On September 19, 2014, we celebrated 20 years of Black Walnut Open Stages. We had the biggest turnout since our Valdy concert 10 years ago. While about 90 folks turned out to celebrate it was mostly about the music and that night it was a full evening concert by Rescue Junction. We put a photo of the band on our Performers pictures page.

We’ll be back on Friday, October 17th with our open stage. 

We are getting excited about our Rescue Junction concert on Friday, September 19th, 2014 at 8 pm. The doors will open at 7:oo pm and the cost is just $3 at the door.

I have been listening to some of their songs at http://rescuejunctionband.com/home

On Friday, June 20th we started the evening off with a feature length set by Edward John Barrington who has just released his album entitled “Old songs, New Sentiments”   http://edwardjohnbarrington.com/album/155425/old-songs-new-sentiments?autostart=true  We had our best turnout this year to welcome Ed back and to hear what he has done with all of those songs.

This is our twentieth year for the Open Stage and we are making plans for a special concert evening Friday September 19th with “Rescue Junction”. More news to come!  Meanwhile we are taking a break for July and August.  We need lots of time to check out all of the live music festivals in the area including the Mill Race festival in Cambridge, Home County in London, the Ingersoll Folk Festival and the Kitchener Blues Festival.  They are all great festivals and they all have free admission.

The open stage pefromers on June 20th were: Dan Hergott, Jacob and Greg DeGroot-Magetti, Adam Lang and Johnny Dooley, Nathan Few, Randy Ouillette, Jakki Annerino, Rick Rathwell and Gary Ticknor (NEW), Jack Cole, Scott and Dan McQuade, Scott Abrams, David Maranta, Wayne Cheater, Gary Turple

We had another good turnout of audience and musicians on May 16th. There were new combinations of players and great songs and it worked really well. I had a great time.

The Open Stage performers were: Jacob Degroot – Maggetti; Nathan Few; Dan Hergott; Jakki Annerino; Peter vanderMaas; Randy Ouillette; David Maranta; Gary Turple; Scott Abrams; Cam and Pat; Wayne Cheater; and Lynn Kirby

Our Calendar for next year will start off with a Special 20th Anniversary concert, featuring Rescue Junction.

We will be back at the Mill-Courtland Community Center on Friday June 20, 2014 with another all open-stage event.

Ok, I have been falling down on the job, so here is the report. We had our best turnout this year on April 20th. There were new combinations of players and great songs and it worked really well. I had a great time.

The Open Stage performers were: 1)Wayne Cheater, Dan McQuade and Scott,
Terry and Beth (NEW) Krentzkamp, Dan Hergott, Jakki Annerino,
Randy Ouillette, Jessica and David Maranta, Gary Turple (NEW),
David Maranta, Loretta Fullerton, Cam and Pat, Paul Remple,
Nathan Few, Scott Abrams, and Peter Light

We will be back at the Mill-Courtland Community Center on Friday May 16, 2014 with another all open-stage event.

And a very fine evening of extra songs, another first time Black Walnut performer and a last minute appearance. As usual when we don’t have a full slate of performers, we asked everybody to do an extra song or two if they wanted to. Next month we have another open stage evening on Friday, April 18th.

On March 21st, the open stage performers were: Wayne Cheater, Dan Hergott,  Steve Young – NEW, Jakki Annerino, Randy Ouillette, Cam and Pat,  Scott Abrams, Ted Shapiro, and Jack Cole

On Friday, February 21, 2014, we had a good turnout and plenty of Surprises, including another cake, some no-shows by some regulars, return of folks from a-ways back and a debut by Natalia Valencia, who is a very promising young performer.  We hope we get to see her again real soon.

We’ll be back on Friday March 21, 2014 with another all open stage program.  If you don’t come out, you’ll miss it.  On February 21st our Open Stage performers were:

Lawrence Cresswell,  Loretta Fullerton,  David Maranta,  Randy Ouillette, Jakki Annerino,  Natalia Valencia – NEW,  Scott Abrams,  Jacob and Greg,   Cam and Pat,  Wayne Cheater,  Jim Galway,  Greg and Jacob

Thanks to Jack Cooper for passing on some news about Maryanne. We lost touch several years ago except for rare reports of sightings from near and far. Here is the link to a fine article that appeared in Chatelaine magazine: http://www.chatelaine.com/living/real-life-stories/kindcyle-how-an-act-of-kindness-gave-maryanne-epp-something-to-sing-about/ AND here is another link to a site to help Maryanne raise funds to release copies of her CD: http://www.gofundme.com/MaryanneEpp

On Friday, February 21st we will be back at the Mill-Courtland Community Centre in Kitchener, with our Acoustic Open Stage from 8 pm until about 11 pm. Since there is no featured performance this month there will be even more time for the Open Stage.

We will open the doors for sign-up for the open stage at 7:30 p.m, right after we finish the sound-check. The Details of how our Open Stage works can be found on our “About” page. The event is alcohol and nut -free and every show is different. This is our twentieth year for the Open Stage and we are making plans for some celebrations as the season moves along. More news to come!  There’s always some live acoustic music happening in the Region. Find out more at www.grandriverfolk.org

We had a great party to help celebrate our 20th season on Friday January 17, 2014.  It all started out with a fine set by the Ever-lovin’ Jug Band www.everlovinjugband.com . We saw these folks several times, including at the Mill Race Festival in Cambridge last August and apart from lowering the average age of our attendance they brought some terrific new/old sounds and ATTITUDE!  This was in place of our Acoustic Open Stage from 8 pm until about 11 pm.  As you can see from our photo on our Performer’s Pictures page that was taken at the club, they looked just like their poster: Everlovin poster001 

We took a break for some cake and then finished off with another set by the Ever-lovin Jug Band.  Next month we’ll be back with our regular Open Stage night on Friday February 21, 2014.