As the story goes, guitarist Marty Nix was looking for a female vocalist for his band, and a mutual friend introduced him to Lisa Deaton.
Down the road, other mutual friends and meetings by chance introduced the duo to other musicians, and this turned into beautiful friendships and the band LD and the Blind Dates, named for all their serendipitous encounters.
We spoke with Deaton, lead singer for LD and the Blind dates, performing Friday night at The Crimson Moon Cafe in Dahlonega. Other band members are Jimmy Wooten, also on guitar, and bassist Tommy Dean.

Question: How does your personal style of music differ from what LD and the Blind Dates plays as a group?
Answer: I wouldn’t say that it differs, I would say that all of us bring a lot of different influences into the band, and so it’s sort of a hodge-podge of a lot of different styles. Each of us has played in a lot of different configurations.
There’s some bluegrass, but we’re not a bluegrass band. We sort of coined ourselves as “folkadelic,” because there is a bluegrass thread but there’s also a real strong folk influence.

Q: It is true the band’s origin is linked with North Georgia wineries?
A: I’ve known Marty and Jimmy for many years, but we met Tommy Dean at Three Sisters Winery (in Dahlonega). Marty and I play over there a good bit. Marty was born and raised in Clermont, Jimmy Wooten is a White County native and I was raised in North Carolina — but I’ve been here most of my adult life.

Q: What are some songs you absolutely love to perform in front of a crowd?
A: We love to do “Ode to Billy Joe.” And we love to do our original things in front of crowds, too. We do kind of an interesting take on the song “Shortenin’ Bread.” It’s on the CD that we do, but it’s got a different twist on it. We heard a Library of Congress recording with a little girl singing and it was different from what we’d heard and we liked it.

Q: Do any other band members take the mic at an LD and the Blind Dates show?
A: I do the majority of the singing. (Nix and Wooten) both are harmony singers; they join in with me regularly. But mostly it’s me.

Q: If you can have the crowd remembering one thing about the show — whether it be a song or a personality trait — what do you want them to remember after Friday’s show?
A: That we were innovative and entertaining.
Marty and Jimmy are both fabulous guitar players. So it’s like a dream to have two guys who play that well play for me. The idea that we can take a song and turn it around any way we want to is a really exciting thing for a singer, and to have musicians who are willing and able to do that, and enjoy that. And they’re very different from one another in their approach to guitar playing. Its’ a lot of fun.