“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort where we overlap.”
- Ari DiFranco
Saturday night was a good time. I went with my buddy Todd out to Kindall's Store to hear some mighty fine music. Kindall's Store is in the rural settlement of Olga, MO, a couple of dozen miles east of Springfield on Highway Z. It's a white shotgun building that served as a general store and community meeting place for the locals from the 1920s until 1993. It's owner, Mrs Corda Kindall, kept tending to the place until she was 94. It then stood empty for 15 years, was reopened for a time and then closed. In 2022 a couple took it on and in addition to keeping its nostalgic general store feel, opened it up for weekly music jams for anyone who wanted to join in. That continued until recently when the doors closed again.
Enter my friend John Meyer. He and five others who shared a passion for the community and friendships the weekly gatherings had nurtured, have found a way to keep the music playing on.
Saturday night was the kickoff to the new era. To a packed house, John and his sometimes musical partner, Mo Pitney and his wife Emily, put on a two hour celebration of traditional country, fiddle tunes, bluegrass-tinged all around, stomp your feet, clap your hands, shed a tear, amen Americana. What a way to begin the new chapter of the Kindall Store.
Mo Pitney and John Meyer are seasoned professionals. In addition to their own solo careers and various collaborations, they record and play together as Pitney-Meyer. Check out their talent on the usual social media sites.