Kailee Duggan - You're So Small

Kailee Duggan from November's VCAFE

Corey Doak's humourous hip hop tribute to Yo-Yo Ma

The other Blues Brothers...

Last Sunday VCAFE hosted the Strauss Ord band featuring Graham Ord, Norm Strauss, bass player Dave Moore and drummer Jordan Strauss at a special VCAFE which focused a little more on gospel blues & inspirational/worship music. There was a heap of talent on the VCAFE stage that night, that is for sure as the band wound their way through a selection of gospel blues covers and originals. The foursome had spent some time in Germany and UK this past summer so this was a chance for them to reunite and bring their chops to the Okanagan where they all live but where no one, except the Streaming Cafe audience a few weeks ago had had a chance to see them. Needless to say, the response was hugely positive. Yes, it was a little louder than a regular VCAFE, but it's not like that happens every time, eh?
December's VCAFE takes place this week on Saturday and hopefully we'll continue the trend of good turnouts as we watch long time performer Betty Anne Northup who has been gracing stages for more than 35 years.
Oh yes - a big thank you to our official VCAFE photographer Kevin Kienlein who's starting to gather a great bunch of pictures - some of which we'll start to post
It's always a sad day when influential people pass away, so I tip my hat to Derek Hughes, a former principal in the UK, who was influential in my life and career who left us on Wednesday. Thank You, Derek.

So much music, so little time...

Greg Sczebel hit town with the band and with the new CD "Love and the lack thereof" Wednesday night. The band were astonishingly good, even though they'd not been together for about 6 weeks, and Greg brought his usual charm and 'down to earthness' to the evening and everybody loved him to bits long before the show was over! Saturday saw Jane Eamon conduct a songwriting workshop at the VCAFE premises. The small but entusiastic group were challenged beyond their regular comfort zones. All learned new skills and strategies and were inspired just to be in the presence of other songwriters.
Coming up this week is a first in the "Worship VCAFE" series. This will be on Sunday November 29th and will feature Norm Strauss and Graham Ord and band. The evening starts at 7pm and although entrance is free, a donation box will be available.
December 5th is our next VCAFE regular, and our feature performer will be Betty Anne Northup.
I've often wondered what it takes to get people out to music events and support the arts. While it's not possible to force people to come out to events, it is necessary to put on enough events for people to come to - hence the mantra of VCAFE is to "Keep Music Live". If you're not a regular supporter, have a think about attending one of the upcoming shows. See you there!

Sherie Erickson - "Dream" - VCAFE Oct 2009

Don't take it for granted!

It's funny that when we're healthy, as we go about doing the things we love, we don't often stop to think about being unhealthy and about not being able to enjoy life's 'treasure moments', but when we're unhealthy, we spend all our time craving for the 'feelgood' to return. It's been a bit like that this week as the H1N1 virus struck our household and changed the shape of the week quite a bit. Add back spasms to the mix and suddenly every little move is both sickly AND painful. Nothing is more miserable! Hard to play guitar or try to write songs. Grrrrr...
Anyway, I was able to catch an hour of the great blues night from Kelowna's Streaming Cafe, the online streaming music venue (featuring VCAFE's own Dave Moore). It's really cool and very much worth checking out at www.streamingcafe.net by signing up (for free) you get access to full screen performances in high def with good sound. A whole spectrum of performing musicians wheel their way through the Cafe on Fridays and Saturdays nearly every week. Here at VCAFE we're about supporting live music so we're happy to point people to our streaming sister in Kelowna!
Back here in Vernon don't forget Greg Sczebel on Wednesday and Songwriting on Saturday! See you there, hopefully as long as the aches and pains have gone!

GREG SCZEBEL - coming to VCAFE Wednesday November 18th 7:30

Video of ASH at VCAFE October 2009

The last few weeks!

It's been a couple of weeks - for various reasons that we won't bore you with!  Suffice it to say another VCAFE has happened and it was really successful with Corey Doak headlining the evening. Not only is Corey an accomplished songwriter, but he is a wickedly funny guy who's sense of humour takes him off into realms of the unknown resulting in some very funny stories and songs. Who'd have thought someone could write a hip hop song about Yo Yo Ma ?
So earlier this week the team were in the audience for the David Essig house concert at Jane Eamon's house in Kelowna. Never seen David Essig play before but it was well worth the evening jaunt down to Kelowna to be there. Essig's worn country/blues voice suited his material perfectly. Using an assortment of tunings he wove his way through an evening of anecdotes and touching songs and it felt very good.
Coming up soon we have a busy few weeks. Firstly, Wednesday Nov 18th we have Greg Sczebel at a special VCAFE concert. Saturday Nov 21st we have a songwriting workshop hosted by Jane Eamon and then Sunday Nov 29th we have a blues evening with Graham Ord, Norm Strauss and David Moore and then the next VCAFE is on Dec 5th. Lots to keep us busy. Hope to see you at the shows!

Just a rainy update...

Hasn't rained in the Okanagan like this for a while... and because I don't live at the coast I'm allowed to say that when it rains this heavily, I actually quite like it!  So lots of round-the-house-jobs today and looking at old photos of musical days gone by...loads of fun! 
Last reminder about the cool Laurell concert at the VCAFE location starting at 3:30pm (yes - 3:30) tomorrow, Sunday. Admission is $15 but includes a copy of Laurell's new EP. Laurell plus bass + drums. I believe Melissa Yano is opening..
I mentioned the songwriting session that Jane Eamon will be hosting on November 21st - I'm really looking forward to that and I'm happy to announce that we're going to follow it with another songwriting day with Norm Strauss on February 27th.  I'm hoping that out of these days we will have the embryo of a songwriters group in Vernon. Nothing like creative stimulation from like minded people. The songwriting days are set at $15 each. Please get in touch for more information and to register.
I'm singin' in the rain.....da da da da da da da ....

Upcoming stuff...

Well, Thanksgiving is over already and the colder weather makes it feel like winter is here even though fall only just got going a week or two ago! The colder, darker nights make it all the more a good reason to take in some good music at the various locations around the area. This Sunday afternoon at the VCAFE venue, upcoming singer songwriter Laurell will play a CD release show. Start time is at 3:30pm at the Vernon Christian Fellowship building. At this moment I'm not sure of the admission cost but I'll post it as soon as I know.  It's short notice but tomorrow night Andrew and Zachari Smith play at the Minstrel in Kelowna with Dave Moore playing bass.  November 5th we're looking forward to seeing David Essig in a house concert in Kelowna - seats are like gold - only 20 available!!!!
Advance notice about a VCAFE spin off event on Saturday November 21st at the VCAFE venue.  This will be a songwriting hands-on workshop hosted by Jane Eamon, songwriter extraordinaire, and to which all are welcome. Tickets are $15 for the day and will feature instruction, writing, playing and fun.  Please contact Bob at 250 558 4591 to register for this event.
Back to VCAFE - as soon as possible we'll have a feature video of a song from the ASH set at last week's VCAFE - pop back here in a few days!

Welcome

We've set up this blog to try to regularly capture the essence of what VCAFE is about. As well as comments in both preview and review of our monthly evenings across the fall, winter and early spring, we might get into talking about music in general, singer/songwriters, the art of the songwriter etc, etc. Feel free to jump into the chat and give your two bits worth if you want!