Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Spouse ignoring you? Kid's grades slipping? Chronic back pain? You need a cup of joe, or maybe two.
My wife has just started to experiment with coffee. She's a Diet Coke drinker since toddlerhood. Java was always icky and disgusting, too harsh a delivery system for that caffeine blast.
That's all changed though, now that she realizes coffee comes in flavors.
Mrs. Olsen brewed the mere tip of the mountain-grown crystals. There's raspberry, chocolate, kona, latte, French vanilla, and probably salmon, too. If that won't cure the jitteriest caf-fiend, nothing will.
We went downtown again the other night. Bouncing from club to club, we took core samples of crowds and measured the smoke to music ratio of each room. We wound up waiting in line at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea for some of that froufrou mocha with whipped cream on it, when my wife said, "You know, it's hard to believe we're in Roanoke."
That's partly because there was music playing. Curley Ennis, to be exact. He does the traditional/contemporary folk singer routine extremely well. So well, in fact, that he is the musical historian at Explore Park. You've got log cabins, buffaloes and Curley. He's that authentic.
Tonight, his one-man show continues at Mill Mountain Coffee on the Roanoke City Market, where he'll play a few sets of the music he knows so well.
Ennis makes music a cozy and educational experience. He starts by telling you a little about a song, its origin and maybe how he heard it. He'll lay out the plot of it, being careful not to give anything away. Then he sings, in his rich, warm voice, about train wrecks, and love, and bums, and prison.
Many of the old songs are stories about Appalachia that he has researched himself. "There's so much information out there,'' he says. ``The Virginia Folklore Society has lots of records. The Smithsonian, too."
At Explore he coordinates programs with area schools, researches and interprets historical music. He also puts together special events like a bluegrass festival, workshops and dulcimer competitions, all coming in September.
He looks the part with his gray beard and hair and his comfortable nature. He enjoys bringing different music to people, and he does this on a variety of authentic instruments like the guitar, banjo, dulcimer and a one-stringed bow that he plucks while using his mouth to shape the tones it creates. "I especially like to get kids into traditional music," he says. "I listened to a lot of my dad's 78s when I was a kid - string bands and country swing. It meant a lot to me."
The coffee shop is different.
"I do a little more contemporary stuff there," says Ennis. "Like when Jerry Garcia died, I played some Grateful Dead songs. A lot of their tunes are traditional, too.
"I leave pop tunes to someone else," he says. "Of course, some of the pop stuff of yesteryear is what I'm doing today."
Ennis is at ease with the surroundings. It's nice to have a gig he doesn't have to pursue. "I lost patience with playing in bars," he says. "I don't have the time. But the coffee shop is a great way to make contact and keep my chops up at the same time."
The coffee crowd comes in two waves, as Curley sees it. "Unlike a bar, you can only drink so much coffee," he says. "They'll each have a couple of cups and get energized and their voices get louder. The next thing you know you've got a whole new group of people. There's usually a lull right in the middle.
"One great thing about the coffee shop is it's a family place, you know," says Ennis. He's been an artist-in-residence at Community School for three years. "Kids come up and remember me from school and they get to see me working. It's a lot of fun."
Curley Ennis plays every Thursday night at the Roanoke Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea, and every Wednesday night at the shop's Salem location.
In addition, Stacy Hobbs, a guitar instructor at the Fret Mill, does a solo acoustic act every Wednesday at Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea. He's a fancy-pants finger-picker from fairly way back. His style shows off a technical wizardry with a soulful approach. He's got a great voice for ballads, too.
Hobbs also plays for the lunch crowds at Confeddy's on the market every Thursday between 12:30 and 1:30 pm.
So anyway. Hit the coffee shop tonight, bring a book. Or sit and stare at the swirl of cream in your French roast, the tornado of steam rising out of it. Summer may be dying out like an overtaxed air conditioner, but there's music in the air, I tell you.
That and the smell of those coffee beans a'roasting. Grab a cup and a saucer and get wired - the traditional way. Or with froufrou. That's extra.
by CNB