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Patterson Chapter News
Volume 19, Issue 4: March & April 1999
Newsletter segments:
Kingston chapter news, Patterson chapter news, Poughkeepsie chapter news, and other articles.January Reprort by Uncle Frank
Miserable weather curtailed Patterson attendance in January. Not even all the staff were able to arrive punctually; sound man Bruce Morrison's ride froze up on him or something, and he had to come by train and Shank's mare, trudging in halfway through the evening. Mr. Zecca took the opportunity to conduct a Y2K Snap Drill and declare an unplugged evening. Even the Open Mike list was unusually short.
Martin Aronchick played two of his own instrumental pieces, "Untitled" and "For R.J.", to open the night, and was followed by Blair Shepard (already Y2K-compliant) who gave us "The Moonshiner" and a Sam Rogers song, "All I See is You". Anna Barnes departed from her blues repertoire with her own song "House of Cards" and returned to it with "Trouble in Mind". Jean Bratman followed her with two of her own songs, "In the Doorway" and "To Get to You". Cowboy Greg Monacelli gave us two poems accompaning himself on guitar, "I Rode With the Best" and "Blessing in Disguise"...and the open mike list was concluded.
Feature performers Susan MacLean and Todd Guidice responded gamely to the challenge of an open-ended feature and gave the charmed Patterson crowd better than half an hour of top-flight performance [Mario, can you amplify a little please, I never got any of the titles] before they were allowed off the stage.
Y2K involves reversion as much as it does progress. When the feature show was over, we circled the chairs and carried on Hoot-fashion for another hour or so, before turning off the lights (in Y2K, won't have to bother with that) and tottering away across the sheet of ice in the parking lot.
February Reprort by Mario Zecca
The February Patterson coffee house was MC'ed by Melissa Holland, who always graciously presides over the evening with wit and genuine intimacy. Thanks and welcome to Jo and Clark Darling, who prepared our refreshments this month, homemade pie and cookies. You folks have to make an effort and come to the coffee houses and bring your friends! I also want to thank my friend and part time treasurer Ed Schaffer for being a hand when there is one needed. Ed will Featurette in April.
Bruce Morrison is our new public relations manager and we have had several tele-conferences discussing new strategies to bring-em in. He and one of March's featurettes Steve Nash, our sound person, have lined up a surprise show for June. Which is Traditional Music Night. Traditional Music being defined as music that has some history behind it that places it in a category that is easily recognized, such as folk, blues or blue grass, or at least that is my definition for the March Coffee house. Please see Ron Gluck, who I am appointing deputy in charge of musical definitions by the power invested in me though the Hudson Valley Organization of Musically Challenged Charlatans, if you would like to debate the definition any further and email me a synopsis.
The evening started with Parker gambino, who is always willing to fill the first slot on the open mike list, that everyone else shies away from, (Bully good show Parker, that's the spirit) led off with his own "Charlie Blair". Next up, Brian Sullivan sang, and I quote one of his lyrics instead of the title, "I want to trace the veins in your skin" and a cover "Everybody loves to see justice done, to someone else". Brian was followed by the self effacing Roye Donald who covered Pospisil's "Real life is Grey". Roye has come back to being a regular at Patterson.
Next up, Boy's Night Out, their second appearance, I will note that these guys are on to something good, I truly hope they make a habit out of showing up at Patterson. They certainly add a certain Snap, crackle, Pop, to the proceedings. All this and Too Human as well.
Ellen and Roger, who are, as one of the other performers put it "a refreshing change", were none the less nearly arrested by the FOLK POLICE, have assured me that they will return to the Patterson stage. Which brings us to Ron Gluck, our next open miker, who just gets better and better.
Our featurette for February was the Beacon Nightingale, Barbara Mahon, who put on a show of broad scope and included various former and present band members including Ed Schaffer and myself, Rebekah and John Martucci, Bill Wemmerus and Steve Otlowski, in order of appearance. I particularly liked the song "Rosewood Casket" which, the morbid title aside, reminded me of a german polka. Barbara finished off the evening with an original tune "Circle of Love". Bill Wemmerus and Steve Otlowski came back up and did a couple of numbers and I did the last song of the evening. (Modesty, of course, forbids me from extolling the merits of my own performance. Common sense tells me to not say a word about all the errors I made).
One more reminder, please don't miss Traditional Music night, come along and perform your favorite traditional songs, come and hear Marty Brennan and his band. Marty is an old hand at the blues and plays a mean Dobro, even Hawaiian style. Lastly, bring your friends along and spread the word about what a treat the The Hudson Valley Folk Guild coffee house meetings are.
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