by Meredith Rilley
“You should charge more money.” That is an actual
quote from one of Groovin’s virgin coffee house audience
members, Andy Balbus. Andy’s point was less in tune with
the fact that he wanted to pay more and more aligned with the
thought that he was surprised at the level of quality music right
here in New Fairfield for such a nominal fee. Like many, he equates
a good show with a high price tag. “I’m impressed.
There are lots of talented musicians, each with a different style.
And the crowd is much bigger than the Town Crier’s. I’m
pleased and proud that New Fairfield has such good music.”
It’s not surprising that people leave The Coffee House sold
on Groovin’s production and eager to return. After 4 years
of quarterly coffee houses, the entire process has become like
a well-oiled machine, experiencing such success, in fact, that
professional musicians have sought out Groovin’ for their
stage. The Coffee House’s Featured Artists are booked into
2009 with performers who have toured the world and played with
big names and who are willing to play for our lucky town. Awestruck
by the professionals playing at The Coffee House, one audience
member joked, “We’re not worthy!”
Saturday’s Coffee House was very much a part of the professional
musician’s stage that has become an expectation to return
audience members, like Mary K. Smith “Each one gets better
and better. People don’t know what they’re missing!”
The evening, hosted by comedian, Barry Schaffer, was kicked off
by Damon John Wade, whose fingers danced across his guitar so
quickly and proficiently and whose voice was so compelling that
it was impossible not to be completely drawn in by his performance.
His songs run the gamut between a touching, longing love song
for a woman after a 6-year dry spell to a witty, energetic and
truly fun love song about his motorcycle. “Got her from
the junk yard. It was love at first sight,” he sang, “Keep
your hands off her, she’s my VFR.” Witty lyrics like
those and in songs like, “Siamese Cat”, telling about
being drawn to someone who is, “…like a paper cut.
You sting and you suck,” brought the audience to laughter
more than once.
Damon's
site.
From there the evening mellowed for a bit with Kathleen Pemble’s
sweet sound and serious, sometimes haunting lyrics. Kathleen,
a full-time musician, won the New York City Song Slam after only
a few years of dedicating her life to music full-time. She sings
as if driven by some uncontrollable purpose, as if she’s
got no choice but to write the words and play the songs exactly
as they are. And the audience was grateful; Kathleen moved them,
almost hypnotizing them into her stories, with her gentle finger
picking and lilting voice.
www.kathleenpemble.com
After Kathleen, T.Jay Kowalchuk took the stage with an immense
presence before even opening his mouth to sing. T.Jay stands well
over 6 feet and looks every bit the part of the baseball scholarship
athlete he was at the University of Binghamton. Before he takes
his first commanding strum on the guitar, you find yourself doubting
that he will be as good as you’ve heard, solely based on
preconceived notions of handsome athletes and music. But, the
instant T.Jay started to play, all negative thoughts dispersed
and amazement set in. His talent easily matched his massive amounts
of energy and showmanship. Besides his patent guitar mastery,
T.Jay has an impressive vocal sensibility, singing high falsetto
notes and belting powerful, dynamic phrasing. The final piece
of the ready-to-be-famous-package that is T.Jay, is his extremely
literate and insightful gift for lyrics and his jazz-influenced,
yet still mainstream sound. There is no doubt that this talented
young artist, who plays frequent local gigs, will break through
to the big time. T.Jay commented on his Coffee House audience,
“ It’s great to play on any stage where the audience
is almost as much into it as the performer!” That is saying
volumes, considering T.Jay couldn’t possible be more infatuated
with performing as he is.
www.tjaymusic.com
Finishing up the showcase set was a group of local musicians,
who make up the one-time basement band, Vinyl Groove. Following
professional musicians as Vinyl Groove did would be daunting to
many, but the experience and comfort level of these six long-time
musicians put them enough at ease to hold up well to scrutiny
after such a high bar of talent. Playing three covers and one
original, Vinyl Groove, displayed an impressive variety of vocal
sound, rich with four-part harmonies, as well as instrumental
sound, complete with instrument swapping.
www.vinylg.com
Having previously heard one half of the Feature Artist, this writer
knew the second half was able to clear that high bar set by the
Showcase Set. Jean Bratman, an alumnus of The Coffee House and
current freelance writer for Good Morning America, returned this
time with seasoned, full-time artist, Marc Black, full-time musician
and composer. The first time Jean performed for Groovin’
in New Fairfield, she drew us in with her thoughtful lyrics and
absolutely perfect, smooth voice and performed with a similar
seriousness to Kathleen Pemble. This time, however, Marc Black
added a certain lightness of being and just plain fun energy to
Jean’s performance and, although with talent as rich as
before, she was clearly having a ball. The contrast between the
two is understandable. Jean’s beautiful ballads often include
lyrics that argue the strength of love, “This is love, I
can tell. We stand where we once fell,” and Marc’s
songs keep us laughing with the likes of “Don’t Be
Mad at Me,” a song that playfully pleads with his wife to
forgive him, which made the audience break out with laughter throughout
the song. When his wife first heard the song, she claimed it was
a children’s song. Agreeing with that, Marc changes the
last line of the song from “No Nookie” to “No
cookie,” depending on the audience’s median age. That’s
not to say that Jean can’t have fun alone. Her song, “What
You Don’t” speaks of a woman aging somewhere between
beautiful & young and beautifully wise. The people laughing
the most were women over the age of 40, clearly identifying with
lyrics like, “ I used to live life on the cutting edge and
now I view life across a suburban hedge” or “A smile
still comes to my face when a young man glances down at my legs.
You know I die just a little inside when he says, Ma’am,
your shoe’s untied.” And Marc Black certainly knows
serious. He is about to go on tour for his album “Stroke
of Genius,” comprised of songs he wrote from poems by his
friend, Dan Mountain, who awoke from a coma once his doctors removed
him from life support. The songs are like his friend’s post-stroke
personality, a psychedelic version of himself – super insightful
with a slightly skewed perspective. All fresh, welcome takes on
life, like “When you get back, never get back to where you’ve
been. Get back to where you’re goin’.”
Their voices blend together beautifully, too. Jean's voice really
adds a beautiful harmonic depth to Marc’s. Aside from the
polished and completely engaging vocals and lyrics, their performance
was so superb that the audience called for an encore and Jean
and Marc delivered. Marc wrote a fun bluesy song, called, “I
Got Trouble,” which he lured Jean into singing, despite
the fact that she had never heard it before. It was some pure,
successful, improvisational singing -– a clear indication
of the level of songwriting talent that was on the stage –
and it was hilarious.
www.jeanbratman.com
www.marcblack.com
With talent like this, The Coffee House can now be counted on
as a sure thing. Fans like Anne Geisinger raved, “This is
the first one for my husband and I and we’ll definitely
be back. It was marvelous.” Artists like Jean Bratman raved,
“The people [here] are great listeners – warm and
receptive. I love playing here. The people who run this rock.
It is really well organized.” All this raving from audience
and artist alike. Maybe we are worthy.
For more information on the artists who have performed at this
and other Coffee Houses and for direct links to their sites and
their music or for more on Groovin’ in New Fairfield itself,
visit our brand new web site:
www.groovininnewfairfield.com.
Groovin’ in New Fairfield is a N.F. Parks & Recreation
program.
