A treat for the eyes and ears at Oddfellas Cantina

Last Wednesday, Gretchen and I wandered into Oddfellas Cantina to hear Bernie Coveney and Chris Luster playing with Rob Neukirch. 

We never know what we are going to hear on Wednesday nights because that’s the night the musicians try out new songs and invite musicians in the audience to participate.

We were sitting there enjoying the music when we were joined by photographer and blogger Doug Thompson and his wife Amy. The band kept jamming and were having so much fun that Doug and I started shooting pictures.

It was one of those nights where the music was so good and the songs were so entertaining that I began to lose track of time.

Sally Walker dropped by from the Cafe Del Sol about then and we persuaded her to join us.

We were having a great old time and it felt like the evening couldn’t get any better, when Rob and Bernie persuaded Sally to take the stage and sing.

The fact they were playing something she had never sung didn’t stop Sally. She took the mike and swung into action without missing a beat. She is an expressive and talented singer and her singing that night was just magic.

We had such a great time that we stayed until closing. I think we are making up for years of living in places which didn’t have any local entertainment.

That seems to be one of the big differences between Floyd and other places we have lived. We can live, work, and play in Floyd. We don’t have to drive miles into the big city to hear top rate musicians. Furthermore, there is live music in this town six nights a week.

The biggest problem we seem to run into is deciding which of our friends do we listen to on any given night. When you have good friends playing at several places, it makes for an interesting dilemma.

While the band was warming up, we noticed that one wall displayed watercolors by a new artist, Chris Bazeley.  Chris is an English illustrator with a touch of cartoonist in his makeup. According to the artist’s brother, who lives in Floyd, the exhibit will hang on the wall for two months.

I would cheerfully hang any of these watercolors in my office, but this one, Reading Light, was one of my favorites.

You can see from the detail that his pictures have a subtle humor. I find it quite appealing.

Go to Chris Bazeley’s website to see more of his fine art, including Flying School and Inflight Refueling.