Soul At Ceol's - April Edition

Last night was the April edition of "Soul At Ceol's" which is a monthly open mic showcase that promises:

"Soul Food with a little Soul Music and Soul Mates...Perhaps?"

Because Jacqueline was still out of town and I couldn't hitch a ride with Mary, I scooped up Deb and dragged her with me on the F Train to the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn.

We arrived at Ceol's at around 7:45pm and I was greeted in the dining room with return appearances from Owner Loretta Heaney's wonderful family!! Also already seated in the dining room was my publicist Mary Moore.

As I greeted Mary and tried to get myself situated folks began trickling in the main room for the 8:00pm set. I also found that we had one performer on the bill, a young brother named Shoshyn who was going to be performing some original tracks during the 2nd set.

Loretta's family was in rare form tonight and I found that her mom was heading back to Ireland after visiting her with her family for a while. I also met her very polite & handsome grandson Jory who hung out with me for the first set but had to head home by the time the 2nd set came around.

The first set had several well known personalities taking in the show, Authors DeBorah Gregory ("The Cheetah Girls" and the soon to be released "Catwalk" http://www.cheetahrama.com/) and Relentless Aaron ("The Last Kingpin" http://www.relentlessaaron.com/) and A Celebrity Chef (Who's name escapes me but I'm looking for it....). I also got the biggest surprise to see the smiling face of my former band mate brother Dan Nachimson (Who played keyboards for me when we performed together at BB King's)

Everyone had a great time with that old soul music and were more than happy to sing along with me!

At a little after nine I opened up the 2nd set by introducing rising artist Shoshyn (pronounced "Show Shine") to my Soul at Ceol's family.

Only in his 20's, Shoshyn nevertheless possesses a voice steeped in the great soul tradition of yesterday. Also a gifted songwriter, the multi-tlented Shoshyn has written songs with George Benson, Joe and Clive Davis' right hand man, Joshua P. Thompson. His debut CD entitled "Sincerely Yours", on Affiliated Records is out now and the 19 outstanding songs on it are continuing to garner him a very loud buzz, earning him the moniker of "A legend in today's time."

Well, after his introduction this young man took the mic and absolutely brought the house down. I kid you not family, this brother was GOOD....and you KNOW how critical I can be!!! He closed up his set with the Donnie Hathaway classic "A Song For You" and it nearly brought tears to my eyes...he has a beautiful falsetto.

After Shoshyn did his thing, I came back on made a few announcements and sang a few more classics before closing out my set with a special request. A sister seated at the table to my right asked me if I knew a song called "5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 Years of Love" by The Presidents. Lol...I told her I didn't have a karaoke version of the song but as it happens I DID have the song on my Ipod and after my last song was done...I put the track on for her.

She left Ceol's with a big ol' smile on her face!

I love it when that happens!

Anyway as I picked up my dinner plate from the kitchen....I got home to fix myself a late night snack (The mac & cheese is off the chain ya'll!!!) and found to my dismay....

STILL NO POTATO SALAD!!!!! AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!

As I was making my way out of Ceol's and to the subway station, Loretta's mama, who is a sketch artist gifted me with a beautiful picture that she painted herself. It was beautiful!

I hope you all can join us next month....it's a blast!!!

"Music isn't just learning notes and playing them, You learn notes to play to the music of your soul."