A black drape served as the backdrop, twinkling holiday lights set the mood and the acoustic stylings of Cosy Sheridan filled the Auburn Unitarian Universalist building Friday night as part of the Sundilla concert series.
The next concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 and will feature Chuck Brodksy.
Admission to Sundilla is $10 for the general public and $8 for students. Children 12 and under can get in free. Free refreshments, coffee, tea and water are available at every show, but all outside food and drink are also allowed.
Sheridan, along with her accompaniment TR Ritchie, performed two sets, consisting of a total 24 original songs.
About 40 people attended the concert, which also featured free refreshments. Many concertgoers laughed at Sheridan's witty lyrics and exchanged comments with her between songs.
"It's hard to explain how it's different to go to a live performance than to sit in a movie or in front of a television," Sheridan said. "I think it's something we miss from having been, for so many eons, people who sat around campfires together because we lived in a tribe... There's something kind of primal about it that I think appeals to some part of the human creature."
Sheridan's lyrics ranged from pseudo-educational in "Hannibal the Carthaginian Crossing the Alps," to whimsical, like her song "Barbie," to more serious, like "The Land of 10,000 Mothers," which she said she wrote after watching tearful military goodbyes in the airport.
"I thought it was great," said Marjorie Teeter, who works in the theatre department.
Teeter said she found out about the concert from the e-mail list, but she first heard about it from someone in the community.
"We don't have a huge core audience, but they're loyal," said Bailey Jones, who is in charge of booking acts for Sundilla. "They tell everybody, you know. They bring friends."
Sundilla averages 12 concerts per year, ranging from the top performers to lesser-known talents.
"I would love for it to at least get big enough that we can start offering the performers guarantees," Jones said. "Right now, we can't do that. I mean, they're going to get whatever people pay at the door and no more. I would love to draw enough people so that we either bank a little money or at least I'm confident that I could tell somebody, 'Yeah, we're going to have 100 people there, and if they each pay 10 bucks, you'll get $1,000.'"
Sundilla is a nonprofit organization. The performer takes 90 percent of the ticket sales.
A working board of 12 keeps Sundilla running, managing everything from sound equipment, booking, helping with CD sales and providing hospitality for the performers, Jones said.
Sheridan and Ritchie received a standing ovation and came back for an encore.
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