Josiah Johnson & Planes on Paper at Grocery on Home, Atlanta, June 30, 2018

It's been five days since this show, but somehow it feels even longer, and I honestly don't know why it took us so long to post this.  Anyway, last Saturday night, we went out to a new venue (new for us) set in a former grocery store on Home Street in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta.  The headliner was Josiah Johnson of the folk-rock band The Head and the Heart with support from Planes on Paper.  However, Josiah called the two members of Planes on Paper onto the stage with him during his set (the first, unusual for the headliner), and Planes on Paper later had Josiah on stage with them for virtually their entire set.  Josiah also had a cellist support him while he was on stage, and it got a little confusing (in a good way) whose set was whose as the evening progressed.  To be honest, it felt a little like the birth of a new band, and if it was we wouldn't mind one bit.  

Grocery on Home puts on invitation-only BYOB shows announced on a first-come basis on Facebook. The former grocery store is a part of someone's house and the venue couldn't have more of a home-grown, DIY vibe to it.  The proprietor/homeowner manages to use his personal connections to attract musicians passing through town between gigs, and pays them by passing a box around (no bouncer at the door taking your money) for a suggested $30 donation, with all of the proceedings going to the musicians.

Josiah, for his part, has a better and stronger voice than we realized, even after hearing him several times before with The Head and the Heart, where his singing can get muddled by the full band's instrumentation.  Solo, in a folk setting, his voice fills the room with a warm and sincere tone.  The cello rounded out the sound nicely, and with Planes on Paper on stage with him, the voices harmonized much more intimately than THATH.     

All in all, it was a great night.  Singer-songwriter folk music isn't our favorite genre, but this was all done so beautifully and artistically that it totally entranced us, as well as the rest of the tiny audience (50 people, maybe).