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Two years ago, on an early morning in late July, I sat in complete peace in the beer garden at Floydfest, nursing a Magic Hat and lazily hoping to stave off the impending hangover. I lit up a smoke and waited for the morning music to begin, in no particular hurry, just watching the crowd do their bumbling, morning thing. People watching is easy when you’re half twisted before noon. Just stare, and don’t care. Being fairly seasoned in the culture, nuances, and etiquette of the American Music Festival, I saw the approach a mile away…this guy is coming over for a cigarette. I remember thinking to my admittedly grumpy self, “can you even bum a smoke before 11am?”

I had no idea at the time, but I met Paul Curreri that morning. I handed him a parlie with some disdain, lit him up, and then watched as he walked away… through the crowd, toward the stage, and up on to it. And then he played. If he had kept walking through the crowd that day I probably would have forgotten about it; how many thousands of anonymous smokes have I bummed, and been bummed?

But he didn’t keep walking. He got on stage and tore off my first Paul Curreri tune ever, “Hawkmoth.” I was both mesmerized and humbled.

For those of you who don’t know Paul (I don’t) or his music (I do), you would do well to acquaint yourself with at least the latter. A singer-songwriter from Charlottesville, Paul just returned from a tour in Europe and the Western US, and performed his homecoming show at Gravity Lounge on Thursday night. Any attempt to describe in words the level of songwriting Paul has achieved is to do both he and I, and you the reader, an injustice; his pen, his voice, and his guitar all come together to form a sound that absolutely pulses with emotion. His lyrics are so tightly strung and so eloquent, and so quickly delivered, that it’s a struggle to keep oneself from becoming entangled in stanzas past. They blow past you like wind.

There are people in my life
Who drop from time to time
Down into the binding of a page.
Their picture laying there beside
A poem that once filled in the barren.
Just some riddle now, but I read it anyway.

Paul will play again in Charlottesville at C-Fest, and I will be there.

More info on Paul Curreri, as well as his latest album The Velvet Rut, is available through his website: www.paulcurreri.com

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