There are a million tired clichés that can be used to describe singer-songwriters. Tuesday evening at the Old Rock House Dar Williams put on a performance that was neither tired nor clichéd.

At the bar before the show, I chatted with Johnny Irion when, in a sign of things to come, the house p.a. shuffled to a Jayhawks song. Irion literally took note: He pulled a marker from his pocket, wrote the name of the band on his hand and excused himself to order some pre-show dinner.

With a hard won honesty to his song lyrics and almost too much energy to be contained in a small space, Caleb Travers kept the holiday weekend market shoppers entertained on a sweltering Saturday morning.

With debut CD Blue Weathered Dreams in the can, Caleb Travers spent the morning with Feel Like Going Home. Pedal steel guitarist Scott Swartz accompanied Travers for two new songs.