Seven years ago in a Valdosta dive bar I was quite taken with the music of a singer-songwriter from a Brooks County farm family, Johnathan Coody. Recently, at long last, I saw him perform live again at the BASH Festival in Gainesville, Florida.

He played the song that I found most memorable seven years ago, “Independent Operator”, with even better musicality and equipment. It is a fine statement about a real job delivering bread to grocery stores, a job Coody really worked in the grand tradition of American folksingers.

All Coody’s songs come from his life experiences, some painfully so.

The man is a poet with a guitar and a charmingly modest manner. Hearing him live is a must, if only for the diffident little chuckle that he gives at the end of all of his songs.