Violet and the Newsroom

Clay here, fresh off a Sunday afternoon set at Kentucky Native Cafe.

If you’ve not been there before, imagine: you’re in downtown Lexington, only a ten minute walk east from the tallest buildings in the city and a five minute walk north from UK’s campus. It’s a mostly-residential area, some apartments, some single-family homes, plus a smattering of businesses here and there, especially along Woodland Ave. From Maxwell Street, you see a greenhouse behind some hedges and street parking. From High Street, you see a parking lot. Park there, then walk beyond the fence and you’ll find yourself dropped into an impossibly lush garden, all trailing vines and warm wooden fixtures and the smell of very tasty food that will remind you how hungry you are. It’s so green and dense that I kept thinking there should be a river flowing through somewhere nearby.

It was our first time performing here as a band, but not our first visit! Earlier this year, I’d been out to watch Anabel and Phill play. Violet’s also performed here before, once with Nathan Jones (her teacher at Central Music Academy in the Bluegrass Legacy traditional music ensemble) and another time with The Local Honeys.

We set up outside, which was a real treat – gardens are some of our favorite places to play! Before we began to tend our blog properly, we did a show in the gardens between Liberty Hall and the Orlando Brown house in Frankfort, and that was another really special one for us! It always feels like we’re among friends when we get to be on level ground with people as they eat and drink and chat and play (and, if we’re very, very lucky, dance) in an intimate outdoor space. People also seem to feel more inclined to have a back-and-forth with us, which we always love. (We need to learn some call-and-response songs, actually. Let us know if you have any suggestions!)

Thank you to Kentucky Native Cafe for having us! We’d love to come and share in the magic here again! We’re also interested in taking more gigs in Lexington, since it’s a good central location for us, so please don’t hesitate to reach out via our contact page.

After the show was over, I grabbed a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, while Violet and Anabel scurried off to go work on a new project with Champs of the Sun, so… stay tuned… 🙂

Our next show is out at Turtleback Ridge Brewery over in Robertson county. We hope to see you there!