Singer-Songwriter Griffin House Coming to Fuller Lodge in April

When Live in Los Alamos president Jonathan Lathrop came across a video of Griffin House playing "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You Is Out of His Mind" alone on a couch in early 2018, he contacted the singer's agent before the night was over. "The song was touching, but simple, and came across so sincere," Lathrop said. "At the end, Griffin flashed a smile that I thought was incredibly sweet. I was certain only a nice person could smile like that so I reached out to his agent that evening!"

That September, House made the trip to Los Alamos and played Fuller Lodge for a crowd of 75. He was charmed by the room; so was the audience.

Now he is coming back. Live in Los Alamos has booked House for a return concert at Fuller Lodge on Saturday, April 18, with doors at 6 p.m. and music at 7 p.m. The Nashville-based songwriter brings nine albums, a documentary film, and more than two decades on the road to the same stage he played once before to one of the smallest rooms of his touring life.

That intimacy is by design. LILA's model pairs national-touring artists with Fuller Lodge's seated, reserved format to give Los Alamos audiences access to acts they would otherwise drive to Santa Fe or Albuquerque to see. Membership dues and ticket sales underwrite the booking costs that make each season possible. Tickets for April 18 are $25 at Los Alamos Schools Credit Union or $28.50 through the Live in Los Alamos website. Bathtub Row Brewing will pour beer and wine; a separately priced dinner option will also be available.

Listeners new to House have two tracks that bracket what to expect on the 18th. Start with "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You Is Out of His Mind," the spare acoustic cut from his 2004 debut "Lost and Found" that led music critic Bill Flanagan to name House one of the best emerging songwriters in the country on CBS Sunday Morning. Then pull up "Better Than Love" from the 2007 album "Flying Upside Down," a fuller roots-pop track that reached a national audience when it appeared in season five of One Tree Hill. Both songs circle the same territory: love as something you either miscalculate or recognize only after it has already moved on, carried by guitar arrangements simple enough to let the lyrics do most of the work.

Fuller Lodge's scale is what makes that material land. The first show drew 75 people. April 18 offers the same proposition.