Last night,  Generations Restaurant and Pub held their weekly open mic night, with new faces and artists sharing stages.  The local scene is entering a new season.  The sunshine this summer was maintained by  Maasak Tagarook, we got to bask in Baoku Moses, but that season’s visitors have vanished.  The college crowd has come back to town, hopefully bringing with it more girls and guys with guitars.  The first bright leaf of fall, however, was QueenEarth.

Passing back through Wheeling on her way west, QueenEarth turned open mic night from mundane to magical. She bewitched us all by the end of her first song, “Supermodel.”  She wowed us with “Wallflower” and enchanted everyone with her comely cover of “Wide Open Spaces” by the Dixie Chicks, which she disclosed was a “big hit at farmer’s markets.”  She even pulled a “Bills, Bills, Bills/Forgot About Dre” medley out of her hat, which had the entire audience oooghing and aaahing over her, and inspired Don Brown to beatbox.  After seeing her live, we all came to the same conclusion:  QueenEarth is no illusion, she is nothing short of spellbinding.