Image: The Coffee House
The Coffeee House Memorial Show 2023
“These shows could easily last four hours,” says Paul Smith of the annual Memorial Show, a celebration of musicians who died over the previous year, at The Coffee House (located in Plymouth Church, 2717 E. Hampshire Ave.). Smith is a board member of The Coffee House, the nonprofit folk and acoustic music venue of over a half-century’s standing.
An extra half hour will be added to the usual start time for performances, with this year’s Memorial Show on Saturday February 11 bumped back to 7 p.m. instead of the customary 7:30 for Coffee House concerts.
Smith’s wish for wanting the show to run longer reflects the love he, The Coffee House’s staff and attendees have for the music it has offered the public for 56 seasons. Smith and his musical partner, Andy Jehly, usually end up playing the Memorial Show, an annual event on The Coffee House's schedule.
“I find it difficult to not put myself into the show every year. Whenever one of my big influences dies, I feel like I have to represent that person in the next Memorial Show,” Smith confesses. Among 2022’s deceased being commemorated, Smith especially felt the loss of the lead singer of Australian crossover folk ensemble The Seekers.
“Judith Durham and The Seekers were especially important to me, and I'll admit that when she died, that was the day I decided that Andy and I needed to be in this year’s show. Interestingly, the other performers on the Memorial Show bill seemed to feel the same way,” Smith recalls, evidence for the sense of community among The Coffee House’s regular local performers. Scheduled to join Jely and Smith are Joe Ruback, Rick Fitzgerald and the trio Eccentric Acoustic.
Other artists feted at this year’s Memorial Show run a wide gamut, ranging from pop/country hitmaker Olivia Newton-John to rockabilly pioneer-turned country mainstay Jerry Lee Lewis as well as Fleetwood Mac’s Chrstine McVie, Motown Records songwriting pillar Lamont Dozier, Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins, teen idol crooner Bobby Rydell, Ronettes namesake Ronnie Spector, singer-songwriter Lou Stallman, doo wop vocalist Fred Parris and Canadian folk institution Ian Tyson. The last one listed was also the last person to pass on in 2022 whose artistry will be featured.
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“When Ian Tyson died on December 29, I got an email within the hour from Rick Fitzgerald trading out one of the songs he’d intended to do for a Tyson song. That will be a treat,” Smith says. Fitzgerald's iteration of Tyson's work will also reside within The Coffee House's aesthetic sweet spot.
Though acts stylistically diverse as Prince, Merle Haggard and David Bowie have received tribute at Coffee House Memorial Shows, “the more folk/roots/singer-songwriter stuff that is our core tradition will always be well represented,” Smith adds. “At least a third of this year’s songs will come from that tradition, and in recent years it has been more like half. This show will have more Ian Tyson than Taylor Hawkins.”
Smith also promises, “it will offer a nice variety as well.” In part, he attributes that variety to the way distinctions separating genres have dissolved some over time. “The lines between folk music and popular music were blurred considerably several decades ago, and I think you'll find both the Olivia Newton-John songs and the Foo Fighters songs played in this show do a good job of illustrating how folk music infiltrated popular music.”
