Tag Archives: Bill Monahan
This Year’s Maplepalooza Benefits Beaver Valley Outreach
By Bill Monahan
The fifth annual Maplepalooza is coming up this weekend (Sat., Mar. 24, doors open at 6:30) at Kimberley Hall and for the second time Chris Scerri has been involved in planning and promotion.
The annual event, a true community celebration, was founded by Jonathan Robinson. Originally a gathering of his friends to enjoy gathering maple syrup from the sugar bush on his property during the day, and live music in the evening, it has grown in significance each year and last year for the first time, he coupled it with a benefit for Meaford’s family of Syrian refugees.
Fittingly, since Kimberley is located at the bottom of the Beaver Valley, where the Beaver River runs through, the beneficiary of this year’s party is Beaver Valley Outreach, a community based organization of volunteers whose mandate it is to enrich the community by offering programs to meet the needs of the residents of the Beaver Valley. Most of their programs are designed to assist young families, with both winter and summer day camps, a kid’s club, a breakfast club and pre-school. They raise funds through donations and sales at their Treasure Shop, a second-hand store currently located on Bruce Steet in Thornbury.
“They’re moving out of a small office in Thornbury to where Piper’s used to be in Thornbury on Highway 26,” says Chris, “They’ve taken on some additional expenses and they do a great job and we’re trying to raise some money for them.”
The Wolfgang Brothers In Concert at The Barn
By Bill Monahan
On Friday, March 23, The Wolfgang Brothers will be performing in a special concert at The Barn in Meaford, with opener Bill Monahan.
Brian Wakelin (a.k.a Wolfgang) and Delbert Metherel, who form the duo The Wolfgang Brothers, have evolved over the years a performance style that combines great musicianship with a dry laid-back humour, mixing their own originals with songs selected for their pleasure rather than to pander to jukebox tastes. The result is always a fun night.
The band has opened for Ronnie Hawkins, Johnny Paycheck, Doug Kershaw, and Valdy, among others.
They have been playing together since the mid-1970’s. Through all those years their groove has solidified into something unique, a special communication that shows every time they play. They’ve gone through several phases, including show bands, rock bands and jazz, settling into their own brand of “hillbilly jazz” combined with “comedy songs”.
“We were in our early twenties,” says Delbert, “We did go to high school together but we played in rival bands. It was about 1974 when we first started playing, the Wolfgang Brothers took off about ’76 I guess.
“I came back from the west coast about 1974 and played in a show band called Tucker with Virgil Scott. It was my project basically and I just lined everybody up. There were two fellows from the west coast that I had played with out there, a fellow named Mike Bush on keys and Terry Murphy on guitar.”
Three Songwriters Back For More In Meaford
Three local songwriters who have been putting on concerts together are enjoying it so much and getting such positive feedback that they are back for more. Dave Hawkins, Bill Dickson and Bill Monahan will be playing a special evening concert at The Barn Coop in Meaford on Thursday, Nov. 16th at 7:30.
The Thursday Outlook – Sept. 21 to 25, 2017
At Kimberley Hall, just down the road from Meaford, a special art show is running all weekend and on Saturday night it will include live music from some local favourites. East Back Line, with Paul Woolner, David Marshak, Beaker Granger, and Tom Thwaits, will be on hand along with Chris Scerri’s new band Horseshoes & Handgrenades with Jon Zaslow, Beaker Granger, Erik Vandeweerdhof and as a special guest, violinist Victoria Yeh. The music is just part of a weekend-long celebration of local visual artists billed as “Apple and Art”.
If you can time it right, be on Hurontario Street in Collingwood today at 12:30 and you’ll be treated to a special pop-up concert with Tyler Yarema and Chuck Jackson at one of the pianos that are set up on the sidewalk. This is part of the promotion for a show that these two blues veterans have planned at The Historic Gayety Theatre on Oct. 5th.
Saturday night on Hurontario street it’s the annual Collingwood Art Crawl which includes live music in the evening from the Mike McCarthy Band.
