Just adjacent to downtown St. Paul on West Seventh St., The White Squirrel Bar almost always has live music and on the weekends often has two or three artists at different times. Getting the early evening slot (6-8pm), local St. Paul singer & songwriter Martin Devaney was performing on a nearly perfect late summer Saturday outdoors on the patio stage.

John Ewing started, immediately noting that this was the last patio show of the year, due to city permits. Ewing was on acoustic guitar, opening with Window and Moon. A nice folk Americana, Ewing’s slight drawl made a fine sound over the bright guitar. Moving to a song, “that I’ve never played acoustic”, Crushed On You still worked, though you could imagine a full band’s take on this one. A switch to mandolin for Roll on Babe was a good folk rock number and the mandolin sound was an excellent change of pace sonically. After a pair of songs on mandolin, Ewing moved back to guitar for Ocean Called You with some falsetto on the chorus. This Boy was a rollicking lovelorn song and Ewing was clearly having fun. Finishing with a song on ukelele, John Ewing closed his opening set thanking the audience and saying some kind words for the headliner.

John Ewing setlist:

Window and Moon

Funny Ol’ Sun

Crushed On You

Bell Witch

Roll On Babe

Ocean Called You

Dangerous Birds

This Boy

Shadow of Today

Augustine

After the switch over, Martin Devaney took over. Devaney is a long-time performer, having ten albums (eight solo), with 2024’s Blueprint for a Ghost his most recent. Wise Blood was a solid opener for this folk rock sound with Devaney singing and on guitar (and harmonica when needed). Devaney’s slightly gravelly vocals and strongly strummed guitar work almost had a bit of blues feel, but the rock undertones were undeniable. We got the first of the harmonica “doing a few older ones here first”, and An Open Letter was darkly sardonic. Introducing some songs from the new album, he told a painfully amusing story of cracking a rib that was referenced in the first number off the album, The Turbulent Kind. Devaney displayed the best qualities of the professional musician, with good and topical banter while tuning and emphatic and sharp guitar work.

Devaney has some very sharply written lyrics and I liked the different ways he either had double meanings, or layered similar but distinct phrasing on his lyrics. A switch out of harmonicas (you don’t see that often!), Seeker’s Cup was maybe the most folky of the songs from Devaney. Over My Shoulder was a touching number and presumably dealt with loss of some kind. A “song for the end of the gardening season” got us Queen of Cut Flowers, a fairly mature love song. Nearly done, Devaney played a perfectly placed One for the Road, with another harmonica interlude. The final song was Nobody Writes Letters Anymore, a song the late Slim Dunlap played on. It was a high energy rock song and Devaney was very into it. It was a pretty excellent close to the outdoor series (on what is technically called the Magnolia Bandshell), and you can catch Devaney inside the White Squirrel Bar on a near monthly basis, which I highly encourage.