Jack Williams Concert at Tree of Life (ToL) Coffeehouse

JACK WILLIAMS

The non-profit ToL Coffeehouse is now working to restart its singer/songwriter concert series, which began 30 years ago in Columbia and was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jack Williams, a nationally touring performer and long-time Coffeehouse favorite who grew up in our area, will perform April 22 at the Tree of Life Congregation at 6719 North Trenholm Road in Columbia. He will be performing with the Winterline Band, which consists of Columbia-area musicians Cary Taylor, Susan Taylor, and Danny Harlow.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with sandwiches from Groucho’s, plus desserts and beverages. Music starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 if purchased online in advance (at tol-coffeehouse.square.site) or $27 at the door.

The Coffeehouse music series had its roots in house concerts held by Dr. Jimmy Riddle, a Columbia psychiatrist with a passion for folk music. His concerts featured nationally touring singer/songwriters. About 1993, local singer songwriter Susan Corbett suggested holding similar concerts at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Heyward and Woodward streets in Shandon, where she served as religious education director. The concert series became known as the UU Coffeehouse.

“A bunch of us helped in a variety of ways — selling tickets at the door, helping run sound, managing the kitchen, setting up the sanctuary, putting posters around town, and anything else needed to hold shows,” said Mike Paget, then a member of the fellowship and longtime volunteer.

Paget took over as director of the series from about 2000 to 2013, when he moved to Kansas City, where he started the Green Guitar Folk House. Steve Fisher took over until the last concert at the UU in February 2017. The UU had decided to no longer host the event, and the Tree of Life Congregation picked it up.

Ironically, the Coffeehouse venue in Shandon was built in 1952 by the Tree of Life Congregation and served as its synagogue until it moved to Forest Acres in 1986. Ellis Paul kicked off the renamed ToL Coffeehouse series with a concert at the Trenholm Road synagogue Nov. 17, 2017. In another irony, Ellis Paul played Feb. 15, 2020, which turned out to be the series final concert before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the season’s final show, which had been planned for April 15.

If this event is successful, the volunteers who run the ToL Coffeehouse hope to launch a full series of four or five concerts this fall. 

Pickin’ a laid-back New Year’s Eve party? The UU Coffeehouse has the acoustics -- A Guest Blog by Jim DuPlessis

 

If you’re looking for a laid-back gathering for New Year’s Eve, come over to the UU Coffeehouse in Shandon.

            You can hear Jack Williams performing along with Susan Douglass Taylor, Cary Taylor, and Danny Harlow. Doors will open at 8 p.m., and music will kick off at 8:30 p.m. The music will pick up later in the evening with room for dancing and a pause for a champagne toast at midnight.

            Coffee, tea, and sodas will be provided. Feel free to bring additional beverages that you may wish to enjoy. Plan to dance, listen, and be with friends as we bring in the New Year.

            Tickets for this special show are $25. For reservations, call (803) 200-2824, or just stop by. The UU Coffeehouse is a listening room located at 2701 Heyward Street, the corner of Heyward and Woodrow Streets, in Shandon.

            Monday night’s line-up

            Jack Williams is considered a “musician’s musician”, an uncommonly unique guitarist, a writer of vivid songs with a strong sense of place, and a storyteller in an old Southern tradition who further illustrates each tale with his guitar. Vic Heyman, in SING OUT!, wrote,“He is one of the strongest guitar players in contemporary folk.”

            His music is rooted in his native South Carolina, and was shaped by a 54-year career of playing folk, rock, jazz, R&B, classical and the popular music of the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

            His songs have been recorded by artists ranging from Tom Jones and David Clayton-Thomas to Chuck Pyle, Cindy Mangsen, Ronny Cox and Lowen & Navarro. In addition to his solo career, as a guitarist he has accompanied such luminaries as Tom Paxton, Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary), Mickey Newbury and Harry Nilsson.

Listen to Jack Williams here.

   Listen to Susan Douglass Taylor here.        

            Susan Douglass Taylor is a singer/songwriter, guitarist and banjo player whose album, “Great Falls Road,” was released earlier this year.

            The Winnsboro native often performs solo or with The Twang Bombers, a bluegrass band featuring her husband, Cary Taylor (bass & vocals), Danny Harlow (mandolin, fiddle, tenor guitar & vocals), and award-winning guitarist and banjoist Randy Lucas.

            Taylor played bluegrass for 10 years with close friends in a band called String Fever before she started singing back-up with Jack Williams, whom Cary Taylor had played bass with for many years. Williams allowed Susan to experiment with banjo on some of his songs, and eventually included her background vocals and banjo playing on a number of his recordings.

            In mid-2007, Susan, Cary, and long-time friend and musician Danny Harlow went on an 18-month tour as the back-up band for Ronny Cox, a singer/songwriter and character actor. Cox made his acting debut in the acclaimed 1972 film, “Deliverance,” when he played the instrumental “Dueling Banjos” on his guitar with a banjo-playing mountain boy.

            “It was a great experience traveling around the U.S. playing concert halls and coffeehouses, and once to the UK, where we actually played for a convention of Stargate fans,” Taylor said. “And what a thrill it was to play “Dueling Banjos”with Ronny Cox!”