Billy Jones performed Thursday night at Summit Coffee. (Barry Pulver/DavidsonNews.net)

By BARRY PULVER
DavidsonNews.net

Davidson has been receiving a lot of National attention lately on the sporting scene, but Thursday evening was a chance for local music lovers to celebrate a less well known secret in Davidson, its thriving music scene.

Summit Coffee hosted its 2012 Songwriters Awards show.  Twenty-four talented artists entered this year’s annual event, but this evening belonged to the joint winners of the award, Billy Jones and Mike Alicke.

Just a few hours after Davidson College’s heroic yet devastating afternoon defeat in the opening game of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the Showcase Award Show was another shining example of the broad talent in Davidson.

Those familiar with the local music scene would have certainly heard of Billy Jones and most likely his fellow winner of the award, Mike Alicke.

Billy Jones, of Davidson fame, is a regular performer at Summit and throughout the Davidson area, especially with the band, The Pocket. Billy also owns The Birdsnest music studio on Main Street in Davidson.

Mike Alicke lives in Huntersville. Mike was a founding member of New York / New Jersey based band Alaskan, who previously toured Nationwide including in Boulder, Chicago and in DC.

The evening’s festivities were hosted by Rob McHale, the founder and regular host of the Summit Coffee Songwriters Showcase. Rob took the stage in between co-award winners Billy and Mike and added his own acoustic guitar creativity, as the three musicians took turns to inventively delight the audience.

The most pleasant surprise of the evening was the winner of last year’s award Jackie Moseley, who took the host up on his offer to use his own guitar to perform one song for the crowd. The 2011 Summit Songwriter Showcase Award winner was most certainly worthy of sharing the stage with this year’s winners, drawing the plaudits from both Billy and a very appreciative crowd.

COMING UP

Billy Jones and The Pocket will be performing at Summit Coffee on Thursday, March 28th from 8-11pm.

Mike Alicke is also performing on Thursday, March 28th from 7-9pm at the Wine Cellar in Cornelius

RELATED COVERAGE

Jan. 24, 2013, Jones and Alicke named Summit Songwriters of the Year