Sit dow and Shut Up targets songwriters, public

A songwriter's round, where a handful of composers take turns performing their songs, is a concert format that has been around for decades.

Four local country artists brought that to Cape Girardeau with "Sit Down and Shut Up: A Night of Songs" at the Port Cape Yacht Club on Feb. 3.

Event promoter Evan Webb said the lineup of artists consisted of himself and three other musicians he knows from playing music in the area. He invited them to help out with this first attempt at a songwriter's event he hopes will continue and grow.

"We all play in bands where we make a lot of noise," Webb said. "Sometimes the songs just get lost in that atmosphere. So I wanted to create an outlet for songwriters to perform the stuff they've written for people who really want to listen to the song and be a part of that experience."

John D. Hale, who Webb called one of the original outlaw-country-red-dirt guys in the area, Casey Lee Rodgers and Adam Hellman rounded out the lineup alongside Webb.

"It's a very open format, so we were doing a lot of cracking up at each other's expense and just telling goofy stories and having fun with it. It wasn't anything too serious," he said.

The event attracted approximately 90 people who Webb said seemed invested in the performance.

"I wanted people to have the experience of being a fly on the wall in my kitchen on a Sunday morning as I'm having a cup of coffee trying to write some song because my head hurts from drinking too much," he said.

The concept, he said, began after seeing the format of a songwriter's-round in other cities.

"Why not here? Why not in Cape? Let's create that," he said. "There's not a lot of that type of show that happens here, but this can be a thing. We can do different things like this; we're not just a community that has good cover bands."

Webb said the event's somewhat aggressive title sets a precedent for what the musicians are looking for in a crowd.

"We want the people who take the time to feel out what the writer is trying to say and really give them a listen," he said. "I want to create that atmosphere for listeners and for the artists."

According to Webb, more "Sit Down and Shut Up" song nights will be on the way soon.

He said the main goal of the event is to feature as many artists and styles of music as possible.