President’s Letter
Folknotes 02/07/25
Hello Everyone,
Here is the latest QCB news.
Community Happens Here/QCB Jam, February 8, 2025
Leo Coffeehouse, Sunday, February 9, 2025
Looking Ahead: Leo Coffeehouse, Sunday, February 16, 2025
WoodSongs Hurricane Helene Instrument Drive (ends next week)
Reference Information For New Subscribers (Below my sign off)
Community Happens Here/QCB Jam
February 8, 2025
Join us to share in the fun and music, this Saturday, from 12:30-2:30 PM, at Community Happens Here at 6238 Montgomery Rd. in Pleasant Ridge. It’s also on the QCB calendar on our website: the second Saturday of each month.
Parking is available on Montgomery Rd., on Grand Vista Ave., and at the public parking lot behind Walgreens on Woodmont Ave.
Leo Coffeehouse
Sunday, February 9, 2025
5:15 PM: Songwriters Collaborative
Come and share your songs with other songwriters for encouragement and friendly critiques.
5:15 PM: Open Jam
Anyone can bring songs to lead in the circle while others provide backup and harmony
6:30 PM: All Evening Open Mic
Sign up at 6:00 PM to perform 1 -2 songs. 8 minute limit.
Our sound system may be set up, or maybe not. We’ll see.
Looking Ahead: Leo Coffeehouse
Sunday, February 16, 2025
5:15 PM: Guitar Roundtable Workshop
Mike Helm leads this forum for players of any skill level to exchange ideas so we can all make better music together. Bring a question, share a tip. Learn a new lick or chord. Gain a new perspective, share your own with us. Enrich your guitar experience.
5:15 PM: Open Jam
Anyone can bring songs to lead in the circle while others provide backup and harmony.
Performances 6:40 - 9:00 PM
1st Set: Jamonn Zeiler
Jamonn is celebrating nearly 60 years performing in public and he still cannot get enough of the music he loves. You can find him on Facebook.
2nd Set: Jon Letts
Jon Letts is a professional jazz bassist with a master’s in jazz bass from University of Michigan who has performed with Detroit artists Laura Rain, the Caesars, Bluewater Kings and many more. This is Jon’s venture into the country music he grew up with. He plays originals and covers by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, George Jones and more.
3rd Set: Dan Van Vechten Trio
Dan Van Vechten is a folky singer/songwriter who plays folk, to country, to anything on the radio, plus songs of his own. Influences include country old timers like Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson and folky old timers like Paul Simon and John Prine. The Trio includes Henry “Hank” Becker on banjo and veteran bassist Chris Werner on upright bass. “Stringtown Sessions” is a collection of original songs and local covers, now available on the website and streaming. danvanvechtenmusic.com
WoodSongs Hurricane Helene Instrument Drive
The drive is almost over. Nearly 1,000 instruments have been collected to be given to victims of Hurricane Helene at Warren Wilson College outside of Asheville, on Sunday, March 9. Instruments will be collected through February 15.
Along with dropping them off at Leo Coffeehouse on Sunday nights (see Janice Alvarado), anyone can drop playable, good condition instruments off at area music stores, including Willis Music stores and Buddy Roger’s. For more information and a list of stores accepting instruments for the WoodSongs Hurricane Helene instrument drive go here.
All donated instruments will be delivered to Lexington. WoodSong volunteers will then deliver them, along with donated instruments from other areas, to Tennessee and North Carolina musicians.
From the WoodSongs website:
“The area around Asheville NC and east Tennessee is rich with musical heritage. With your help, WoodSongs will collect and deliver over 1000 FREE instruments to the musicians of the mountains who lost everything in the storms and help restore the music of the front porches of Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
“We were very successful organizing instrument drives for tornado victims in western Kentucky and again for the flood victims of the mountains. Nearly 2000 instruments were collected, restored and delivered absolutely FREE to the musicians who needed them.”
That’s all for this Folknotes, I hope to see you soon.
Neil Harrell
President, Queen City Balladeers/Leo Coffeehouse
Facebook:
QCB/Leo Coffeehouse Membership
We are keeping our standard annual QCB membership dues at $20.00 for a family, or for a single person plus a guest. Last year, knowing that the pandemic cut into our contingency funds, as we continued to pay overhead expenses with no income, some members donated larger amounts to QCB. We very much appreciate the support of all QCB members at all levels.
We are exploring setting up our website to allow the payment of different levels of dues support. For now, if you’d like to pay the standard dues, you can pay them online here or by a check at Leo. (We’ve discontinued our P.O. Box, I will have a mailing address in the next newsletter for those who wish to mail their membership dues.)
If you would like to donate more than the $20.00 standard dues, you can do so by check, or through our website. When you get to the page with the box to relay instructions, just note that you are paying a larger amount for your dues.
For visitors who prefer not to become a member, a donation of $5.00 (cash) per person helps us pay the rent for our non-profit organization. Donations can be slipped in the box at the welcome table outside our performance room, Founders Hall. If you can’t afford that, pay what you can afford or nothing at all. We will welcome you to join us either way.