If you were fortunate enough to be apart of the audience at Bloombars on last Sunday evening then you can attest to what experiencing an awesome display of musicianship is like. Local artist Terrence Cunningham celebrated his 1 year anniversary as a resident artist of Bloombars during his weekly hosted Seed the Sound Sunday concert series.

The celebration was packed to nearly standing room only and was full of musical prowess. The evening began with the recognition the following students as graduates of this session's Guitars not Guns class: Milan Girsson, Ronald Harrod, Simon O'Sullivan, Heava (Eva) Sigo, Thomas Townsend, Danny and Rolf Fanord. These amazing kids demonstrated how a little and a lot of hard work can pay off in regards to making great music.

The stage was host to local musical greats such as Carolyn Malachi who delighted the audience with a sneak preview of her latest album, Lions, Fires & Squares, which is amazing by the way. Grammy nominated and DC native, Christylze Bacon also performed along with David James of NDelible. James’ melodic rasp coupled with the vocalized instrumentation of Bacon’s larynx made for a delicious feast for the ears.

The highlight of the evening though was when the honoree took the stage. At first glance one would think that this tiny framed young man would be good for maybe a couple nice croons and a ballad. That notion was quickly dispelled as soon as he and his band revved up their musical engines and took the audience for a fascinating ride. Also note worthy is that unlike a typical spotlight hogging front man of a group, Cunningham introduced the members of his band as well as allotted them individual show and tell time to display why each of them is rightfully apart of this musical workshop of wonders. Steve Johnson beat those drums arguably better than any soundboard could have electronically produced the beats, Zachery Cutler just might be Jimi Hendrix reincarnated, If Johnny Cash had declared a successor before his passing, certainly it would have been Gary Prince and the best physical interpretation of the lyrics to Roberta Flack’s “strumming my pain with his fingers…” is undoubtedly any chords that Dennis Akil Turner plucks on his bass.

Thunderous applause was well received by Cunningham after each song selection. It seems that the house favorite was his cover of Prince’s How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore. That rendition would definitely have been well praised at this passed BET Awards which recently honored the legend with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Anyone who wasn’t present on this historical night at Bloombars truly missed out on a treat. Don’t be too upset though because Cunningham regularly hosts Seed the Sound Sunday at Bloombars every Sunday evening from 8:30-10:00. It’s nice to know that in a world full of auto-tuned tyrants and lip synched pop divas, there is still a remnant of real life musicians.