Tonight I had the very special opportunity to see my friend, acoustic guitarist, singer-songwriter Brien Barbour perform at the Lotus Leaf Cafe in Cary, North Carolina. Typically Brien’s set list includes oldies, folk, country, bluegrass, and a lot of wit and personality. I would highly recommend checking out Brien Barbour’s MySpace profile to hear him doing some of his own stuff. Then, if you are in the Triangle region of North Carolina, I would strongly recommend you get off your ass and go see him perform for yourself. You will be glad you did. Just be sure to bring some cash because you’ll definitely want to buy a CD at the show.

Hopefully soon, geography won’t be a barrier to seeing Brien. Just before his show last week, he found out that he’ll be auditioning for a TV show called America’s Got Talent on February 2nd in Charlotte. That’s even more reason to see Brien now, since after he hits it big, you’ll have to either deal with Ticketmaster just to see him or pay a hefty cover.

As far as the dining experience itself was concerned, it was pretty good. The Lotus Leaf is French-Vietnamese dining. Not being a fine food connoisseur, I really can’t tell you any details beyond what I ordered. I started off with a Tsingtao (which somehow multiplied into three), a shrimp-crab-ragoon-like appetizer called “bags of gold”, and vegetarian pepper steak. I would have liked draft beer, but that wasn’t an option as it is mostly a wine type of place. Bags of gold were totally awesome. I went with vegetarian pepper steak as I had not felt well lately, but I could have just as well gone with the real thing instead of a tofu substitute. It’s a bit on the pricey side, but what do you expect from fine French-Vietnamese dining?

My favorite moment of the night came toward the end of Brien’s set when he played Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville.” At one point he sang, “And I know/it’s Johnny Crawford’s fault.” Hell yeah! Brien knows who’s really running things. Keep on rocking!