7/29 The Devastators really had the place rocking Saturday night to a full house. It was a great show. Tony Perdue on guitar and vocals, Mike on upright bass and Wayne on drums really put together a fun evening. They played covers such as Johnny Cash's Big River, Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire, Bill Halley's Shake Rattle and Roll and some originals such as The Devastaors Boogie, Stubborn As A Mule, Alabma Fish Fry, Gump and many more. They would be the perfect band for a street party. I opened with a set of my old stuff, talk about a contrast. I may have put them to sleep, but Tony and his group got them rocking in no time flat. A good evening.
7/18 Open mike last night, one of the best, just a great mix of stuff. Jared Lewis and Adam Duke blew us away with their bluegrass picking. Jarad plays with Flat Rock and Adam plays regularly with Danny Davis and The Warrior River Boys all over the east coast and Canada. Great stuff. We had a newcomer from Huntsville Laary Woellhart who plays folk and pop classics from the 60's and 70's, he played several of my favorite Gordon Lightfoot songs. I booked him for a performance in October, check the Schedule of Events page. Jennie Stevens and their kids performed as well. David Speegle, Dennis Kaylor, Julie Gobell, Garland Talbert, Carlo and a new poet Andrea Giangrande rounded out the night. This was the kind of open mike you always hope you have!
7/17 Saturday night went pretty well. Rise To Fall showed up with two members, not the three I had booked, and brought a big crowd with them. I'm not sure how to characterize their music. Is there such a thing as grunge rock? They weren't acoustic as they had planned to be, but had only one instument, an electic guitar. It was a little loud for the coffee house I thought, but their fans liked it. The vocals were hard for me to understand because the lead singer held the mike to his cheek and with a directional mike that didn't work too well. And I am not used to a singer not singing to the audience, but to the side wall. But I have been told that that is the way they do it. I think with a little more experience, they area young band, they will improve a lot.
The second part of the show featured Andy and Jennie Stevens "farewell concert" as they are moving to South Carolina at the end of this month. They did a really good job singing their folk songs, especially the humorous ones. They sing very well together. We will miss them at open mike after they leave.
7/11 I'm having some problems getting the live music set up for Saturday. A month or so ago, some young men from Cullman, one I know, asked if they could play here. I told them yes, but have not heard another thing from them. One of their fathers told me last week that he didn't think they could get it all together and today I learned one can't come due to job problems. Anyway I have begun to schedule backup. I have wanted Andy Stephens and his wife Jenny to perform here for a while. His son is in the band. So they have agree to play for an hour. They do old time folk music and comedy songs, really good. This is kind of a farewell concert for them since they are moveing to South Carolina at the end of the month. If I can't get anyone else I'll fill in for the rest of the time. I am leaning hard on Dennis Kaylor, if he comes it will be a good show no matter what. So come on out and listen to whatever we have ready for you, I don't think you will be dissapointed.
7/10/06 Did anyone catch the front page article in Sunday's Birmingham News featuring Cullman. We are now officially, according to the Census Bureau, a "micropolitan" area. This is a new term that describes a town over 10,000 population and less than 50,000 (I think), Cullman has 14,000, that serves a large surrounding area (in this case Cullman county pop 78,000 and some other areas) in the same way a metropolitan area serves its suberbs. In other words the folks in that city and surrounding area are self sufficient and do not have to travel to metro areas for normal stuff. There are 14 micros in Alabama, but the News featured us. On page one was a picture of Garlon Gudger in his loft apartment about two blocks from the store, the article centered around him, and in paragraph two it stated that Garlon had a wagon that he rode his son around downtown Cullman to various places such as Carlton's Italian Restaurant and Berkekey Bob's Coffee House. How's that for free publicity.
July 9, 2006 If you came by the store this week you noticed that we were closed, our yearly vacation. This time it wasn't much of a vacation as we had a lot of work to do at the store. However we did get to Arkansas to visit Gerri's brother, but since it was during the week, there were no opportunities to hear any good Arkansas music. We got back Wednesday and started painting the floor of the store and doing someother remodeling, and finished Sunday night in time to open Monday. Actually though we have a few more things to do. I think you will notice the difference when you come. Hopefully it won't smell like paint for too much longer.
