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!