NEWSLETTER

MARCH, 2005

Another great month of music at the café. Mark your calendars.

MARCH 3 – STEPHEN SIMMONS. This singer/songwriter, a native of Tennessee currently living in Nashville, tells stories of rural life in a manner described as “a more subdued Steve Earle.”

MARCH 5 – MEL JONES & HIS BAG OF BONES. This North Carolina resident brings his energetic blues, country and jazz to the café for the first time.

MARCH 10 – TAD DREIS. Another North Carolina singer/songwriter who presents “heart-on-sleeve power pop to folkier story songs and harmonica ballads.”

MARCH 12 – MICHAEL RENO HARRELL. A regular returnee to the café, he was born in Tennessee and raised in western North Carolina. His songs are stories presented with “Appalachian grit and wit.”

MARCH 14 – ROBERT SEILER. Piano music for your dining pleasure. Proceeds benefit the Children & Family Resource Center.

MARCH 17 – JEFF O’KELLEY. Yet another North Carolina singer/songwriter whose songs range from driving country rock to lyrically deep ballads right to a little Austin-style swing.

MARCH 19 – MARC YAXLEY. This brilliant jazz guitarist returns. I don’t mean to pigeon-hole him because he has played every style of music for us including classical works.

MARCH 24 – JAY BROWN. You will enjoy this singer/songwriter’s whimsical and satirical songs about the absurdities of life.

MARCH 24 – GOVE SCRIVENOR. Gove has appeared several times at the café and it is not hard to believe that his talent has earned him appearances on “Austin City Limits” as well as touring with the likes of Delbert McClinton and Jimmy Buffet. Plus he plays the autoharp, an instrument never otherwise heard at the café.

MARCH 31 – LINDSAY SMITH. It has been too long since this Atlanta-based singer/songwriter has been here with her “witty, caustic and engaging” songs.

APRIL 2 – JACKSON CROSSING. This quartet of fine musicians describes itself as the alter-ego of Sevenmore and takes over a room with its loose, relaxed and high energy music. Bring your dancing shoes.

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If you are expecting any thing serious this month, forget it. Why? Spring is on the way. In fact, I swear that I can hear the crack of the bats at baseball’s spring training from my home here in Saluda especially those of my beloved Boston Red Sox, baseball’s current WORLD CHAMPIONS.

You can also smell spring in the air even if the temperatures are still a bit on the chilly side. We have some daffodils that are rushing the season as they are just aching to bloom NOW. I have been out in the yard a couple of days this past week cleaning out the dead stuff in the garden so that there will be plenty of room for new buds and flowers to appear.

I would like to say that the sap is rising, too, but at my age I am never sure. Regardless, it is the time of year for renewal and (cautious) optimism as nature reproduces and regenerates itself. Hopefully some of us are doing the same.

When you write a (sometimes self-indulgent) newsletter like this, you become attentive to things that might be interesting or amusing for your readers. Here are some examples of what I mean.

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Some great bumper stickers:

In the event of the rapture, can I have your car?

We still think.

Where logic ends, faith begins.

Living is what happens when we have made other plans.

Kayakers do it, roll over and do it again.

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How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? Change? Who said anything about change? (Ed. Note: To fully appreciate this, it helps if you are an Episcopalian.)

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New definitions of old words:

EGOTIST: Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

MYTH: A female moth.

YAWN: An honest opinion openly expressed.

Maybe I will feel more serious next month. But then again, maybe not. There is often way too much of that going around nowadays anyhow.

Robert Seiler

Purple Onion Cafe

www.purpleonionsaluda.com