and got introduced to two soon-to-be favorites…I’d say that’s a damned good ending.

Moral of the story: Atlanta is teeming with top-rate independent talent that isn’t as hard to find as you might think. So, turn off your radio, and head out to some of the smaller live music venues around the city…there’s sure to be a pleasant surprise waiting for you there.

…Or the opportunity to pitch small business consulting services.

Cafe 290
290 Hildebrand Dr; Atlanta, 30328
hours: 7 days, 6pm - 2am
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cheers,

k