I was already headed to Rockwood Music Hall on Thursday night to see Lake Street Dive’s sold-out show. I was checking the website before the show and saw that John Moreland was performing the set before Lake Street Dive. So I boogied on over to Rockwood and got there just as the opening act was taking the stage.

Aubrie Sellers is a country singer/songwriter from Nashville. She has a sweet voice but has a slightly harder edge than you would expect from a country singer. Slightly – don’t expect any rough edges. She played acoustic guitar and had a man with her playing electric guitar. She never introduced him. Since she had a very short set she told us she couldn’t play a variety of her songs – we go mostly broken heart songs and the sweet songs would have to wait for a time she would be able to play a longer set in NYC.

John Moreland sat down and got right to business. There was very little talking – he made one joke about his manager and Tindr and that was the only laugh of the set. John Moreland made me cry. His soulful voice and sad songs aren’t going to make you feel otherwise. But you’ve never been so happy to feel so sad. “You Don’t Care Enough for Me to Cry” and “Break My Heart Sweetly” are typical of what you’ll hear from Moreland. His last song was a cover of “Thunder Road” and I got chills. It felt like I was hearing the song for the first time.

By Carene Lydia Lopez