I am stranded at a Dunn Bros. in Uptown Minneapolis. It’s pouring rain and I seem to have contrived the conundrum of technology vs. nature. I am not able to put my laptop back in it’s bag as it filled with water when I removed said laptop, and not able to walk outside with the lappy naked to the aqueous air…alas, here I sit, so I write…about what? Then a chord strikes, tired in the din of executive voices deciding how to best boost employee morale after having to “let go” the ones that matter, but don’t.

Annoyed, damp and too short of change to purchase anything adequately jolting, I find this tentative guitar strumming and my diet cola acutely distant from my current desire for Segovia and hot, spicy chai. Ah well, at this point I figure novel, live background sound is preferable to the iPod default and take a moment to listen. The guitarist is soon joined by a pianist and my perception of them as accompaniment to mundane chatter transitions quickly to hearing creative composition, complete with vocals and inspired jazz progressions.

There are a few interruptions; noise complaints from unsuspecting, sipping patrons, but they are unwarranted as these two local musicians need to be heard. Eric Mayson (piano) and Jeff Rolfzen (guitar), both self-taught, play on passionately, while maintaining a sense of clarity and sincerity for the music. I find these sensibilities harder and harder to come by in the mist of the hipster schlock that seems to be inundating the local music scene.

So, I recline in the refreshing realization that random, good, live music experiences do still exist and make a mental note to “accidentally” get stuck here more often in the hopes of catching the pair again.