DAVID WILCOX IN CONCERT AT TOL COFFEEHOUSE December 16th

Singer songwriter David Wilcox will be performing at the TOL Coffeehouse concert this Saturday, December 16th at 7:30pm. Wilcox, a Coffeehouse favorite, will present a program including some songs off his newest album “My Good Friends.” The TOL Coffeehouse is located at 6719 North Trenholm Road, Columbia, SC 29206. Tickets are $27 when ordered on line before the concert. Tickets at the door are $29.

Wilcox, who has appeared at the Coffeehouse many times over the past several years, always draws a large enthusiastic audience. In fact, the way Wilcox feels about every tune on My Good Friends proves this is indeed a fan-requested labor of love. “I am grateful for the community that sustains me – my good friends,” he says. “These are the kind of friends that get you through difficult times. The kind of friends that you go to for a fresh perspective when the future looks grim. These songs grew out of conversations with friends, and they hold ideas that I like to have around.”

Tickets are available through The TOL Coffeehouse website tol-coffeehouse.square.site, Facebook page and by scanning the QR code on the poster and other printed materials. Doors open at 6:30pm for Groucho’s deli sandwiches, coffee, and home baked goods. Music begins at 7:30pm.

Due to heightened security please limit the size of purses and handbags. No backpacks are allowed. All bags will be subject to search. To keep everyone healthy we are using ionizing devices on each of our HVAC units. As air flows past the ionizing devices, positive and negative ions actively treat the supply air, reducing bacteria and viruses in the coil and living space This increases the efficacy of our MERV 8 filter. 

Out of respect for our hosts at Tree of Life, we ask that no pork or shellfish food items be brought inside the building.

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.