Fester Hagood's Mojo Confessional Songwriters Showcase Betsy Franck, Eric Carter and Scott Nicholson Potluck and Music starting at 6 pm Sunday, December 10, 2023

Fester Hagood organizes what he calls "Fester Hagood's Mojo Confessional Songwriters Showcase." It builds on Mark Wilmot's "Mojo's Sunday Afternoon Songwriters' Revival" which brought two singer/songwriters to No. 3 Railroad Street each month. We look forward to hearing both new and familiar voices and stories about their songs under Fester's direction. Please read about Fester on the bottom of this page and about both series of concerts on the Songwriters landing page. Fester brings Betsy Franck, Eric Carter and Scott Nicholson to No. 3 Railroad Street this December! sThey will play after a potluck at 6 pm in which audience members bring food to share. The event will be indoors. Here is similar to what Fester has posted to varius Facebook profiles about this event: "We had another wonderful Mojo Confessional [in November]. Special thanks to Betsy Scott and David Kraai for their amazing songs, Marisa Leilani Mustard for singing a few and live painting this beautiful piece, the fantastic listening audience, and Miss Mary Nouri for opening her doors to us. Only one more chance to catch our monthly songwriter showcase this year, and Dec 10th is gonna be a good one. Our featured artists will be Betsy Franck and Eric Carter (both from Bloodkin) and Scott Nicholson. Marisa will be back as well doing live painting and a couple of songs. Go ahead and mark your calendars and I'll see you on the 2nd Sunday of December." Betsy Franck: Betsy has been to No. 3 Railroad Street twice before. both times in the songwriters series with Mark Wilmot as host. Along with Adam Payne, Betsy played on June 17, 2018. Images can be found in the Photos Gallery. And again, solo this time, on April 14, 2019 with photos again in the Photos Gallery. Music came to Betsy early in life. As a child, she taught herself by ear, first on piano and then re-writing songs from her mother's guitar chord songbook. She may be known in songwriting circles for her prowess with a pen, but is perhaps best known by fans for the strength of her voice. Her powerful vocal style, a common focus of accolades, has been described as "Gospel-strong," and "siren-sweet." Betsy's vocals can soften you to sleep only to hasten your heartbeat in the same song; like a steady rain and crackling thunder. Betsy Franck is a soulful Americana Blues singing, guitar playing, songwriter. This Virginia native settled in the North GA mountains, after spending four years in Nashville TN, and over a decade in Athens, performing and recording many studio albums of broad genre spanning styles. She spent a few years in Bat Cave, NC listening and picking bluegrass tunes whilst honing her songwriting skills after leaving Charleston, SC where she played to the seasonal crowds seven nights a week. That pocket of time changed the trajectory of her music. Sweeping up the Porch is a great example of the soulful vocals mixed with that mountain sound. She began recording her second album Held up by Progress in 2002 with John Keane in Athens. There are remnants of bluegrass and a southern rock twinge to the songs and the band from that era. Athens proved to be a good move as it was easy to team up with fellow creators on every corner. The next album Still Waiting has the americana blues rock her music still echoes today. This Far is the first recording without the BareKnuckle Band. This collection of songs were focused more on songwriting and pairing down the big band sound featuring acoustic instruments with ballads touching back on that familiar mountain tone that is ever present in her songwriting. Words, Only Child, From Here, and Downhearted are the most recent releases, recorded in Nashville with Grammy Award-winning producer Brandon Bell. Betsy has been performing with the Athens rock band Bloodkin since the early 2000', and since the passing of lead singer Danny Hutchens, has taken on a greater role performing with the band on a regular basis and promoting their newest release "Black Market Tango". Eric Carter, co-founder of Bloodkin, has enlisted the help of Betsy and good friend and musical cohort Tori Pater to cover the large catalogue of the infamous Athens band. Eric will be here this evening with Betsy and Scott Nicholson. In addition to playing her own music and lending her gospel-strong vocals to various other projects, she continues to pour energy into keeping live music at the forefront of her efforts through intimate small gatherings called BFranckProductions, that focus on food music and how to bring assistance and awareness to various nonprofit organizations. Betsy is currently fine tuning her next album to be released in the Spring of 2024 and is filling her time with as many private concerts, festival appearances, and songwriting workshops that she can fit in. - mostly from betsyfranck.com Artist Websites: betsyfranck.com Facebook Reverbnation back to top From the April 14, 2019 event at No. 3 Railroad Street. At left, Betsy and Mark Wilmot and on the right, with Ken Parris. Photos by Glenn Galau © 2019. Visit the Photos Gallery for the complete set of images of that event back to top Eric Carter: You can't tell the story of Bloodkin, as both a band and brotherhood, without first telling the story of Daniel Hutchens and Eric Carter. Two lifelong friends and fellow muses, Hutchens and Carter's roots run deeper than the shafts of a West Virginia coal mine, the fateful result of geographical luck and mutual interests that would find them embarked on a shared musical journey starting from their earliest days of teenage rebellion and rock and roll fandom through the end of Hutchens' life in 2021. Having first met as children in the small town of Ripley, West Virginia in the early-1970s after Carter's family had recently relocated there, the pair would quickly bond over shared hobbies and, more importantly, shared records, establishing an early array of influences and inspirations that would go on to inform their sound and aesthetic as Bloodkin. Kindred kid spirits with an affinity for both music and trouble, starting from a very young age Hutchens and Carter formed a working relationship and interpersonal dynamic that would ultimately blossom into a professional career and one of the most quietly revered groups in contemporary Southern underground rock lore. Birthed out of cultural isolation in their hometown and a love of art for art's sake and existential exploration and excess - for better and for worse - the boys of Bloodkin managed to forge one of the most unique and long-lasting partnerships in modern music, combining a DIY attitude with Stones-y swagger and incredible songwriting that regularly tackled the subtle nuances of the human condition, cloaked in Southern imagery, making them one of the best kept secrets out of a long lineage of criminally obscure bands from both Athens and beyond. Card-carrying members of what David Thomas from Cleveland punk band Pere Ubu would dub the "Brotherhood of the Unknown" - a reference to his group's initial hope of doing nothing more than releasing a handful of great records very few may ever come across or hear in the name of high art, only to be rediscovered later - Hutchens and Carter's ambitions never truly progressed past that ironically noble aim, while also managing to escape into the world at large through their friends in Widespread Panic. But before they could do that, they would first have to formulate a musical identity, initially in their hometown of Ripley, followed by a stint in the city of Huntington, West Virginia for college, then briefly Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and ultimately Athens. Making home recordings in Hutchens' basement as teenagers, a working methodology that they would continue well into adulthood, and inspired by both the Beat writers and highly literary artists like Bob Dylan, the die was pretty much cast from the moment they first met each other, creating a template for creativity that would pay dividends far down the road. - from bloodkin.net Eric Carter and Daniel Hutchins came to No. 3 Railroad Street as part of Mark Wilmot's Songwriters series on Mark's birthday, on September 23, 2018. Eric's Websites: Facebook bloodkin.net back to top From the September 23, 2018 event at No. 3 Railroad Street. Daniel and Eric in the left, both with Mark in the middle, and Eric in the right. Photos by Glenn Galau © 2018. Visit the Photo Gallery for the complete set of images. back to top Scott Nicholson: Scott Nicholson plays keys, guitar, accordion, guitar and also does vocal. He has been to No. 3 Railroad Street on November 13, 2022 with Adam payne and Adam Poulin, two of his dangfly! bandmates, and Kimberly Morgan York for one of Fester's Songwriters events. He also plays (or has played) with Bloodkin, Big C and The Moonshynes, Ty Manning and the Slawdog Biscuits, and Soul Miner's Daughter. Scott's Websites: Facebook back to top Fester Hagood has been a staple of the Classic City's music scene for over a decade. Hagood began writing music at the age of 16 and has been performing as a solo act in the Athens bar scene since early 2000. In 2015, Fester produced the Redstone Ramblers CD, "Graveyard Gospel." He hosted The Tuesday Night Confessional at The Nowhere Bar in Athens from 2013 onwards which was the inpsiration for Mark's Songwriters Revival. Fester is one of the pillars of original music in the Athens Area and an especially good citizen. Fester's websites include Facebook, Reverbnation and Fester Hagood's Tues Night Confessors Songwriters Betsy Franck, Eric Carter and Scott Nicholson, Sunday, December 10, 2023. Potluck and Music indoors starting at 6 pm. Suggested Donation of $10. Mary could use something as well! Modified 06 December 2023 by Glenn Galau   |   Web Design by Glenn Galau