Listening Room: Kyle Joshua Cox Live Review | July 24 2014 | The Downtown Credo Orlando

by Mitch Foster • July 30, 2014

There were about 45 people crammed into the small, quaint room at the Downtown Credo in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando. Kyle Cox had emailed me earlier in the week after reading our Thomas Wynn & The Believers Live Review. He started with “I’m not sure if we’ve met or not.” We hadn’t. But after watching him perform Thursday night, I’m very glad we now have.

I walked in to Cory Quintard almost whispering behind frail strums to his Gibson. There was no PA system. No amplification for the guitars. Just three handsome gentlemen sedentary on a couch in the middle of the room dimly lit by floor lamps. “This song is about my pastor that had an affair and killed himself.” Kyle said as chills ran up my spine and my hairs made their best effort to stand on end.

Each of the artists took turns performing songs they wrote. Each song was preceded by a short story of what the song meant to them and why they wrote it. It was a textbook example of intimate. Here’s a shitty pic:

Josh Pearson followed Kyle’s coping song with a real tongue-in-cheek tune, lightening the mood. It was called “The Potty Song” and it’s now my new favorite song. It begins “Sometimes you gotta go number one. Sometimes you gotta go number two.” Humor is best when it catches you off guard. After being heavily involved in Kyle’s song, this was a perfect comical surprise. If anyone has a link to the song, please comment with it below.

Kyle included a link in his email to one of the songs he recently had featured on the American Songwriter website entitled “I Ain’t Been Lonely, Until I Met You.” After a single listen, I was confident I should check the show out. The free wine was just a bonus. Yes, free wine (hell of a bargaining chip).

“I wrote this song right before I started taking medication for anxiety and depression.” Kyle spoke before going into my favorite song of the night “Fields of My Heart.” The lyrics in the chorus spoke to me in a hard-hitting, nostalgic way:

“I miss the sun

I miss the rain

I miss the beauty that’s faded away

I miss who I was

When I was young

And I’d still dream about who I’d become.

I miss the laughs

I miss the cries

I miss standing up for what’s right

I miss the freedom to fuck up.”

Kyle Cox was kind enough to provide us with an audio file for the above song and it is available as a free download on our Free Download page (thanks Kyle!).

The three men finished their set together with a cover song – Dawes “Million Dollar Bill” – all taking turns with verses; echoing the choruses in unison. Lindsay caught Dawes back in May with Conor Oberst.

As I sipped my “Two Buck Chuck” wine I watched the room. Everyone was subtly engaged. At one point there was a motorcycle that rode by, partially interrupting the quiet. The city was moving fast around us but we weren’t a part of the movement. We were all a part of something different, something beautiful, something still. No one was speaking. No one was breathing – heavily. We were all suspended in that moment.

I feel like things are sometimes placed in your path in life for a reason. The sign that read “Are you parked in the right place” behind me at the coffee condiments bar was one of those. To me, it had a deeper meaning than whether or not my car was parked in the right place. It was my soul and my body that were parked happily “in the right place” with those other forty-so people, some cheap red wine, and three great musicians.