Nicole Atkins and John Gallagher, Jr.

Nicole Atkins concert in Milan was held in a small club. Wise choice I'd say. Small club, small numbers: great entertainment from song one to the very last one. Nicole sang twice among us, leaving the stage empty. She opened the concert with her bare voice and an acoustic guitar. And ended in the same way. It felt homey, sacred. I only missed a bonfire and the waves sound in the distance to make last night superb.

I saw John Gallagher Jr. at the Philadelphia Folk Festival (August 2015). He was a last minute replacement for an injured musician and his name wasn't even on the program. But PFF is cool in that they put these huge signs in front of each stage and I noticed his name as I was nearing the stage. I put two and two together and figured out that he was the same John Gallagher Jr. who is the 2007 Tony Award winning actor for "Spring Awakening" and who also did a great job in "American Idiot." I've enjoyed his work on HBO's "The Newsroom" and "Olive Kitteridge" so I listened eagerly. I knew that he had been pursuing a singer-songwriter career when he wasn't acting. You can tell that John is heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen. He sings and rocks out just like The Boss...He's working on a CD and personally I can't wait to hear it.