Notes from the Road - Acoustic Coffeehouse, Johnson City, TN. Wednesday, July 18th The drive from Nashville was uneventful - between 4 and 4 ½ hours. A little tiring. Before I got to Johnson City I rolled over 1000 miles so far on this trip. I didn’t get started form Nashville quite as early as I had planned, plus I lost an hour as I headed east. Got into Johnson City, checked into my hotel and then headed over to the coffeehouse to grab an early dinner (part of the deal). They have a light menu of sandwiches and appetizers - pretty good. The Acoustic Coffeehouse is two buildings side by side. One side is the café’ / beer bar area where they have performances, open mics, etc. There is indoor seating for about 50 and outdoor seating front and back with outdoor speakers to carry to the music out. There is room outside for, literally, an unlimited number of folks. The other side is a pure performance studio with stage, lights, etc. It seats around 100 and has great paneling and art on the walls. I had my choice of which side to perform in, but since this was my first time through, had only a dozen or so folks coming to the show from my mailing list and since the music from that room does not go to the rest of the house or outside I felt like I might have trouble getting a crowd in there. So, despite the traffic in the café’ area I opted for that – an was glad I did. This little place does a whopping business on Wednesday nights - easily over 100 folks there inside and out. All seats inside remained full throughout the evening. While it was a bit noisy at times, the crowd responded particularly well. The tip jar and CD sales said they enjoyed the music and I’m looking forward to going back soon. The Acoustic Coffeehouse is a textbook “eclectic†music venue. Johnson City itself sits in the far northeast corner of Tennessee, about an hour northwest of Asheville, NC and just a couple of miles from the Va. state line. It’s a beautiful area and everyone I talked to loves living there. In fact, it is one of the friendliest places I’ve been - everyone so anxious to help and treating you like a long lost friend. Special thanks to Jim Benelisha and Indie, my hosts and to MySpace friends Ann, Laurie, Kathy and Daryl who came out for the show and brought their friends, family, etc. I finished up a little after 10 pm and then sat with new friends for a beer or two (excellent, wide selection of draft and bottles) before packing it in - Newcastle draft, excellent! Thursday, July 19th Another 4 hour drive over to Harrisonburg, Va. That’ll leave me just three hours tomorrow up to York, PA. This was a beautiful drive out through the rolling hills of Virginia from Bristol, through Roanoke, Lexington, etc. Harrisonburg is in the Shennandoah Valley. History all along the way. Enjoying the day off. Need to restring guitars tonight and practice a bit. Lots of song ideas cooking. Next, Beyond Coffee in York, PA.