On the second and fourth Saturday of each month, St. Andrew's Church Hall is the home of the Kirk Café coffee house. Here you'll find a relaxed atmosphere conducive to performance and appreciation of acoustic music of every genre. The tables are set with linen, candles glow and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee fills the air. The concession sells a variety of coffees, teas, juices and home baking.

We have grown in numbers from 23 in attendance at our first coffee house in July to approximately 70 in September. Audience and performers come in all ages. To date, our youngest performer has been 6 yrs of age and our oldest 80. We start off with a 50 minute open mic session or jam followed by a short intermission, and then between 9 and 10 pm we have a featured artist perform a 45 minute set for which they are paid $50 in cash upon completion of their act. Another short intermission is followed by the last open mike hour of the evening. John Lacey manages a full sound system. Performers are welcome to bring any recordings for sale, booking information and promotional material. Elizabeth Skinner from the MIA is at the admission desk where artists sign up for open mic and CDs are left for sale. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for 12 and under and 60 and over. There is no admission charge for performers. Proceeds are donated to the Kirk's restoration fund.

To date we have featured Jackie Sullivan with Anne Devine, Kentucky Tundra Bluegrass band, Dave Penny and Brad Collett, Michael Hancock, Karelyn Diamond and Maura Hagan. I perform and act as host of the show as well as booking agent. We welcome performers who wish to be heard by a relaxed attentive audience in a non-smoking, alcohol-free environment to call me at 753-0484 or email me at tunetimes@hotmail.com to discuss booking in as a featured act. Open mic performers sign up at the door for three songs to a maximum of 15 minutes. This would be negotiable depending on how many performers have signed up. The Kirk Café at St. Andrew's Church Hall is located off Queen's Rd. near Long's Hill. See you there!

Our Christmas coffee house on December 14th will be completely open mic - to date we have six acts ready for a night of music and laughs. There will be no coffee house on December 28th. Here's our line-up for the early part of 2003: