Southwind Cycle and Outdoor will introduce a burst of American folk music into downtown Iola on Friday when it hosts singer-songwriter and Shawnee-native David Burchfield. The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with opening act, newcomer Alek Young, and runs till 10:30.
Admission is free (though a small donation for a gigging artist is only polite).
Burchfield, who is a high school friend and former college roommate of Southwind owner Ben Alexander, quit his job as a fifth-grade teacher last year in order to entrust more of his time to making good music. His sound is a smart blend of modern Americana, bluegrass and indie rock irrigated, as Burchfield describes it, by that deep well of folk and country music as well.
His lyrics, despite his best efforts, tend toward the confessional. [Songwriting] has always been for me a personal processing tool for life, said Burchfield, in a phone conversation with the Register on Wednesday, just a few hours before he was to take the stage at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence. He pointed to one track in particular. The song thats carried me for the last couple of years is called Youre okay, Its Alright. Its about the experience that got me back to doing music while I was in the classroom.
A couple of years ago, while living in Colorado, Burchfield was hit by a truck as he was riding his Vespa-style scooter. Except for a broken nose, the singer was fine, but the accident did manage to jar something free creatively. I just felt really lucky and wrote that song to process the experience, said Burchfield. It kind of provides a refrain for me, to carry me through. I mean, thats the chorus youre okay, its alright. Every time I play that, it just reminds me why Im out here doing this and working so hard. You dont know how much time you get. You should do what youre passionate about, whatever that is.
And thats what Burchfield will be doing: Friday. At Southwind Cycle and Outdoor. 17 E. Madison Ave. Doors open at 6:30. Hes the real deal. You should go. Its free.
BURCHFIELD, who now lives in Salt Lake City, where his wife is a first-year resident in head and neck surgery, hasnt been to southeast Kansas since high school, when he visited Garnett for the Worlds Largest Pillow Fight 645 eager people with pillows a Guinness World Record that has since been eclipsed by the nearly 8,000 pillow pugilists who piled into a football stadium in Minnesota for a full-on whackabout last May.
