Stars, music and spring: ‘Cocktails and a Concert' celebration set for this weekend

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff

In his mind’s eye, singer-songwriter Kirk Fleta envisions River John’s Island, on the Little River in the Blount County countryside, as a beacon of light shimmering in the spring evening.

Tiki torches — 60 of them, to be exact — and Japanese lanterns will illuminate the three-acre island, down Cave Mill Road off of Wildwood. Fleta imagines floating down the river, seeing the lights in the distance, hearing the music as the current carries the canoe closer, and sliding onto the gravel shallows into the middle of a laid-back celebration of life and music and good times.

As it stands right now, Fleta’s vision won’t be far removed from reality. With this weekend set for the “Cocktails and a Concert” festival, River John’s Island will reverberate with the sound of live bands and glow in the light of those torches and lanterns. It’s an event that’s grown from a simple gathering of friends in Fleta’s backyard to a festival that’s returning to River John’s for the second year, and it’s a party that Fleta hopes his friends — the ones who knows and the ones he has yet to meet — will attend.

“This will make No. 6 as far as the concept itself goes,” Fleta told The Daily Times this week. “It started in the backyard of my house when I was dating this girl; we lived on this hill in the mountains, and it was a beautiful setting with a beautiful landscape. I had all the music equipment, and I built the stage and the deck, and I would throw these parties in the backyard and call them ‘Cocktails and a Concert.’ It was just a good time — it wasn’t about getting wasted, although that might happen; it was about the music.”

Fans of the local music scene are familiar with Fleta’s name, even if they’ve never heard his music. He’s been a regular performer on the singer-songwriter circuit since he got his start playing bars and clubs in Gatlinburg in his 20s. As a child, he grew up in that tourist town, the grandson of world-famous opera tenor Miguel Fleta and the son of world-famous pop singer Paloma Fleta. (He changed his last name, he said, to honor that heritage.)

Growing up on 3,200 acres, Fleta was a lonely kid, he said. He roamed the wooded mountains (the family’s home sat at 3,000 feet, and the highest point on the property was 4,000 feet), caught snakes and learned to entertain himself. When his mother died, his dad — a staunch supporter of the right-wing John Birch Society who ran for governor in 1970 and senator in 1976 — became caught up in personal and financial turmoil.

During that time, Fleta turned to music for solace.

“If it wasn’t for my big brother and his support, there’s no telling what I’d be doing now,” Fleta said. “I used to listen to him play guitar and sing, and he was such a big inspiration to me. I picked up the guitar when I was 13, and he showed me how to tune it and gave me a cassette of Neil Young’s ‘Harvest.’ He told me to learn ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’ note-for-note, and I’d be on my way.

“So I spent meticulous hours learning that song note for note, learning every nuance in the song, and I think that really helped create a sense of attention to detail for me. It was a big direction for me and my music.”

Shortly thereafter, he fell in love with the music of James Taylor. Not long after that, he discovered the blues. By the time 20 came around, he was blending all of those influences into a configuration that, combined with his affability as a performer and his gentle nature, started winning over crowds. He migrated from Gatlinburg to Knoxville’s Old City, where he started playing the now-closed Amigo’s regularly.

“I’ve got an understated, sort of rebellious nature — I’m very low-key, and I really like to kind of hide under the radar, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t like the limelight because I really do thrive off of entertaining people,” Fleta said. “I think when I was young, I wanted to escape the turmoil of having my mother die of cancer when I was 11 and having my dad all stressed out over millions of dollars and trying to hold onto material things – wanted to escape all of that. Music became my escape.

“So I try to create a light-hearted atmosphere when I perform, even though, at the same time, a lot of my songs are very serious. I would like to think I’m pretty diverse — I can play the bars, where people want to go and have a good time, but I don’t have to play those cheesy cover songs. When people ask me to play ‘Free Bird’ or ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ or ‘Brown Eyed Girl,’ I can tell them, ‘I don’t know those songs.’ I didn’t learn them on purpose, so I don’t have to lie. But I feel like I don’t make people mad when I tell them that, because I’ll bust into something that’ll entertain them just as well.”

At the same time, Fleta’s repertoire is intimate enough to work well in a coffee shop or theater setting. That’s where he pulls out the songs he carries closest to his heart.

“There are certain ones you just can’t play in a bar, because even though they’re heartfelt songs, some of them just aren’t happy songs,” he said. “They’re not going to keep the crowds, but if you play that same song in a serious music venue, it’s going to be a touching song that people are going to love. And that’s why they come to those venues — to hear you pour your soul out. And I feel like I’m diverse enough to do both. I feel like the best is yet to come for me.”

This weekend, devoted fans, as well as casual and new ones, will get several opportunities to hear Fleta — not only is he performing at midnight Saturday night, he’s the emcee for “Cocktails and a Concert.” After his relationship ended and the house where the festival was being held was given up, he found himself, a few years ago, searching for a new location. A friend finally convinced him to make a trek out to River John’s Island, and Fleta was immediately overwhelmed by its natural beauty.

“It was tough for me to get out there because I was so busy, but when I finally got there, I thought, why haven’t I been coming here all this time?” Fleta said. “It’s such a paradise, and I decided it was the optimum location for my festival.”

Fleta struck up a friendship with “River John” himself — John Mollish, the outfitter who makes his living and his home by the river that flows behind his house. Mollish — who rents the island to everyone from couples getting married to church groups — was receptive about a low-key, laid-back festival and even volunteered to provide canoe floats to campers. Last year’s drought prevented that from happening when “Cocktails and a Concert” was first held on the island last August; this year, for a fee, Mollish will take advantage of the spring flow to ferry campers upriver so they can float back down to the festival.

“The reason I like River John’s Island is that it’s not so big that you lose the intimacy,” Fleta said. “You get 200 or 300 people there and the place is packed. You can camp out, you’ve got the river and the river water is clean. I think the crux of it is being able to take that canoe ride, with your little cooler of drinks and your friends, and getting close to the island about dusk. You hear the music, you see the lights, and it’s like a little patch of starlight in the distance.”