A group of Ottawa Valley musicians are moving their weekly acoustic song circle to Equator Coffee’s Almonte cafe Thursday evenings 6-8 PM starting Sept. 22.
The collective began meeting last October. It’s led by Almonte musician Nathan Sloniowski, who is a founding member of The Ragged Flowers band and is putting the finishing touches on his second solo album, “Love Letter to Elora”, for release this coming Spring.
“I spent 2019 in Elora, where I came of age in the 70s, writing music for the new record. A big part of that experience was a song circle I joined that had been running for almost 20 years,” said Nathan. “My wife Glenna and I returned to Almonte just in time for the pandemic in 2020. And no surprise, I found myself strumming guitar solo on the balcony and recording into a computer while dreaming of playing live with fellow musicians again.”
In the fall of 2021, Nathan’s friend Pat Arbour opened a café in downtown Almonte. Inspired by the Elora song circle, they reached out to musical friends to see if they’d like to share tunes, back each other up, and otherwise shake off the COVID-19 cobwebs.
“The pandemic was still very much a thing, so we kept it a musicians-only, after-hours private event and masked up when required,” said Nathan. “But as restrictions diminished, we started letting a few people in the door to listen, and more musicians started coming to the point where we now regularly attract 6-10 players, some of whom have written their very first songs due to the support they received from coming out.”
This Summer the collective moved its weekly event outside beside the Blakeney Rapids. Looking for a new indoor home for the Fall, Nathan approached Craig and Amber Hall at Equator Coffee, who agreed to keep their Almonte café open Thursday evenings from 6-8 pm for what will now be a weekly public event.
“We’re taking on a new format for Equator Coffee,” said Nathan. “From 6-7 PM we’ll try out new songs for and with each other. For the second hour from 7-8 PM, we’re going to play familiar cover tunes and invite people to sing along with us. It could be anything from a David Bowie song played on solo ukulele to a Gillian Welch or John Prine classic where we all raise the roof together.”
New musicians are definitely welcome. “It’s an acoustic song circle – no plugs, no wires – we just go around the circle one at a time and listen closely to how a song’s being expressed. Those of who feel comfortable try to add in harmonies or instrumentals including mandolins, harmonicas, flutes, fiddles and acoustic-friendly suit-case drums,” said Nathan.
“What we ask of new musicians is that you be able to get through a single song or songs from start to finish in a musical way. Playing just one song in an evening is perfectly OK. But if you can’t sing on key, can’t keep your instrument tuned or riff all over someone else’s song to the point of distraction, we sort that out. We’ve seen people go from shyly playing one cover tune to confidently debuting new original songs in just a couple of months. We’re all getting better together as we support each other’s music.”
To give new members an idea of what they might be getting into, Nathan asked existing members of the song circle collective to contribute some one-liners that describe their current musical selves. Here’s what came forward from a few of them:
- Heather Adeney is an electronics hardware designer by day, who has been crafting her songs for decades and has recently started bringing them out for others to share.
- Steve Wildesmith: Songwriter, melody maker, writer of easy-to-sing choruses. Loves the shared experience of being in the company of those who sing and play.
- Jennifer Noxon is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and community choir leader whose poetic and painterly descriptions tell the stories of everyday characters in a most extraordinary way.
- Jack Teertstra is a retired punk rocker turned country and folk aficionado, an original writer, fresh to the craft, who enjoys complex progressions and time signatures, just to keep things interesting.
- Kat Adeney is an engineer and lifelong flautist who became hooked on songwriting after her firstborn took flight. Her songs aim to please the ear and the brain while occasionally surprising either or both.
- Jonas Barter is an unapologetic collector and composer of quirky tunes who counts as his greatest musical skill the ability to tap his foot.
- Cara Wildesmith grew up surrounded by music but only made her debut as a songwriter and performer in the safe harbour of the song circle with her whimsical, soulful tunes.
