You’ll have to forgive Drew Holcomb for the birthing analogies when it comes to discussing the inaugural Moon River Festival held this weekend in Coolidge Park. He gave birth, if you will, to the event in 2014 when he co-founded it in Memphis as a way to bring people to a Tennessee city he loves.
But as he stood backstage Saturday night with his wife, Ellie, listening to The Head and The Heart, he couldn’t help but think of the scheduled birth of their third child, a son they would name Samuel Rivers Holcomb.
And as he waited Monday in their Nashville home for their trip to the hospital, he described his favorite moment of the weekend.
“I was back there listening to The Head and the Heart with my wife, who was 39 weeks pregnant. It was the last song before she had to go back home to Nashville and they are playing ‘Rivers and Roads,’ and it has a line: ‘Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers ’til I reach you.’
“We just looked at each other and laughed and cried. That was my special moment.”