This night promised all kinds of adventure, fun and music. The closing show of the first year of the Meeting Grace house concert series offered the surprising combination of San Diego's legendary Bug Guts with the down-home folk of Tim Flannery & friends and it was a show well worth seeing. And a lucky full house did just that.

Rosebud and Scott Ireland, Bug Guts' very innards, addressed the audience first with "Sweat" and their impeccable musicianship, their tightness and their unique sound and vibe immediately captured the room. Sensitive to their audience, they prefaced their song "Parental Advisory" with acknowledgement of some profanity. The song begs parents to be responsible and to not raise their children to be assholes. Amen to that. Blazing through their set with some of their trademark songs like "Cattle Battle" and "Cannabis Hammock" (a tribute to Brownie Mary), the house concert setting may have changed the volume of their delivery but not the intensity. Bug Guts turned a lot of heads, raised many an eyebrow and made an impression that will not soon be forgotten.

After Bug Guts, but before Tim Flannery, guests helped themselves to the always delicious homemade treats, compliments of Beth Berkley and Katie Johnson. Thanks to them both for their help all year.

When Tim Flannery and friends took their places before the crowd, there was a definite buzz of magic in the air, a low hum to accompany the music, the spirit. "Hillbilly Highway" took over the room in the voices of Tim Flannery, Randi Driscoll, Jeff Berkley and Tom Flannery, in the guitars of Tim and Tom, in the djembe drum beat of Jeff and in the easy sounding fiddle of Floyd Fronius. And it was only the beginning.

With funny, personal stories, Tim Flannery took us through songs from his record, "Pieces of the Past" as well as covers like "Sin City" and "Rub Somebody the Right Way." Randi Driscoll performed her powerful anti-hate song "What Matters" after explaining the story and significance of the song written after the murder of Matthew Shepard. The band performed one of Tom's songs with Tom singing lead vocal on "Mackie Get Your Gun." Tim invited friend and Kumeyaay Indian, Victor Peralta, up to perform on "Viejas Nights" and Victor raised the intensity and emotional levels with exquisite owl-like sounds coming from him through his handmade wooden flute.

Tim brought up a couple more of his friends to perform, Berkley Hart. The award-winning duo gained even more fans with their mini-set of 4 songs, mixed evenly between original tunes and covers. It was especially meaningful in the wake of this historic 2000 Presidential election that they chose to perform Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." The voices of everyone in the house rose up to declare it was true.

And as if that all wasn't enough, Tim and the band came back for another set that included a rousing rendition of "Molly Graham" which prompted jigs from folks in the audience. Randi performed Gillian Welch's amazing "Orphan Girl," and Tim invited Scott and Rosebud from Bug Guts up to join in on the stompin' version of "Paradise" that led to one of the Meeting Grace regulars to comment that I had a good ol' fashioned hootenanny goin' on!

For the final number, and more fitting and perfect than anyone could imagine, Tim, Tom, Randi, Jeff and Floyd left us with "Amazing Grace." Amazing indeed.

Thank you Tim Flannery, Bug Guts and all of you friends, old and new, for making the final show of the 2000 series of Meeting Grace house concerts so incredibly special. Hope to see you for more shows in 2001!

-Lizzie Wann

See the photos!