MHF Presents: An Evening with Dickie and Daphne

April 30, 2017

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The Walnut Room hosted Mile High Feedback Presents: Dickie and Daphne Willis with special guest John Adam Smith. See the slideshow below!

By Veronica Lee

The final spring storm of the year didn’t deter the crowd as a packed house at The Walnut Room offered a reprieve from the cold Saturday. Last night on the intersection of Denver and RiNo, The Walnut Room offers a venue equally known for the delicious cuisine and spirits as it is for it’s beautiful music room tucked away in the back. The space was full of excitement and roaring conversation of music lovers anticipating the appearance of two esteemed favorites, Daphne Willis and Dickie.

To ease into the evening, new local artist John Adam Smith, opened up and is fresh off the moving truck from Montana. Prepared with his acoustic guitars and lap-steel, Smith crooned the audiences with new music and a fresh introduction to a new member of Denver. He explored relationship through songs of picturesque fields of grass and a lovely half smiled sunrise. The intricate songs showcased his talent as a guitarist and provided an avenue of transportation into the land he derives from. As his set came to a close, he was met with great applause and many “Welcome to Denver” comments from new fans. A very welcomed addition to the music scene here in Denver.

Next, the room was then taken away to a different scape of storytelling and song by Daphne Willis of Nashville. Her genre bending combinations of pop, R&B, soul, and even hip hop, pleased every kind of musical taste bud. Full of up-tempo dance beats along with an impressive vocal display, her ability to write great music and perform with ease was capsulated and repeated. Hit after hit, the crowd sang along to the vast selection of music Willis performed from her collection of albums. She intertwined precursory stories of her life, her collaborations and her inspiration in between the music to give the audience a bit more of a peak into the life of Daphne. The accomplished singer/songwriter has written tracks with such recognizable names as Meghan Trainor and John Oates (of Hall & Oates) and is currently pitching an unreleased song to Kelly Clarkson.

Willis told how her newest single, Somebody’s Someone, is the most vulnerable she’s gotten yet and as an artist, that can be pretty scary. She hasn’t always seen the easiest of roads, and not just from a traveling musicians’ perspective. Completely unguarded and straight up genuinely honest, she shared her struggles with getting clean and living a life of love and forgiveness. She ended the evening with a beautiful song of being able to offer oneself forgiveness through the lens of love of the people around you. The Walnut Room was certainly full of adoring fans that offered Willis just that, love and permission for her to be herself.

To cap off the evening was the one and only Dickie, a symphonic indie duo from Iowa. The collaboration of a Dick Prall and Kristina Priceman offer a blending of vibrating guitar with low, silvery vocals along with the unique and skilled strings of the violin. Their contrasts complement one another beautifully as they layer folk, indie, pop and dark soulful storytelling offer images to come to life as they sing tunes of listless heartache and a melancholy life. The beat and pace of the songs offer a kind of lovely hope as couples danced in time and two-stepped their way to a world of once upon a time. An essential piece in the collection within the self-titled debut album is a track Pop, Pop, Pop offers the marriage of the dark elements they explore lyrically while offering a soft and lustrous melodic ballad. The duo was accompanied by a third on drums to round out a full band that pleased and delighted The Walnut Room.

Check out a Dickie video from that night.

Mile High Feedback was honored to be a Presenter of this wonderful evening of music and community and are looking forward to hosting many more occasions such as this in the near future! See slideshow below of photos of Daphne Willis and Dickie, and find out more information on these artists at the links provided.

See more pics here.