Johnny Delaware Brings a Perfect Sense of Chill To a Sunday Night at The 7th Street Entry

This weekend was super busy for live music up here in Minneapolis. Although I had already fit three shows into Friday and Saturday, I still had two more waiting for me on Sunday. After making some poor decisions on how to spend my Sunday day, being at two shows Sunday night was the last thing I wanted to do, but by the end of the night, I was so glad that I sucked it up and made the trek downstairs. The show at the 7th Street Entry was a major reason for that.

The crowd wasn’t big when opening act C.M.M. took the stage but, having never heard of this act before, I wasn’t surprised. The only information I could find online about C.M.M. was “aka Charles Murlowski.” Although not a name I recognized, I recognized Charles as a familiar face from the local scene, and after a quick dig online, I realized that he is the guitarist of Night Moves. Night Moves is a local indie rock band that started in 2010 and quickly gained traction and popularity throughout the country. Putting this all together had me so excited to see what Charles had been up to since it’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen Night Moves live.

Sunday night was Charles’ first performance as C.M.M., but you wouldn’t have known that. Charles, backed by a fantastic trio of other musicians, came off as a true professional from the second he took the stage until he left. This makes sense if you know who this man is, but even being a member of a more popular rock band won’t completely rid you of the first solo show jitters. Those jitters, although subtle, led to a super heartfelt performance. Stylistically, C.M.M. felt completely out of left field from Charles’ work with Night Moves. The sound was subdued, chill, and even somber at times, whereas Night Moves always left me with a pep in my step and a fire in my soul. That’s not to say that I didn’t get those things from the C.M.M. set on Sunday, more that they hit me differently. I was hit with a sense of cozy comfort, which, with winter setting in and the holidays just around the corner, was a perfect way to kick this show off.

Headlining the chill Sunday night show at the 7th Street Entry was South Dakota-bred Johnny Delaware. I was super excited to see Johnny Delaware, as I know him as one of the co-creators of SUSTO, who then went on to start The Artisanals. Although I didn’t get super into The Artisanals, as their prog-rock sound wasn’t quite for me, I got deep into SUSTO for a while. SUSTO was one of those bands that I had just stumbled upon, and their sound, lyrics, and style spoke to my soul. I felt like I was seeing SUSTO every couple of months there for a little bit, but then it all stopped. They are still out there, still doing their thing, but Johnny Delaware took a different path and turned his focus onto his solo work. After seeing him perform on Sunday night, I’m thankful for that new path.

Johnny Delaware’s sound is very folk rock, but there’s a spark about him that keeps it from feeling like just another folk-rock concert. There was something painfully pure about every song that he and his band performed. It was bridging into the category of being raw, but there was something just a bit more polished about the sound that kept it from going into the raw category. With that being said, what response that radiated from my heart was absolutely in the “raw category”. From Johnny’s words to the way he presented them, there was just something oddly cathartic. I say oddly because, having never spent any time with his solo stuff, I was expecting to feel so connected to this man and his music so quickly, but there I was, completely lost in Johnny Delaware’s world while also getting lost in my own head.

There wasn’t a big crowd at the 7th Street Entry for either performer on Sunday night. Although that broke my heart for the two performers, I loved the sense of intimacy it brought to the show. I also feel like it added to that feeling of “knowing” these musicians. Johnny Delaware, in particular, spent some time letting his quirky personality shine with his few moments of banter with the audience. He was being real with people, just kind of joking around about things in a way that you would joke around with a good friend that you hadn’t seen in a long time. Although just quick snippets of the night, these moments added that special sauce to an already special night.