It’s not a random encounter, per se, but we left the fleeting meeting feeling happy—so I’ll use it for my response. Yesterday, Diane and I hopped into the Mazda3 Time Machine and traveled to a wine bar not far from our front door—not to sip fermented grape juice, though once upon a long ago I may well have indulged in a few glasses of port, but to sample singer-songwriter Savanna Leigh Bassett, a one-time Florida-Georgia performer who’s since relocated to the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. There, with acoustic guitar in hand and a portable Bose PA system and placard advertising her socials beside her, she performed a mix of country-pop tunes—think Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris and Taylor Swift, among others.
A mid-week, late-afternoon set at a venue that primarily caters to an older crowd—a frequent complaint, according to one of the wait staff, is that the PA frequencies interfere with hearing aids—all but guarantees a sparse turnout for the artist him- or herself. (In some respects, if you think about it, they’re cast in the role of decor.) While patrons came and went from the bar area, the anteroom where she was set up remained sparsely filled until, halfway through, two of her friends showed up and doubled the head count. For much of her performance, in other words, it was just her and us, giving us a chance to talk to her between songs.
There’s something special about a singer giving it their all regardless of surroundings—and so it was this day. Bassett possesses a rich voice that tells a story in an of itself and, while I’d have liked to have heard a ballad or two interspersed in her set of mid- and uptempo songs, Diane and I left with smiles on our faces. In today’s unsettled age, that’s a huge compliment. She’s slated to play near us again in a few weeks and we plan to be there.
Here’s a clip of her performing a Maren Morris song, “Bummin’ Cigarettes,” from her YouTube channel:
The Old Grey Cat 
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