2/2/24

Hello Everyone:

Here’s the latest QCB/Leo Coffeehouse news:

This Sunday we have three fantastic acts scheduled, plus a songwriting workshop, and our open jam song circle. 

Next week we have our first song circle at Community Happens Here in Pleasant Ridge on Saturday, and a change to the time schedule for our mic-less open mic at Leo on Sunday. See more information below.

Leo Coffeehouse
February 4, 2024

5:15 PM: Songwriting workshop
Jim and Hillary Wagner will lead a discussion about using historical events versus personal inspiration/experience for song lyrics. Plus they will talk about how they create their harmonies.

5:15 PM: Open Jam
Musicians bring songs to lead in the circle while others provide backup and harmony. This jam continues upstairs during the concert.

6:40- 9:00 PM:
Performances

1st Set: Dave Gilligan
Dave Gilligan was once described by a colleague as, "The guy my mother warned me about.” Why? Perhaps his annual solo set will provide an answer; perhaps not.

2nd Set: Jim’s Red Pants
Rick and Hillary met in 1995 playing a Christmas show with other duos. They married and just kept playing together—for over 25 years now! They love to do originals, as well as, old historic favorites from the revolutionary war era through the civil war, plus American, Irish, and more traditional fiddle tunes. https://jimsredpants.com/ 

3rd Set: Back Porch Hounds
BPH, plays a roots music mix of country blues, old style jazz, Celtic, old-time and bluegrass. It’s mostly old obscure music with a modern edge, plus some originals. If they look like a bluegrass band from a distance, it’s because they love tapping into the many roots, and instrumentation, of traditional music. The hounds include: Frank Fitch, Dennis Henderson, Fred Hautau, Dale Farmer and Melissa Blowers. 
https://thebackporchhounds.com 

Looking Ahead:
Folk Music Jam at Community Happens Here

QCB’s first musical event at Community Happens Here, is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024, from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. CHH is open to the public from 11:00 AM-1:00 PM with an event they call “Sidewalk Hospitality”. Our jam will overlap that event and introduce visitors to the idea of folk music at CHH. For anyone planning to come, get there a little early so you can walk around and see the facility.

CHH is located at 6238 Montgomery Rd. in Pleasant Ridge. CHH has seven parking spaces behind their building, one of which is a handicapped space, but there is ample parking on Montgomery Rd. and on Grand Vista Ave. NW of CHH. There is also a public parking lot behind Walgreens across from 6138 Woodmount Ave.

Looking Ahead:
Changes to Open Mic Nights

Our all night open mic nights have become very popular. We are instituting some simple changes to create more performance slots and to make sure that new attendees and musicians who didn’t get to play the month before, get a chance to sign up first.

Here are the changes:

• We are moving the 5:15 PM song circle/jam upstairs to the second floor.

• Any scheduled 5:15 PM workshops will be held in the Green Room on the first floor.

• The open mic signup sheet will go out at 5:45 PM. Performances will start at 6:00 PM. New people will given the chance to sign up first, followed by those who didn’t get to play the previous month, and then everyone else. (We keep track of monthly performers so we know who has played the month before.)

• If we get more people who want to play than the18 slots available, we might ask for volunteers to give up one song to those who weren’t able to sign up.

• There’s a 2 song, of normal length, limit. Each slot consists of 8 minutes playing/talking time with two minutes for set up. The time is only a guideline and will vary by performer.

We are implementing these changes with the February 11 mic-less open mic. We expect that our open mics will continue to be the fun, popular events we all enjoy. We’ll just get to hear more people play.

Looking Ahead:
Leo Coffeehouse, February 11, 2024

5:15 PM: Open Jam
Musicians bring songs to lead in the circle while others provide backup and harmony. The jam will be held upstairs due to our new expanded time for the open mic.

5:15 PM Songwriters Collaborative
Leo’s monthly songwriting workshop; come and share your songs with other songwriters for encouragement and friendly critiques. The Songwriters Collaborative will meet in the Green Room on the first floor.

6:00-9:00 PM: All Night Mic-less Open Mic
Sign up at 5:45 PM to perform two songs. This will be a purely acoustic performance night. We will not be setting up the sound system. So, if you perform, remember to control how loudly you play your guitar so you don’t drown out your voice.

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.

I hope to see you at Leo Coffeehouse.

Neil Harrell
President, Queen City Balladeers/Leo Coffeehouse

President’s Letter