Its Friday night and Im standing amidst the swarm of Citizen Cope lovers who’ve arrived at Jannus Live for the musical mixology of Clarence Greenwood and Co.

The crowd of 20- to 50-somethings howl and whistle in between sipping cocktails as pink and blue-hued light beams over the masses. Greenwood conducts the scene from the stage, with his guitar and melodious voice crooning out show openers Bullet and a Target, Hurricane Waters and Healing Hands.

It is a typical Florida evening humid and lacking in any sort of breeze and it feels about 107 degrees in the midst of the people who fill the outdoor venue. As I hear the first chord of Pablo Picasso, I forget about the deathly heat and find my dancing groove; rap-singing the lyrics of the hip-hop, blues tune with the audience: The woman that I love / Is forty feet tall / She’s a movie star / She’s all in the papers There is a line of crowd movers crossing my path and I meet eyes with one of the passing strangers as he sings lyric for lyric as well. He pauses, and for a moment we belt out the chorus together, before lifting our hands in the air and giving each other a sweaty high five in a musical connection.

The soulfully groovin vibes of Citizen Cope had officially spread throughout the outdoor venue and would continue on for the rest of the night — never really peaking, but hitting a steady stride and flowing over the crowd, as Cope balanced revving up the packed venue with go-go based beats on songs like Let the Drummer Kick, and slowing it down to a folk pace for tunes like Keep Asking.

This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.