Kevin and Mary Swanzey would have had no other reason to meet Anthony Quails. The couple run a Christian coffeehouse called Solid Ground in Upstate New York and the singer-songwriter is based in North Georgia. But because of their partnership in Porchlight gatherings, they now have a friendship centered on prayer.
Solid Ground CoffeeHouse is located in Nanticoke, NY, and Kevin and Mary have hosted monthly concerts in their space over the last several years. Prior to learning about Porchlight through Chris Hoisington of Brothers McClurg, they typically organized these concerts independently, often going through booking agents to schedule artists. They hosted Anthony Quails for their first Porchlight gathering back in October of 2025, and it was immediately a perfect fit.
When Anthony got the invite from Kevin and Mary, he first presumed that they had accidentally clicked on the wrong person because he’s so far away from them. But, sure enough, he found out that they wanted to bring him out in particular because of how “his heart and his desire to talk about God . . . and journey with the Lord” at his concerts came through on his Porchlight artist profile. Hosts don’t need to wait for an artist to have dates posted on their profile before offering to host them, and Anthony reiterated that the Swanzey’s proposal was a real encouragement to him.
Kevin and Mary reached out to Anthony through the Porchlight portal and agreed on a weekend for the concert, and then they got on the phone to go over the plans together. They said that that phone call ended up lasting over an hour because it was so easy to talk together, and they were enjoying each other’s company. Mary emphasized that getting to connect directly with the artists instead of communicating through a booking agent is something that makes Porchlight gatherings special to her, as it helps develop a partnership between the artist and host and made them, as Kevin said, “permanent fast friends.”
The Priority of Prayer
One of the things Kevin, Mary, and Anthony connected over, even from that first phone call, was their mutual commitment to prayer and dedicating the gathering to the Lord. Kevin and Mary said that it meant a lot to them to know that Anthony was praying over his setlist when deciding what songs to share that would minister to their community.
“He prays over his songs, and we pray over every event and every aspect, you know? The gentle spirit that he has is a big thing that ministered to an awful lot of people,” Mary said.
Everyone agreed that centering on prayer, both leading up to and at the gathering, makes a big difference in how the evening unfolds.
Anthony shared that he quotes Mary frequently. Once she told him that “there are things that you as an artist can say from the stage that I can’t say.” And he shared that he’s found that to be true when telling the stories that go along with his songs, including one particularly embarrassing story that he shared onstage for the first time at the most recent Solid Ground gathering.
During intermission at that show, a man came up and told Anthony that the story he shared was almost an exact mirror of his own experience. Anthony said that he has learned over his career to approach these gatherings with an openness to what God wants to do through them:
“What I think happens within Porchlight is inviting the Holy Spirit to come in and say, okay, do what you need to do with me. I’m going to lay myself out, and I’m probably going to embarrass myself. But if it means that it connects with someone else, then I’m willing to do that.”
He also expressed his gratitude for the trust that Kevin and Mary have given him to minister to their community, and he takes that burden seriously, no matter the audience size.
The Swanzeys attested to the power of Anthony’s ministry in opening himself up like this. They were particularly encouraged by some Solid Ground regulars who “picked up a Bible for the first time” and whose “lives were changed as a result of a performance Anthony gave.”
For Anthony, that’s what it’s really all about. “The music is the secondary reason I’m there,” he told me.
“The primary reason is to really get to know folks. My mindset has changed: I’m not looking to get famous, I’m looking for connection. And the music is a way to engage with people before I really get to engage with them on a one-to-one level. Those are the experiences that I look forward to: getting to meet new people.”
Anthony, Kevin, and Mary all view these concerts primarily as a place of ministry. And it’s a ministry they can’t do all on their own.
A Community Effort
The concerts at Solid Ground CoffeeHouse are accomplished with the help of a team of local volunteers, including Kevin and Mary’s sons David and Daniel, who assist with practical matters such as preparing and cleaning up the space, welcoming guests, and inviting their friends to come.
Mary said that she’s been impressed with how much this has blessed the volunteers, as well as blessing her and Kevin with the extra hands. She told me that one volunteer, during their pre-show prayer, thanks God every time for the opportunity to exercise her gift of hospitality.
Mary said she’s learned that “as organizers, all we have to do is ask. I mean, the worst they’ll say is no.” And she frames volunteering not as a burden, but as an opportunity for someone to join the ministry and use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given them to bless the community, which is a blessing in return.
One such volunteer who has been blessed by his participation in concerts at Solid Ground is Karl Peabody, the Swanzey’s friend who runs the sound at all their concerts. Anthony reiterated how good of a sound tech Karl is and how much he appreciated having that responsibility taken off him, saying
“[Solid Ground is] an atmosphere where I can just worry about the songs and the storytelling. I don’t have to worry about if the sound’s going to be questionable, or if anybody’s going to be able to hear it.”
Anthony said that before this he had been praying about doing another record, because the last one he put out was six years ago right before the pandemic, so it didn’t get the chance to take off. So he prayed about it, but he didn’t want to do a Kickstarter campaign again like he had done for previous releases. It turns out that Karl records all of the concerts at Solid Ground, just for posterity. Anthony asked for the files from the first weekend of shows with the Swanzey’s, but he didn’t tell Karl his plans for them.
When Anthony got the files back, he listened to the second show from top to bottom and knew that it was something special. He quickly edited the tracks, created the album art, and put it together. Anthony praised Karl’s recording skills, saying
“Karl did such a phenomenal job with the sound, I really didn’t have to do anything on my end other than cut it up and maybe tweak a couple of things. It was pretty much pristine quality.”
Anthony had the album made into physical discs that he mailed to Kevin, Mary, and Karl as a surprise. The “greatest joy” of the process was getting a text from Mary saying that Karl had shown her the CD. It turns out that one of Karl’s dreams was to engineer an album, and there on the back of Anthony’s live album, it listed Karl’s name as the sound engineer. The recordings that were an answer to prayer for Anthony also answered a cry of Karl’s heart.
Letting God Run With It
Anthony said that the low-cost financial side of this live album allowed him to adopt a posture of giving it away:
“It gave me the opportunity to say, okay, since God, you took care of this, this is yours . . . I just want to pass it on to somebody else, because maybe somebody will be able to be blessed by it. I’ve been blessed by it, I’ve listened to it, and I’m like, God, you did something special that night that was totally not of me.”
This sense that God has answered their prayers and multiplied their efforts has been consistent for the Swanzeys throughout their time building the ministry at Solid Ground CoffeeHouse.
Kevin emphasized that everything comes back to prayer: “I tell you–prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer– just praying through all these things . . . and just letting God work.” He said that they had no idea where the concerts at Solid Ground were going to go when they started, and now they have one event a month.
Instead of focusing on what they don’t have, Kevin wants to encourage potential hosts to ask “What do I have? And watch how the Lord answers, because it’s absolutely amazing what he answers with.”
Kevin and Mary Swanzey and Anthony Quails continue to be open to what the Lord wants to do through their respective ministries. They’re grateful for the opportunity to connect with other believers through the Porchlight network who share that vision. They look forward to continuing to partner together, to intentionally invest in each other and their communities through the arts and centered on prayer.
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Listen to Anthony Quails’ album Live from the Solid Ground CoffeeHouse:
https://anthonyquails.bandcamp.com/album/live-from-solid-ground-coffeehouse-2
Check out the roster of Porchlight artists and consider offering to host one of them for your own Porchlight gathering!