When you go to work Monday morning, people will ask about your weekend. They always do. And most of the time you give the same boring answers.

Not much … chilled out … hung with the fam … went to a movie … did some chores … had a bunch of running around to do …

Yawn.

You need something better to talk about next Monday. You should go to work bubbling with excitement about the awesome, cool thing you did. Something you never did before. Hell — something you never even heard of before!

Next Monday you should tell everyone the story about the house concert you went to Saturday night.

It’s the most amazing thing. Instead of going to a club and trying to hear a performer above the pool table, the bottles being tossed into a can by the bartender, and that one drunk guy who wants everyone in the joint to hear his conversation — you hang out with 20 or 30 like-minded people in someone’s living room and listen to a singer-songwriter in a comfortable, intimate setting.

House concerts are growing in popularity because it’s a win-win: Touring artists get to connect with music fans in a way they can’t in a club, and fans get a unique experience.

So come out this Saturday and spend an evening with singer-songwriter Kevin Montgomery. Kevin played a show at my house last December as part of his “50 States in 50 Days Tour,” and this summer he’s touring for a month before heading back to Nashville to finish his forthcoming CD, Some Comfort. You’ll enjoy hanging with Kevin. He has been in the music business for more than 20 years and has a million great stories.  He’s been down the major label road, lived in LA, and now he has a successful indie career.

As a sidebar (and to give your water cooler story even more juice on Monday morning), Kevin’s dad, Bob Montgomery, grew up in Lubbock, Texas, where he performed and wrote with Buddy Holly.

We hope to have Kev back at the Terry pad for next year’s “50 States” tour. But the honor of hosting this show goes to my buddy Mike, who lives just a few minutes away from me and finally gets to realize his dream of being a concert promoter.

Let me know if you’re interested in attending Saturday night, and I’ll give you the details. Or check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161898557217754

EDIT: I’ve been told the above link doesn’t work for some people. So here are the deets:

Location: The Nelson’s house — 363 Brushwood Lane Winter Springs
Doors: 7 p.m.
Showtime: 8ish
Donation: $15 per person to cover Kevin’s expenses
Drink: BYOB

To get you in the mood, check out something old and something new from Kevin Montgomery:

I sat down a couple days ago to write about Donovan Lyman’s show coming up this Sunday night at the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta.

First I tried an anecdote about the dozens of meals Donovan and I have had together at Beefy King in Orlando. But I wasn’t feeling it. Then I tried something clever about all the boy bands that came out of Orlando in the ’90s. That just seemed cheesy. Then I attempted a theme-park tie-in (I pretty much hate them). It fell flat.

Seems like I’ve had four or five false starts on this topic in the past few days. I guess I felt the need to be clever because I know Donovan will read this. He’s an amazing, talented lyricist, and I didn’t want to write anything he would sneer at. And trust me, the man can turn on a serious sneer if he wants to. But what the hell, all I really want to do is convince anyone I can reach in Atlanta that they should go see my friend play on Sunday night. So if you live in Atlanta … or near Atlanta … or if you have an abnormally long layover at Hartsfield on Sunday night … then you really need to check him out. Doors open at 7, first act at 8, and Donovan should be on before 9.

Quick little background on Mr. Lyman: He founded an Orlando band called Blue Meridian in 1994. Donovan is the singer, songwriter and soul behind the band. After almost a decade of filling clubs in Orlando and getting a respectable amount of local airplay, Donovan relocated to Los Angeles about 10 years ago and formed a West Coast version of Blue Meridian. I guess it was 10 years ago. Hard to remember for sure. But I remember sitting in his living room before he moved, going through old show posters and eating take-out from Beefy King.

It’s all about the King.

I could write a lot about all the great Blue Meridian albums, the inspired live performances, and the successful US and UK tours. But this isn’t the time or place for a full retrospective. I just want to give you a taste so you’ll show up at the Hard Rock in Atlanta this Sunday night. Take a look at the video below for your appetizer.

If you know anyone who lives in Atlanta, please send them this link. And if it helps motivate you, I’ll mention that Mark Ballas is also on the bill. In addition to being a musician, he apparently has a side gig as a professional ballroom dancer on “Dancing With the Stars.”

I’d like you to hear a song written and recorded by my friend Dennie Middleton. He wrote the song about two years ago, but my story starts way back in the leisure-suit days of the ’70s.

When you’re a dorky high school freshman, it’s good to have a friend who is a cool senior. It wasn’t like I was an outcast or anything. I had plenty of friends. It’s a small town, so everybody pretty much knows everybody else. But having a senior friend is kind of like an insurance policy against gratuitous hassling from upperclassmen.

Dennie was my insurance policy. He was in the class of  ’79 at Sparta High School in Sparta, Michigan. I was class of ’82. Our older brothers graduated in ’76 and were buddies. Our dads were in a golf league together and drank with the same group of guys. So I guess I knew Dennie from the time I was 7 or 8 years old.

The main thing we had in common was a love of music. Dennie and I were both huge Beatles fans. He turned me onto Cheap Trick my freshman year. When I didn’t have any money for an amp after buying a used SG-knockoff bass, Dennie loaned me a little practice amp he wasn’t using.

Unlike me, however, Dennie had talent. For years his band, Early Blue, played every school dance, wedding reception and basement party in northern Kent County. All Den ever wanted to do was make a living playing music, and he’s one of the few guys I know who have managed to do it. After playing a thousand bars, honing his chops with a showcase band in a summer resort town, and then doing some time in Los Angeles, Dennie carved out a niche back in West Michigan with the Bimini Brothers.

The Bims are a rock ‘n’ roll comedy duo with Dennie on piano and Nick Lewis on bass. Nick has been Den’s best bud since fifth grade, and he was the bass player in Early Blue. They really hit their stride in the Bimini Brothers with song parodies and originals that are raunchy, sick, twisted and just plain wrong. I love them.

After more than 25 years the Bims are still a huge draw in the Grand Rapids area, but Dennie diversified as he got older. He fronted a great band called The Hype, and also developed a following as a solo piano artist and a dueling pianos jokester. But there’s always been another side. Den also wrote a lot of really good serious material and released some of it on a solo album called … “There’s Another Side.”

And that brings us to “Calling All Gods.”

The song is Dennie’s plea for peace. After a lifetime of being the funny, entertaining piano man, it’s the song he wants to be remembered for and the one he wants the world to hear. So give it a listen, and pass the link along to your friends and family … even your enemies. The first link below is the studio version of the song (which ramps up into a nice gospel romp), and the second one is part of a live performance I shot when Den played a few gigs in Florida last year.

If you like the song and spend 99 cents on the iTunes download, all proceeds will go to the construction of a memorial to fallen soldiers from West Michigan.

Now — please tell me the final score.