This show will be seated.

Preston Reed has virtually reinvented how the acoustic guitar is played. Reed practices a flamboyant "self-invented" style, characterized by percussive techniques and simultaneous rhythm and melody lines that dance and ricochet around each other, giving his music a level of excitement that is unparalleled among today's guitarists.

Playing an array of guitars from acoustic to electric to classical Reeds vast range of explosively original music will forever change your expectation of a guitarist.

First-time listeners find it impossible to believe that they're hearing just the one musician, in real time. Reed attacks the entire instrument in a never-ending search for the orchestra he knows is lurking inside. At full tilt, his fingers, thumbs, fists and hands at once suggest a drummer, keyboardist, bassist and several guitarists at work.

The most impressive thing about Reed's technique, though, is that it doesn't draw attention to itself. His compositions are far from abstract virtuosic displays; even without lyrics he creates vivid, engrossing scenes. Sometimes the effect is almost onomatopoetic. Reed generates visual stimuli with every tweak of his instrument, thus augmenting his wordless compositions with an aura of the poetic. Each tune is a story in itself with a potent, cinematic atmosphere and an almost tangible thread of communication between Preston Reed and the listener.

Links for An Evening with Preston Reed Artist web site

This show will be seated.

Tom Russell has recorded 25 records and one DVD. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Doug Sahm, Nancy Griffith, Joe Ely, Iris Dement, Ian Tyson, KD Lang, Suzy Bogguss, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Jeff Walker, Dave Van Ronk and other great artists.

Russell credited, along with Dave Alvin, of inventing the Americana radio format with their Merle Haggard tribute 'Tulare Dust' in 1994. The Columbus Other wrote: 'Russell seems to have invented, and keeps re-inventing, American roots music...! He's the strongest live performer we have seen in years.'

Tom Russell has appeared on the David Letterman TV show four times in the last few years, and his songs have appeared in a dozen movies and television series including: Tremors, Songcatcher and Northern Exposure.

Russell was born in Los Angeles in 1953 and now makes his home on a 2.68 ''badland farm'' on the border of El Paso-Juarez. He graduated from the University of California with a Master's Degree in Criminology and taught school in Nigeria during the Biafran war, befor re-locating to Vancouver to begin his musical career singing Hank Williams' songs in skid row bars.

Tom Russell has published three books: a detective novel (in Scandinavia), a compendium of songwriting quotes with Sylvia Tyson (And Then I Wrote - Arsenal Press), and a book of letters with Charles Bukowski: (Tough Company: Mystery Island Press).

Russell is also an established painter represented by Yard Dog Folk Art in Austin and Marfa (www.yarddog.com) and Rainbow Man in Santa Fe (www.rainbowman.com)

In 2008 Shout Factory released 'Veteran`s Day', a double disc Anthology with 37 songs, which were remastered, from Tom`s entire recording career. Guest artists included Dave Alvin, Nanci Griffith, Iris Dement, Ian Tyson, and many more. There are also two unreleased songs included, and a twenty page booklet. In 2009 Tom co-produced, and was a featured guest, on the critically acclaimed Gretchen Peters record One To The Heart, One To The Head which included Tom`s song "Guadalupe" and songs by Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt. Tom`s new Shout Factory record Blood and Candle Smoke is scheduled for a 2009 fall release.

Links for Tom Russell Artist web site

All tickets from the cancelled date (2/6/10) are good for this date. Please direct all inquiries to Mei at mei@jamminjava.com only. The Jammin' Java phone number is not a good way to get your questions answered.

LATE SHOW!

This show will be standing room only - with very limited seating.

MOJO is an upcoming band from Centreville, VA that combines reggae, rock, hip hop, and funk to create a sound that cannot be categorized! With lead singer and guitarist Sean "Hawaii" Millson, bass man Alec Webb, and drummer Kevin the Killer Kirby, MOJO has the vibes to keep it flowin all night!

MOJO MySpace

Ballyhoo! formed in their early high school years in the of summer 1995. Hailing from the small Maryland town of Aberdeen, the band has crafted a sound all their own, mixing pop, rock, reggae and punk rock. With three albums released, Ballyhoo! has sold a combined 10,000 hard copies and over 90,000 digital downloads, albums and singles. Most notably, the second album, "Do It for the Money!" was the album that put the band on the map. With songs like "Cali Girl" and "Cerveza", the album showcased the band's knack for pop radio songs and sing-along party anthems. The third effort, "Cheers!" was released in March 2008 to wide acclaim. It was produced by former 311 producer Scotch Ralston. The first song was mixed by 311 drummer Chad Sexton. Long time fans were thrilled over the new songs, calling it "the best one yet". All 3 albums are available at CD Baby, iTunes, and many other digital download stores.

Links for Ballyhoo!

All tickets from the cancelled date (2/6/10) are good for this date. Please direct all inquiries to Mei at mei@jamminjava.com only. The Jammin' Java phone number is not a good way to get your questions answered.

On May 29th, 2010, wizards and muggles will unite to rock out in Vienna, Virginia at Sonorus, Virginia's first wizard rock festival. Wizard rock is music inspired by the Harry Potter books, and it spans across the genres: everything from hip-hop to folk to rock will be represented. Over a dozen bands from all over the east coast will take to the stage, so don't miss this chance to embrace your inner book-nerd and rock out.

Performers include:

Links for Sonorus (Virginia’s 1st Wizard Rock Festival)

This show will be seated.

New York City based singer-songwriter, Pete Francis, is set to release his new album The Movie We Are In this May 2010. Whereas Francis' previous solo albums were largely self-produced, he uprooted his more traditional approach to album-making and assembled an entirely new crew with Los Angeles based producer Jeff Trott (right hand man to Sheryl Crow as writer and guitarist).

Says Francis, "In the past I've worked with acoustic guitar, bass, drums, B3 organ, but I wanted to bring a modern electronic element into my music. When first speaking with Jeff Trott, I quickly realized he had great musical instincts and that he was getting my tunes. And then, he brought ideas to the table that I hadn't imagined. I saw a new musical landscape could be created with my songs by working with him."

The musicians that Trott assembled for the recording sessions helped to create this colorful landscape. Having worked with artists such as Beck, Nine Inch nails, Gnarls Barkley, Willie Nelson, Queens of the Stone Age, Dr. Dre, and Scott Weiland, the musicians (Brian LeBarton, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, John O'Brien, Victor Indrizzo and others) provided an extraordinary musical palette of talent and sensibility.

When asked about the project, Trott says, "It really became apparent to me that Pete was a very creative and colorful song-writer. What I liked was that there was this very good sense of Pete's personality from happy go lucky to dark and brooding. All these aspects were amazing to work with and the lyrics were very colorful. I think that's one of the things I really enjoy about Pete's songs... that it's sometimes hard to really figure out what the meanings are and I think that's missing in a lot of music - the mystery of what a song is."

The opening track, "Glue", generates a feeling of weightlessness by combining organic instrumentation with futuristic sounds. This song solidly represents what's to follow on the album's consistent mix of fresh and classic, electronic and acoustic, known and unknown... Each listen unlocks a new guitar lick, synth riff, bass groove, drum program, live drumbeat or horn swell, and even the sounds of the sparsely used Ethiopian instrument cumbus. Midway through the album, the listener gets catapulted into the up-tempo and joyous revelry of "Love Shakes You Down" a sing-a-long with the familiar bell sounds of Motown combined with a string synth creating a modern and retro sound all at once. The slower, more melodic songs of the album like "St. Paul's Fair" and "Didn't Know I Built It" lure the listener into dream-states with rich deep vocals, sampled sounds from a town square in Italy, trance-like Wurlitzer pedaling, and vivid lyrics.

No one would deny that Francis has earned his stripes in the independent music scene. He formed the fiercely independent band Dispatch in 1995 whose uncommonly loyal fan-base bid them farewell at The Last Dispatch concert in 2004 with an attendance of 110,000 people from around the world. Since then, his career has infiltrated many musical worlds including performing his solo music at festivals around the country, reuniting with his Dispatch pals for three sold out nights at Madison Square Garden, having his solo music featured in films and television, and performing in the presence of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C..

Commenting on his new album and departure from his Dispatch days, Francis says, "It's good to get out of your comfort zone. I tried to let this motto resonate at every turning point of this record's evolution." When asked if there is an overall theme to The Movie We Are In, Francis explains, "I like to leave this up to the listener. Hearing an album is similar to visiting a museum. The listener has to have his or her own conversation with the artwork and create their own interpretations."

Links for Pete Francis (from Dispatch) Artist web site

Chris Morawetz was a sophomore at the University of Mary Washington (UMW) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, when he contracted a rare and fatal form of lymphoma, and died at the age of 20 in May, 2008. Chris's parents and friends have established an endowed scholarship at UMW in his memory. The scholarship provides assistance to students with financial needs and/or disabilities. Checks can be made out to "UMW Foundation", with "Chris Morawetz Scholarship" in the memo line. All donations are tax deductible. 'An Evening of Music and Remembrance' will feature music by Chris's close friend, Jonthan Hillyard, accompanied by Will Spaulding, as well as an open microphone for friends and family to contribute stories concerning Chris and the impact that he made during his brief time on earth.

Links for An Evening of Music & Remembrance: A Fundraiser for the Chris Morawetz Scholarship at UMW

This show will be seated.

Michael Clem (Eddie from Ohio) Website

Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices in American songwriting. He was a principle leader in the wave of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene, creating a movement that revitalized the national acoustic circuit with an urban, literate, folk pop style that helped renew interest in the genre in the 1990's.

His charismatic, personally authentic performance style has influenced a generation of artists away from the artifice of pop, and closer towards the realness of folk. Though he remains among the most pop-friendly of today's singer-songwriters - his songs regularly appear in hit movie and TV soundtracks - he has bridged the gulf between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger more successfully than perhaps any of his songwriting peers.

Links for Ellis Paul Artist web site

This show will be seated.

There is no mistaking Brad Roberts' voice. He may look like an average guy, now in his mid-40s, but then he opens his mouth and his majestic baritone voice immediately conjures fond memories of such Crash Test Dummies hits at "Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm" and "Superman." Perhaps best remembered for the acerbic folk rock sound of 1991's The Ghosts That Haunt Me and 1993's God Shuffled His Feet, there have nonetheless been enough hits for the band over the years to merit a couple of greatest hits packages. Through it all, the band with Roberts at the helm has touched on funk and soul, folk, electronic music and even Christmas tunes. Yet it is Roberts' voice and offbeat lyrical sensibility that have been this beloved band's calling cards since their founding twenty years ago.

Due for release on May 11, Oooh La La (Deep Fried) is again something of a different animal for the Crash Test Dummies. This time Roberts collaborates with producer/engineer Stewart Lerman, whose many credits include such divergent talents as Antony and the Johnsons and The Roches, as well as filmmakers like Wes Anderson and Martin Scorcese. While longtime CTD member Ellen Reid added back-up vocals and a lead on the closing acoustic ballad "Put a Face," this album is fundamentally the work of these two creative men.
"I met Stewart and he wanted to just write music for the sake of writing music," Roberts explains, breaking a five-year writing hiatus to work with Lerman. "I think the music is better than it could have ever been because we were writing it for ourselves - we weren't aiming at a demographic anyhow - but this couldn't be a clearer case of us being little boys."

"Little boys" is actually an appropriate term to explain how this album came together-Roberts and Lerman became infatuated with ‘70s-era musical toys, particularly one called the Optigan, and used them to compose much of the music for Oooh La La. Manufactured by Mattel, the Optigan (an acronym for optical organ) looks like a small electric organ but it projects the sound of other instruments using celluloid discs. Somewhat like an accordion, there are buttons on the left side that trigger chords and piano keys on the right that trigger single notes. The discs, with names like "Nashville," "Swing It!" and "Guitar Boogie," rotate to produce different arrays of sounds. The process is eerily similar to the digital sampling that is so common today, but the antiquated analog system produces quite a different effect.

"Because we wrote using these discs, we were inspired to do things that we wouldn't have done," Roberts points out. "I don't write big band style, but all of a sudden I had this big band [on disc], so I'm writing in a genre that I normally wouldn't be writing in. I can't say enough about how great it is to write on these toys."
With a little help from a few friends, the guys laid down a collection of beautifully crafted instrumental parts on top of the original toy tracks to create a fully realized production. Listening to the completed tracks you probably wouldn't even realize that these tunes were started on toy instruments, but those unusual origins are still lurking. It won't only be longtime CTD fans who will get a kick out of such sonic touches as the `50s doo-wop feel of "Paralyzed" (inspired by another toy called the Omnichord), the manic country feel of "What I'm Famous For" and the big band swing of "Now You See Her..."

Links for Crash Test Dummies Artist web site

This show will be seated.

Billboard Magazine describes Steven Gellman's music as "intensely sensitive and impressively intelligent at the same time."

Emerging from his early roots as a founding member of the folk-rock group, Diamond Rose, Steven Gellman has established himself firmly within the singer/songwriter tradition. Gellman's catalog of original music spans five independent releases. His newest, politically charged CD, "Peaceful World," continues Gellman's slice of life approach to capturing story in song.

Gellman has travelled near and far to perform at acoustic music venues throughout the United States and Canada such as The Birchmere in Alexandria, The Ark in Ann Arbor, The Blue Bird Café in Nashville, The Tin Angel in Philadelphia, and Club Passim in Boston. Gellman has had the honor to open shows for Dar Williams, Cheryl Wheeler, Richie Havens, Richard Shindell, Al Stewart and Kate Campbell among others.

Don Murphy of the National Theatre says "Steven Gellman's insightful original songs and homespun stories provide a soul-warming folk rock respite in a busy chilly world."

Links for Steven Gellman CD Release Artist web site

LATE SHOW!

This show will be standing room only - with very limited seating.

Links for An Evening with Charlie Mars (full band!) Artist web site

EARLY SHOW!

This show will be standing room only - with very limited seating.

Originally started by two brothers -- Jared and Marshall Cunningham -- "Sing Me Insomnia" (SMI) began their journey as an acoustic duo, playing guitar and keyboard while sharing vocal duties. Simultaneously, Jared was creating musical bliss with Wes Beale, who was skilled on both lead guitar and bass. Soon after, it only made sense to transform the acoustic partnership into a full band, and with the addition of Jordan Depriest on drums, the group has found it's niche in the Northern Virginia music scene. Sing Me Insomnia creates each and every note with equal parts passion and talent. Despite their popularity coming with ease, this band is one of the hardest working and determined groups out there. With a large fan base of loyal music lovers (appropriately dubbed "The Insomniacs"), SMI has gained their own following and continues to progress with the hopes and dreams of spreading their love for music to as many people as possible.

Links for Sing Me Insomnia

Come see the jazz ensembles of Mclean High School and Longfellow Middle School give their final exams in front of a live audience!

Links for McLean High School and Longfellow Middle School Big Band Jam Artist web site

This show will be seated.

Dan Navarro is better known as one half of the acoustic duo Lowen & Navarro, who, for the past 20 years, have barnstormed the country on the heels of their 11 albums. L&N still continues to record and tour, though on a diminished schedule since Eric's 2004 diagnosis with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease. So, for the past three years Dan has been stepping out on his own and playing greater and greater numbers of solo shows all over the country.

The distinguishing marks are the same for Dan solo as they have been with Eric Lowen all these years -- songs of insight and experience, delivered straight up with honesty, passion and grace. His songs (written with Eric Lowen, with other collaborators and on his own) have been recorded by artists as diverse as Pat Benatar (the Top Five smash "We Belong"), The Bangles, Dionne Warwick, Dave Edmunds, and many more.

In addition to his activity as an artist, Dan also lends his voice to movies, TV shows and commercials, both in English and in Spanish. Some of his better credits have included Happy Feet, Ice Age 2, Prison Break, Family Guy, American Dad and commercials for McDonald's, Ford, Nationwide Insurance, Nissan, Shakey's and countless others.

Links for Dan Navarro (full band!) Artist web site

This show will be standing room only - with very limited seating.

Krista Polvere MySpace

"Music can be an amazingly potent thing," says Matt Hales, aka Aqualung. "When I sing into the microphone in the studio, I'm whispering my secrets in people's ears. When it connects, it can be so powerful. It's still a remarkable process to me."

Indeed, in a field crowded with empty shouting, Words and Music-the English singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer's fourth album (and third U.S. release) under his longstanding nom de disc Aqualung-has the feeling of a series of deep emotional truths whispered in confidence. An effortlessly intimate set of subtly crafted, organically melodic tunes with openhearted lyrics and spare, mostly acoustic arrangements, Words and Music features some of Hales' most compelling work to date. Such subtly soulful tunes as "7 Keys," "Arrivals," "Good Goodnight" and "When I Finally Get My Own Place" balance adult emotional insight and childlike wonder, and are squarely in the tradition of such introspective pop auteurs as Brian Wilson and Paul Simon. Not coincidentally, Simon's '70s classic "Slip Sliding Away" receives a poignant interpretation from Hales on the album.

Words and Music-which Hales co-produced with his brother and musical right-hand man Ben, who also provides guitar, bass and harmony vocals, and co-wrote several songs-is the product of an extended period of soul-searching that caused the artist to seriously reexamine his career priorities, after a life that's been spent making music.

Hales began writing songs at the age of four and won a music scholarship at 16, and soon saw his classical symphony Life Cycle performed by a 60-piece orchestra. He later achieved a modicum of U.K. notoriety with a pair of British rock combos, Ruth and The 45's, but eventually grew weary of band life. Hales began recording as Aqualung in 2002, and achieved some unexpected early success when his demo of the song "Strange and Beautiful" appeared in a Volkswagen TV commercial and immediately struck a chord with listeners. That fluke occurrence turned Aqualung from a modest lo-fi bedroom recording project into a successful major-label act.

Hales' first two U.K. albums, Aqualung and Still Life were combined to create Aqualung's first U.S. release Strange and Beautiful, which became a substantial stateside hit. Meanwhile, Hales demonstrated the flexibility of his songcraft by presenting his music in a variety of live formats, from solo piano performances to gigs with a four-piece band to concerts with a 17-person ensemble. The conflicting emotions generated by Hales' unexpected mainstream success were reflected in 2007's Memory Man, a densely packed, largely electronic meditation on the disconnection and dislocation that Hales was feeling at the time. Those emotions left the lifelong musician and songwriter unsure of whether he wanted to continue as a recording artist.

"I'd been on the road for about three years, and I was as unwell and as unhappy as I've ever been," he recalls. "I thought, 'This is absolutely ridiculous, how can this be the result of success?' I felt like I was completely done, and like I had to stop. So I came home and hung out with my family and got busy producing and writing for other people, and had a think about what I might do next. But then I started to write some songs, and I eventually came back to realizing how much I would miss it if I gave it up. I realized that I just had to find a way to carry on, but on my own terms."

Eventually, Hales and his brother Ben began cutting unfussed, stripped-down recordings in Matt's home studio, with little thought of releasing them to the public. "It was really me and my brother sitting at home in London, just seeing what would happen if we tried out this sound or this tone. Initially, we were just playing around with new versions of old songs, but then I started writing new songs, and it grew and grew, and at some point it started feeling like a record."

"I wasn't really expecting anyone to want to release it, to be honest," Hales adds. "It was really more of an experiment for me, because after having made a deliberately synthetic record with Memory Man, I was reacting against that and wanting to make something that was entirely organic and furry."

The almost-accidental nature of Words and Music's birth cycle is consistent with the unpremeditated manner in which Aqualung first came into being, and Hales is happy to be returning to his D.I.Y. roots. "Ever since I began making music," he says, "my best work has come from a sense of feeling at home and connected and grounded and safe and happy. And this record, which was made without any external pressures or timetables or plan, came from that place, and connected me back to that. Listening to it, I feel relieved and rescued."

"I nearly called this album Heart Songs, because that's sort of what they are," Hales notes. "Memory Man was completely a head record, but Words and Music is all heart. It barely has a head; it's basically just a heart and a grin. There's something about the spirit of these recordings that feels like the start of something new. I don't know exactly where it will take me, but it will be very interesting to find out."

Links for Aqualung Artist web site

EARLY SHOW!

This show will be standing room only - with very limited seating.

The Love Light MySpace

Boys Will Be Boys, that is their name, that is their motto. They come to party and they come to make you dance. With catchy choruses, and shredding guitar solos not found in your typical pop band, they are making waves not just in Virginia but nationally. With a well accepted EP release on iTunes in the summer of 2008, The Pre- Release, its just the beginning of this party.

Links for Boys Will Be Boys

This show will be seated.

"I'm the most sophisticated hillbilly you'll ever meet."

When Michelle Shocked says this about herself, it's hard not to crack up. ‘Hillbilly,' after all, is no compliment. And frankly, it's tough to reconcile that reflex image of a backwoods, overalls-and-a-smile hillbilly with this focused, erudite singer-songwriter. If such a creature exists, however, Shocked is its picture, sans Billy-Bob teeth. Come to think of it, she was born in or at least near the backwoods of East Texas - and get this -after being conceived, if memory serves, "in the backseat of my Uncle Huby's Chevy at the high school prom."

Her upbringing was more well-rounded. In her early childhood, Shocked logged thousands of miles as a military brat, living in Massachusetts, Germany and Maryland, before returning to Texas. She lived there until her early twenties, experiencing the stark contrast - and copious benefits - of being raised by a fundamentalist Mormon mother and Army lifer stepfather, and having a hippie teacher-slash-"ultimate autodidact" father. Eager to further expand her horizons, Shocked eventually decamped for San Francisco, assumed the peripatetic life of a community activist and, eventually, a touring musician.

Fittingly, there's a phantom Texas taproot and that self-styled wanderlust in her music. Much like the work of her East Texas peers Willie Nelson, Victoria Williams and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Shocked's songs hold fast to a definite core, but owe no stylistic allegiance - just like their itinerant, mercurial, utilitarian creators.

In a 23-year career that has seen critical acclaim at every juncture, she famously escaped major-label indentured servitude in 1996, subverting the artist-label relationship that helped lead to the current trend toward artistic self-containment. She has made good use of her independence, releasing more critically-acclaimed albums on her Mighty Sound label. Her 2009 album, Soul of My Soul, was the latest of these. In 2010, her efforts are focused on Roadworks, an ongoing, 5-year touring project which curates songs that are audience favorites while developing new, unreleased material.

For example, this year's theme, American Idle, will search for new songs that chronicle the chilling effects of a ‘jobless recovery', inviting fellow songwriters to briefly share the spotlight as the audience helps determine material selected for a limited-edition recording available at year-end exclusively to Roadworks ticketholders, while simultaneously preparing for the launch of the 20th Anniversary edition of Arkansas Traveler, slated for late next year, by featuring young bluegrass musicians who, perhaps, grew up listening to Arkansas Traveler as part of their parent's record collection.

Links for Michelle Shocked Artist web site

This show will be standing room only - with very limited seating.

As singer/songwriter Dave Barnes tells it, he had a Harry Potter moment while in college. Like the poor, misunderstood boy living under the stairs with his Uncle and Aunt, Barnes also belonged to a magical tribe, but up to that point hadn't realized it. "I was thinking I was weird, or something was wrong with me. But when I found the magazine Performing Songwriter, I thought, ‘you mean there's a group of people who relate to this? Who have a hard time talking when there is a melody in their head or will run off and call their voicemail so they can remember how this one lyric goes?'"

That's right, Dave, you're a wizard. Well, a songwriting wizard, anyway. So get out of that cramped room and get to Hogwarts-er, Nashville.

A few years later, Barnes graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in Recording Industry Management-"I'm one of the few musicians in the world actually using my major," he laughs-and became a performing songwriter himself, relocating to Nashville to see what might happen.

At first very little was happening, with Barnes cutting his teeth in a 50-capacity room-and drawing just seven people at one point. But just a few years later, after crisscrossing the country and selling vanloads of two independent albums-Brother, Bring The Sun and Chasing Mississippi, the artist had landed songs on television and in films, and was well known to thousands who'd discovered his soulful, supple way with a melody, wrapping itself around a lyric that sneakily burrows under the skin. Those fans include Vince Gill and Amy Grant (who made guest appearances on Chasing Mississippi) and John Mayer, who said on his blog: "Go where this guy is taking you. My man's aim is true!"

Where is Barnes taking listeners? Judging by a spin of his latest, Me and You and the World, just about anywhere. The Steely Dan jazz-pop of "Someday." The Blind Boys of Alabama-style gospel of "Carry Me Through." The lighters-in-the-air sing-along chorus of "When A Heart Breaks." The crowd favorite and first single, "Until You." Or, perhaps, the delicate, cello-laced ballad of "On A Night Like This." It's all here.

"I always want my songs to be served individually," Barnes says. "As we approach production, what I'm always the most conscious of is, ‘is this song sounding like it needs to sound?' I do want the record to sound good, but I'm a lot more concerned with an individual song. That's all that anybody's listening to at one point anyway."

Me and You and the World refers to Barnes' expanded lyrical perspective. Profoundly affected by his work with the Mocha Club (mochaclub.org)-which builds orphanages and supplies medical care in Africa-and service trips he's taken to the continent, the songwriting began shifting. As he says, "You can beat your fans up when you write about yourself all the time. I never want them to be like ‘okay, give us a break you egomaniac.' Now I love to write about my experiences, but I think this record is much more about realizing there are so many other stories to tell."

Born in South Carolina, Barnes grew up in rural Mississippi, first gravitating to the hip-hop popular with his classmates (first CD: Young MC), then latching on to the soul, blues and soulful rock favored by his Jackson-born mother and Clarksdale-born father. "We listened to so much Motown and old school R&B. That was just completely normal for Dad, growing up in that world. He's told me so many stories of being in Clarksdale, going down to the City Hall and seeing these amazing bands playing."

Newly arrived in Nashville, armed with just his acoustic guitar, Barnes gravitated to the folk scene. After playing his fair share of solo acoustic shows, though, Dave made has way back to his roots, and found himself looking for music with both depth and groove. This lead Barnes to embrace Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan and seemingly everything in between. "I've been on a massive Toto kick lately," he shares, gleefully, just after communicating his affection for Phil Collins' melodies in Invisible Touch-era Genesis.

This would be a good time to mention that it's a bad idea to take Barnes seriously all of the time, or perhaps most of the time. A YouTube search turns up almost as many homespun comedy clips as fan-shot performances. In fact, Barnes has a stand-up comedy sideline, selling out a 350-seat Nashville theater for a show that included no guitars. "I just remember, in the middle of the routine, thinking, ‘this is maybe the most fun I've ever had.' Because it was working well and people were responding."

A sense of humor also helps when arduously building an independent career. "You get a lot of ‘hey, yeah, come play at the college-you can play in the cafeteria while people are eating.' And it's like, ‘yesss!' ‘And you're staying with a student.' ‘Oh, great.' And there were those shows where you're like, ‘oh my gosh, am I really playing in a basement?'"

Once earning a following though, Barnes played shows for years before he realized that often his audiences were singing every word of his songs along with him. "When I play, I'm so in the zone that I don't really pay attention," admits the artist, who performed hundreds of shows while still unsigned. "It's only recently that I've appreciated that. Now, there are a couple of places in the set where I stop singing the song and let the audience sing. Not having a radio presence (yet), and being able to play places where people are singing songs loudly, it's pretty amazing."

Amazing, yes, but not unexpected, given Barnes' talent and stage presence. The response also speaks to the power of his songs, equal parts depth and hooks, both thought-provoking and dance-inspiring. It's so contagious that even newcomers have been known to join in. Barnes recalls, "there I was, three years ago in a room just writing a song because it needed to be written-and here I am today in a room in front of 500 to 1,000 people with everybody singing it. And that's a weird feeling."

Despite Nashville's reputation as a cutthroat industry town, best known for commercial country and Christian music, a group of young, pop-oriented singer/songwriters is simultaneously thriving. Barnes counts locals like Matt Wertz (with whom he's toured), sometime-McCartney keyboardist Gabe Dixon and Mat Kearney as friends and peers. It's a non-competitive, supportive community, he says, but the peer pressure is definitely there.

"The great thing about being in Nashville is that you've got to constantly write stuff that keeps your friends on their toes," he says. "I've got so many talented friends that I don't want to be the guy where everyone says: ‘Did you hear Dave's new record? Isn't it, um, interesting?'"

Strangely enough, Barnes never made a conscious decision to arrive where he is today. As he puts it, one thing just led to another, without much of a master plan. "I am thankful that many young singer/songwriters ask me, ‘dude, how did you do it? Give me the roadmap.' But the truth is,' I don't know.' I can't tell you that I've ever planned anything. And I like that, because it must mean I am meant to do this. Right?"

Undoubtedly, Barnes' enthusiastic audience agrees.

Links for Dave Barnes “What We Want, What We Get” CD Release Artist web site