Notes from the Road Your Guide On Tour at the Vanilla Bean, Pomfret CT

date: 5/6/00

Patrick McGuigan sits down on a low coffee table with a Spanish guitar. He's been working on a new song and hasn't finished it yet, but it keeps running through his head. I know that feeling. In a situation like that, you can perform your most polished work, but there's only one song you really want to play. So I suggest playfully that maybe he just improvise. And so, the plaintive "Florida" makes its way through the air of an unseasonably warm May night. McGuigan spent two years in the Peace Corps, and his songs combine a rootsy Americana feel with tints of Latin - a combination that's conveyed by the harmonica rack around his neck and the nylon stringed guitar that he leans over so intently. He segues into "Sasha," a song about a love so freshly gone that the ache is still physical:

The sound that I make when I can hardly breathe
Is the truest one of all
Cause that's the one that comes from inside
And it sounds a lot like your name.

Later McGuigan plays "Dynamite," a song about a grandfather he never met who is blinded in a blasting accident (it's on Fenario Issue #1, to listen, go here direct). The room is quiet, the candles burn, the music carries us where it will.

VB listening room: good atmosphere, good food, good music.

The Vanilla Bean is the Last Homely House. Poised on the edge of the wilds of Eastern Connecticut, this cafe serves healthy portions of healthy food and every Saturday offers live acoustic music. Created by the well-liked Jesserun family, the cafe has enjoyed the good will of the community for years. Barry runs the food operation and the physical plant. And many folk fans would recognize Maria Sangiolo, who has taken over the booking in the last two years. The two married after falling in love over the course of her return visits to sing at the club. The Bean succeeds because it doesn't lean on the music. That is, it doesn't depend on the music to keep going. It's a successful restaurant, and during the day

it's a popular place for a soup and sandwich or a pasta plate. In the summers, it's terrace is a popular place to sit and get a dessert. So, the music is presented simply for the love of it. It's more akin to a house concert than anything else - Barry gives the artists 100% of the door and a free meal. The series seems to have some staunch regulars thanks to the consistently high quality of the musicians. Situated between Boston, Providence and Hartford, it's a good stop on the itinerary of any songwriter looking for an appreciative audience of 30-60 on a Saturday night. And audiences come from these cities to escape into the quiet of the country for a night, to hear acoustic music in a woody room deep in the woods.

Patrick McGuigan: a place to start.

Jesserun is a rare club owner. When the dinner rush quiets down, you can almost always see him sitting down to relax in the back, grinning. He has also invested a lot of time and money into perfecting the dining room - insulating it from the kitchen/cafe with a heavy theatre curtain and expanding the sound system so every seat in the two adjoining dining rooms offer a professional-quality listening experience. But he's also committed to keeping the business and the music separate - and he's serious about it. A few years ago, when the state went after him for cabaret taxes, he stopped the music operation briefly rather than take money from the door. The state altered the law to try to accomodate operations like the Bean, and so in the end, the music scene in the area has become stronger than ever.

There are small listening rooms like the Vanilla Bean everywhere - and they don't usually take a lot of hunting down. Most are well-known by area DJs who have folk and acoustic radio shows, without whom the listening rooms would have trouble surviving. So check out your local scene. Support live music and the people who work hard to make it possible. There's nothing like live.
	Owner Barry Jesserun is short-staffed tonight, but happy.

Hugh Blumenfeld, Editor
hugh@balladtree.com