Josh Cuthbertson wasn’t sure anyone would show up to the first Atlanta Storytellers show. A year later, the founder and director is marking the anniversary with the fifth “The Songs That Shape Us,” returning to Eddie’s Attic in Decatur on Wednesday, July 22 at 6 p.m.
Cuthbertson and his daughter had been going to The Moth’s Atlanta StorySlam together for years before he pitched Eddie’s Attic on pairing that kind of storytelling with a live band. The venue said yes almost immediately. Selling tickets was another matter.
“Ticket sales were slim… I was getting really nervous because we had only sold like 20 tickets and we were a week and a half out from the show,” Cuthbertson said. “My contact at Eddie’s came to me and said, ‘Hey Josh, listen, we’re committed to this because we love this concept and we are all about stories and songs and songwriters.’… We ended up having 130 people there. And so then subsequent shows have been sold out.”
This year’s lineup pairs one new storyteller with five returning voices — Ron Chapman, Jihad El-Amin, Kamaria Korta, Katina, Misha Sanders and Cola Rum — all backed by the Tabernacle Collective.
Why ‘Songs That Shape Us’ pairs music and memory
The idea of pairing a personal story with a live song was the concept from the start, Cuthbertson said, built on the idea that a song can pull up a memory faster than almost anything else.
“We live in an age where people are so connected digitally,” he explained. “And yet… there are statistics that show we are in the midst of a loneliness pandemic, and people are desperate to be in a room with other people and have a shared experience. And so for me, I thought, what better way than to bring people together?… So, for me, the connection is that we all have memories and stories tied to music. And so what better way to help people see that they’re a lot more alike than they are different by having that shared experience over a good story and a good song,” Cuthbertson said.
The Tabernacle Collective has served as the show’s house band since the beginning, a partnership that started with a cold Instagram message. For the musicians, Cuthbertson said, playing the show is different from a typical gig. When it’s their turn to perform, they’re drawing straight from what they just heard.
“They get to listen to the story and just be part of the crowd…,” Cuthbertson said. “And so I think there’s something to them not just being the act… being the ones that people are watching, but they’re part of this whole experience… we’re gonna sit back and listen to this person share an intimate story, and then we get to play a song for them, and for the whole room that has meaning and significance to this person’s life.”
What comes after year one
Cuthbertson said he’s not in a hurry to outgrow Eddie’s Attic.
“It’s a very intimate setting. And I love the relationship with Eddie’s and with the band,” he said. “I feel like anywhere you go around the country or in the world, if you sit with people and get to know them, at some point, music and a story and a memory from their life is gonna come up… so for me it’s being faithful to just continue to do what we’re doing, continue to tell people about what we’re doing and let them experience it for themselves.”
“Atlanta Storytellers: The Songs That Shape Us,” One Year Anniversary Show, is 6 p.m., Wednesday, July 22 at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. Tickets are available at atlantastorytellers.org.
