Home Grown Coffee House – the first of the season

Home Grown Coffee House, Saturday October 19, 2013, 8pm at Centre 64 in Kimberley.For over 30 years Kimberley’s Home Grown Music Society has presented regular Coffee House performances at Centre 64 during the winter season. Once again the season kicked off with a batch of local performers most of whom can be called Local (more than 10 years residency in the area) and most of whom have performed on this stage in the past. The line up for the evening  Alphonse Josephincluded Alphonse Joseph (Vocals and Guitar),Terry Mackam (Vocals and Piano), Sound Principle (Barbershop Quartet), Jim Marshall (Guitar and Vocals), Bill Renwick (Guitar and Vocals), Emilio Regina (Piano and Vocals), Karly Ross (Spoken Word, Vocals and Guitar) and Alex Buterman  (Vocals and Guitar). To start the evening Alphonse broke with his usual blues inflected material to perform an original “down home” Cape Breton piece called Spirits of the Coal, followed by the Dobie Grey Terry Mackhamstandard  Drift Away, and the two originals Tell Me that You Love Me  and Just Your Fool. Following a technical glitch Terry Mackham abandoned his electric keyboard in favor of the old upright. He performed a Neil Young classic, also an arrangement of Christina Rosetti’s Who Has Seen the Wind and some “anti-devil” music the Gospel tune And Glory Shone Around. The Barbershop Quartet (Michael, Gert, Joel and Rolly) started their set with Hi Neighbour, followed by a medley of Gospel Tunes, a song from way back when cowboys were cowboys (1890) Ragtime Sound PrincipleCowboy Joe, and the two final songs, Once Upon a Time  and An Irish Blessing. Jim Marshall appears to have moved back to this area on a more permanent basis. Permanent enough to invest in the renovation of a music room  Jim Marshallin his house. In this new comfort zone he has been hard at work writing and practicing such tunes as  Light Cafe, Anticipation, Bill RenwickMy I-Phone, and Hard Times all for our enjoyment on this fall evening at the Home Grown Coffee House. Bill Renwick has an affection for the songs of John Prine and Neill Young so John’s comic piece Please Don’t Bury Me was an appropriate opening song, followed by Neil Young’s classic Old Man. As evidenced by the songs Hold me in Your Arms Tonight  and Baby You’re the One Bill also writes some pretty strong material. He finished his set with an original blues called  I’m Gone, Gone. Emilio Regina did covers of Bruce Springsteen’s One Step , Two Emilio ReginaSteps Back and also a Bob Dylan tune. Karly Ross is neither black, urban or anti- feminine so I guess her opening piece could not be called rap music. It was a spoken word performance more in keeping Alex Butermanwith “the slam poets”. The piece was untitled so I have taken it upon my self to dub (no pun intended, well maybe yes it is intended) to title the piece The Dating Game.  She followed this marvelous piece of rhetoric with a couple of original songs. Alex Buterman was the closing act of the evening with Ain’t no Sunshine when she’s Gone, 60 Days, Listen to the Music, and a Bluegrass original entitled Bubbly Water.

Karly RossSo ends another fine night of music. The Next Home Grown Coffee House will Be November 30, 2013. Tickets are available from the Snowdrift Cafe and Centre 64.

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