6/20/06 We had a great open mike last night thanks to a new band that showed up at the last minute, Down Home Fire. This is a local band made up of Dustin Thornton (who graduated from West Point with my daughter and head barista Erin) on djembe drum, Greg Alexander on slide guitar (a beautiful sweet sounding 1991 Les Paul Gibson) and vocals, and Ryan Cook on acoustic guitar and vocals. These guys have great vocal strength and very proficient instrumentals with a very tight sound in kind of a folk rock style. They palyed 6 songs (we didn't have many performers) including some originals and covers (Werewolves of London and Little Red Riding Hood were two). I am trying to schedule them for a concert in September so keep tuned you won't want to miss this.
The night was well rounded out with poet Dale Braun doing two of his wonderful nature poems, Josh Brooks and Carlo. I even did several old folk songs as a filler. Terry Harbison our official coffee house photographer was there, so we have pictues and I'll post them as soon as I can. Most of the pictures on our image pages were taken by Terry.
6/19/06 Singer-songwriters are on the cutting edge of music regardless of the genre they compose in and some of the best music you will ever hear is never reorded or performed before large audiences. That was sure true here last Saturday night, Dennis Kayor is one of the best I have ever heard. Dennis did over an hour of his originals in his laid back humorous manner. He is a master storyteller and brings little pieces of the past to life. Some of the stuff he performed were Riding For The Brand (Maybe my favorite), Delta Queen, The Alamo, Pickin Out The Cotton Seed and Old Chimney's Point The Way To Heaven. His humorous pieces included Stomp That Sucker Flat, No Room For Hippies, Parrothead Paradise, Bubba's Christmas and The Flora Bama Lounge. The show was poorly attended, but those that were there got a treasure trove of good songs, well performed.
Next was WP Smith. WP has just been picked up by a Christian recording company and will begin his first album this week in Atlanta. He may go on tour later this summer. Good luck WP, that's every writers dream I think. He has a great voice and his specialty is Country and Country Christian. Good show.
6/16 Thought I would take this opportunity to mention our panini sandwiches. As far as I know we are the only ones in this area selling paninis. A panini is a grilled sandwich, grilled on an Italian panini machine which imparts a special look and flavor. I've been in places where they called their sandwiches paninis, but they weren't authentic, ours are. At present we have three paninis to choose from: a grilled cheese, the best you have ever had made with tomato basil cheese and bread, a reuben with really lean corned beef and an herbed turkey. The herbed turkey is additive free no nitrates, hormones, antibiotics, etc. and is served on organic 100% whole wheat bread. Our reuben is served on organic sprouted rye. We are working on a vegetarian panini. Try them out along with our other homemade salads, sandwiches and soups (in season).
6/8/06 Things have slowed down at the coffee house with school out and people on vacation and so when the Soil and Water Conservation District asked me to come back to work part time, I decided to do so. I will be working there two days a week mostly doing water monitoring on several county creeks. I'll be testing for chemicals, bacteria and critters. I have done that a good bit since I retired five years ago and really enjoy it. The Alabama Water Watch, I use their protocals, needs volunteers so if any of you would like to be a Water Watch volunteer and adopt a creek to monitor let me know. As a retired forester owning a coffee house, I don't get to go out into the woods much anymore, so this way I can get out to remote creek banks regularly, we monitor each creek once a month, and I feel that I am doing something importand for the environment. Also at some point in the future I would like us to sponsor day hikes in the Bankhead or day trips to other local areas of interest. If any of my readers would have an interest in something like this let me know and we may try to organize something.
6/6/06 We had a great open mike last night. It started off at 7 with local songwriter Dennis Kaylor singing some of his originals and ended with Roger Snow another singer-songwiter at 9:30. In between we heard from David Speegle singing his original gospel, Carlo doing some unusual old songs, The Cat Came Back was one, Garland sang some old songs also, including West Virginia Hills, Jamie and Rebecca Von leihe sang some old rock standards together from a cd made by Rebecca's father performing on guitar. They brought their fans with them. Josh Brooks performed as did a newcomer Sarah Bagley who read three original stories. Good entertainment all and a decent crowd to hear them perform.
6/5/06 The Sandy River Ramblers string band played at the Coffee House last Saturday night and it was like going back in time 100 years to a previous generation, before bluegrass, rock and roll and rap. Many of the songs and tunes made popular by the 1960's Folk Revival were old string band tunes. String bands like the Sandy River Ramblers were common throughout the south, practically every little town had one or more, and provided local entertainment for churches, dances, family reunions, political rallies and any time people got together.
The band consisted of a fiddle, clawhammer banjo, mandolin and guitar. Their sound, although somewhat hampered by my ancient sound system was well balanced. I particularly like old fiddle tunes played with a strong clawhammer banjo following the fiddle through the tune. Don Evans and Howard Bozeman on the fiddle and banjo provided that. Pat Long provided mandolin breaks which complemented all the tunes and sang some really pretty Irish songs. In fact the band had that Celtic sound that lies behind most Appalachian music. She need to do more of this I think. Howard sang Mole in the Ground and did a great job, he has a really nice tenor voice that I would have like to have heard more of. Bill Neussle kept the rhythm guitar going and took some breaks as well.
Some of the stuff they did included fiddle tunes like Bill Cheatum, Seneca Square Dance, Whiskey in the Morning, Blackberry Blossom, June Apple, Red haired Boy, and many others. Howard gave some interesting commentaries on the history of some of the tunes. That was neat.
I hadn't heard this band before and was favorable impressed and hope they will be back. All in all it was a good concert, the customers appreciated it and I got many favorable comments. It was fairly well attended.
2/3/06 Last night we went to the Moonlight Music Cafe in Vestavia to hear a band in which Adam Wright, who has played here, is a member, called Act of Congress. The Moonlight Music Cafe is a really nice venue, its basically a small concert hall on the second floor of an upscale strip mall just off hiway 31 in Vestavia Hills. It has a nice stage, great acoustics and intimate seating with a small coffee bar and full bar available and certain snacks like humus and pita chips or spinich dip and chips.
The opener was a young singer-songwriter named Eric Bailey. He played mandolin and acoustic guitar both very well and sang original songs which stemed from his life experiences. He had a great stage presence, good natured, humorous and carried on a nice banter with some of the audience. He did a good job.
The headliners, Act 0f Congress featured Adam Wright on mandolin and guitar, Chris Griffin on guitar and Dobro and Brad on electric base and guitar. Their song list included everything from some original vocals and instumentals, to great covers of CCR, the Dillards, Nickle Creek and more. Some songs included Fannie, Man of Constant Sorrows, The Old Home Place, Lodi, Proud Mary. It was a good well-balanced sound with excellent, very energetic instumentals and smooth vocals. Chris was all over the guitar, excellent work and Adam's mandolin complemented him wonderfully. I certainly would travel to Birmingham to hear them again.
Adam expressed a desire to bring the band to the Coffee House, hope that works out. Stay tuned.
