I’ve been wondering about what is it that makes small-venue music events so great? I’ve decided it’s the intimacy, the accessibility, the closeness to the kind of greatness most people only experience via a recording played on some electronic device.

It’s live music that is even more “live” than a concert in a big arena because even there the sound is thrown at you from a distance through amplification and in a sense the performance is essentially second-hand by the time it reaches the ear.

But here, in Wake Forest’s Magnolia Roots Music Longue, there is an immediacy akin to the artist sitting in my living room because it’s the music and us and the stories and the emotion of it and there is nothing in the way and nothing to do but be a part of it – together – and it works because it’s as present and real as live music gets.

Of course, it helps that Rod Abernethy is so darned good, a true troubadour who lays his life out in pure songwriting and some of the best acoustic guitar I have heard.

As I have my moments as a fairly good guitar player myself I can appreciate what Abernethy achieves, and all I can say is that it’s nothing I can even vaguely imagine happening when I pick up my acoustic Ovation.

So enjoy these photos – and consider checking out the musical offerings available here in Wake Forest via the Listening Room initiative.

Special thanks to host Mike Allen for making events like this happen – DEREK

Introduced by host Mike Allen