PIERCE PETTIS | Friday, October 27 | 7:30 PM at the AUUF (DIXON DARLING opens)

Longtime favorite Pierce Pettis returns to Sundilla on Friday, October 27. Showtime at the AUUF (450 E. Thach Ave. in Auburn) is 7:30. Advance tickets are just $20 and can be found at Spicer’s Music, Ross House Coffee, Foodies, and online at sundillamusic.com; admission at the door will be $25. Free coffee, tea, water and food will be available, and the audience is welcome to bring their own favorite food or beverage.

And as a special treat, Dixon Darling will open the show. Dixon turned heads at the Opelika Songwriters Festival earlier this month, so much so that we knew we had to introduce this local talent to the Sundilla audience as soon as we could. As luck would have it, that turned out to be sooner than anyone could have hoped.

Pierce Pettis, adored by both critics and public alike, is one of this generation’s most masterful songwriters. His music is distinguished by his uncanny ability to capture universals in human experience by drawing on the humor and trials in daily life. Pettis’ music can simultaneously pull on our hearts and keep us laughing. The beautiful harmonies, inventive yet subtle percussion, strong guitar, and Pierce’s rich vocals are a constant throughout his body of work.

Pierce’s fellow songwriters aren’t above lavishing praise. Darrell Scott says “Pierce Pettis bares a gentle soul with a keen eye, a soulful voice, and perfect guitar accompaniment for his beautiful songs – a masterful poet treasure.” And from Eliza Gilkyson, “I have loved Pierce’s music for many years now-he has the gift of a true inner compass.”

Pettis has performed in all 48 continental states as well as in Canada and Europe, appeared nine times on American Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, been featured on National Public Radio’s E-town, Morning Edition and World Café, and appeared on VH-1, CBS News, and the Nashville Network.

During his long career Pierce Pettis has been a writer at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama, recorded for Fast Folk Musical Magazine in New York, won the prestigious New Folk songwriting competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, and was a staff songwriter at Polygram/Universal Music Publishing in Nashville. He has received numerous songwriting awards including a 1999 ASCAP Country Music Award for “You Move Me” –recorded by Garth Brooks.

Alabama 1959

Grandaddy Blew the Whistle

You Move Me

The Adventures of Me (and This Old Guitar)

Little River Canyon

Dixon Darling: Pioneer

Dixon Darling: Through Other’s Eyes