Tag Archives: Hunnay
Jayden Grahlman Kicks Off CROW Residency With A Benefit
Tonight (Oct. 4), Jayden Grahlman kicks off his month-long residency at CROW Bar and Variety in a very special way, raising funds for Josh Noronha, the young Collingwood man who broke his neck in a trampoline accident and is paralysed from the chest down. For this special event he has enlisted the aid of other local talents Romney Getty, Drew Wright and Coming of Age.
This is the third such residency since CROW opened its doors this summer. The first one featured Austin McCarthy and the second one presented the duo Hunnay, with Dave Russell. The feature has been well received by both audiences and the players who have welcomed this opportunity to build an audience at the same time as they build their chops.
Normally there is no cover for these nights. Tonight is an exception. They are asking for $20 at the door because it is a fundraiser for a very special young man. In addition to the door receipts, further funds will be raised through a 50/50 draw and a Silent Auction. On top of that, CROW Bar and Variety will be generously donating a percentage of food sales.
The fundraiser is necessary because the lifelong costs resulting from an accident of this kind can be as challenging as the recovery process. In addition to the costs of meals, traveling and parking for Josh’s immediate family while he undergoes physio, occupational and recreational therapies at the Lyndhurst rehab centre, the family is looking at ongoing costs that include mobility, housing renovations, training, living expenses, caregivers, physical therapy and psychotherapy.
Last Chance This Week to Catch Hunnay at CROW
Every Wednesday this month, Hunnay has been doing a residency at CROW Bar and Variety. It’s part of the vision of this new Collingwood venue to help local artists develop an audience and polish their chops, with a new artist featured every month. Last month it was Austin McCarthy and there is just one more performance this month from Hunnay. If you haven’t seen this uniquely entertaining duo, you should make a point of getting out to CROW this Wednesday, no cover, to check them out.
CROW provides a nice little room for listening to music. It’s the shape of a shoebox, longer than it is wide, which is ideal for acoustics and sight lines. If they continue the practice of featuring developing artists for month-long residencies, it should be on your monthly to-do list to be sure that you catch at least one of the Wednesday night shows. It could be a first intimate glimpse of someone with a big future. Hunnay seems to fit that bill.
Hunnay consists of Laura Somers and Karen A. Witt, each of whom worked independently before the two of them joined forces. Early in their collaboration they attracted the attention of Wasaga Beach drummer Lee Chomiak, who has worked for the past fourteen years as guitar, bass and drum tech for Blue Rodeo, with the last eight years including duties as their road manager. He was blown away by the duo’s effervescence, humour and harmonies and he worked with them to produce and record their first full length C.D. “The Other Side Of The Coin”.
Friday’s Summer Concert Best Yet
Meaford’s local impresario, Chris Scerri has a real talent for putting together a musical variety show. Often concerts that feature many acts are of a random nature, but he takes care to carefully structure shows which consistently add up to be greater than the sum of their parts. That was certainly the case with last Friday’s Meaford Summer Concert, the third in this year’s series.
It was an all-female show, a theme designed to support My Friend’s House, a crisis centre for women that serves Meaford and Collingwood. It’s more fitting, though, to refer to it as an all-exceptional-talent show. A half dozen acts followed closely on each other and built through the evening. It had been moved indoors to the Gallery in Meaford Hall because of the rain. About seventy chairs in the main room were filled and probably 30 more people stood in the adjoining room where the bar had been opened for the occasion. That was an ideal setup, allowing them to talk and enjoy a drink while people in the main room were completely absorbed in the show.
It began with Sequoia Koop, a diminutive 8-year-old singer that Chris discovered at an open stage. She was typically a little kid, looking down most of the time, wandering away occasionally from the microphone, and distracted at one point by an itch on her back. But her delivery of the songs she did never faltered and were beautifully delivered with emotion, and dynamics, not once losing her pitch. It’s always the sign of a great singer when you notice the song more than the performance, and her rendition of Allessia Cara’s “Beautiful” brought out the true meaning of the song.
Eden Young followed with a short set that compensated for the technical difficulties that marred her set at the first concert of the season, and this time her beautiful singing voice came through clearly.
The Thursday Lookout – August 3 to 6, 2017
Friday night is music night in Meaford again this week, starting at 5 pm with Victoria Yeh at The Red Door Pub on the patio. When she winds up at 7 pm, Sequioa Koop will be taking the stage at the Market Square, followed by a repeat appearance from Eden Young. It’s part of the third in the Meaford Summer Concert Series rocking downtown Meaford. The celebrated duo Hunnay, comes after that and then Amanda Dorey, who will be carrying on the music afterwards at The Leeky Canoe. The headliner at Market Square will be Jenie Thai, whose combination of outstanding keyboard chops and soaring vocals will have the audience spellbound by a set that includes blues and R & B favourites as well as her original songs.
Bookmarking the Friday night music offerings in Meaford this week are two Drews. That’s the exceptionally talented Drew McIvor doing one of Meaford Hall’s Terrace Thursdays, paired with food from Bruce Wine Bar (where he hosts an open stage on Wednesdays) and then certified Canadian Idol finalist Drew Wright on Saturday night at The Leeky.
So if your car breaks down in Meaford this weekend, you won’t be short of top-notch entertainment.
