This one starts with Kathy. Back around 2009, she was volunteering at the Austin Food Bank when she met a fellow volunteer named Barbara Nesbitt. Kathy figured out that Barbara was a musician, and we went to one of Barbara's solo shows later that week, then caught a Whiskey Sisters show. That was pretty much that - when we started MCC in 2015, Barbara quickly became an MCC regular. This will be her 6th MCC concert.

Barbara is an Austin Americana institution — six solo albums deep, multiple Austin Music Award nominations, SiriusXM airplay, co-founder of the acclaimed Whiskey Sisters, and yes, she's sung background vocals for Willie Nelson and Bob Weir. Which is a sentence most of us will never get to say.

Her newest record, Lucky Street, came out last fall and it's exactly what you'd hope from an artist this far into a career: unhurried, honest, and full of songs that feel like they've been around forever. The title track is deeply personal — Barbara actually lived on a Lucky Street as a kid. When she told her brother she was naming the album after it, he gently reminded her it wasn't exactly a golden chapter. Her response: the irony was too rich to avoid. Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel called her voice "clear as a mountain meadow and emotive as Patsy Cline." The only thing I would add is, "keep the swear jar handy."

If you've seen her here before, you already have your seat picked out. If you haven't, prepare to be ruined for lesser evenings.

A friend sent me a link to Spencer LaJoye's song "Plowshare Prayer" and told me to listen. I did. I cried. Then I sat with it for a while. Then I contacted Spencer and offered to host a concert for them here at MCC.

I have never done that before.

Spencer is a singer-songwriter from Grand Rapids, Michigan — classically trained violinist, theology degree on the wall, loop pedal on the floor — making what they call "queer indie folk music for everyone." That last part is important. Spencer's music has a way of finding you wherever you are and making you feel less alone in it. "Plowshare Prayer," their 2021 anthem, went quietly viral for good reason: it's a song that takes prayer back from the people who've used it as a weapon and turns it into something that actually feels like grace.

Ok, so what's the Texas connection? Spencer won the 2021 Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Competition — one of the most coveted honors in American roots music — and returned in 2024 to win the Songwriter Serenade. If you've been to a house concert at MCC before,  you know what that means. If you don't, just trust us.

Spencer's live shows are described as "banter-heavy" — audiences go from laughing to weeping and back again, sometimes in the same song. This will be Spencer's first appearance at MCC, and we are pretty excited about it. Come find out why.