Happy summer everybody!

It's Friday the 13th, and I want to say thanks to all of those who came out to a show in the first half of 2008, as well as our great performers, Chris Whiteley and Diana Braithwaite, Tony D, Andy J. Forest, Penny Lang, Amy Campbell, Sarah Johnston, and Coco Love Alcorn.

We've had a wonderful first half of the year, and I now encourage you all to go find more live music this summer at Westfest, Bluesfest, the Jazz Festival, the Stewart Park Festival in Perth, the Folk Festival, with Tony D's new project Monkeyjunk at Irene's, at the Sheep, or wherever life takes you.

We're taking the summer off, since we figure most people are going to be cottaging, vacationing, and festivaling, and since we want to do some of that too!

But rest assured, we will be back in the fall with some more amazing performers.

We bring Coco... and Cocoa... on May 17.

Coco Love Alcorn is a BC singer-songwriter who's got a style that we haven't had here yet. Her sound is funky, sultry, laid-back, and intense. She's got a great voice, she plays well, and yes, that is her real name. Ottawa Xpress calls Coco "A bright burst of colour amidst the many shades of indie gray." She's been part of Lilith Fair, she's toured with Ani diFranco, she's toured and recorded for years with 54.40, and now you have a chance to hear her in our sunroom!

Her sweet sounds are most recently captured on her CD "Sugar", produced by Steve Dawson, and on her special edition CD "Coco Love Solo" only available at house concerts.

If all of that doesn't get you interested, check this YouTube of Coco out.



Which brings me back to the "two sweet treats." The great folks at the La Siembra co-op bring fairly traded chocolate to Ottawa under the Cocoa Camino brand.

As you likely know (especially if you had some cake at the Penny/Amy show), we at BobCat are big fans of the sweet stuff, and the Cocoa Camino chocolate is REALLY good. So we're looking forward to giving the La Siembra folks a few minutes to talk about what they do, and give everyone a taste of what they do.

So if you have a sweet tooth or a sweet ear, you have to get here. Surely between Coco, and cocoa, a great evening will unfold.

WHAT: Coco Love Alcorn at BobCat
WHERE: 214 Northwestern Ave
WHEN: May 17, mingle after 7, show at 8

Suggested donation: $20

As always, all proceeds go to the artist; please reserve and we like payment in advance; you're welcome to bring something desserty or snacky to share, as well as a donation for the BobCat Basket for the Ottawa Food Bank, and it's BYOB if you're into the potent potables.

See you on the 17th!

Penny Lang comes through.

We hit bottom around 9:30 Saturday morning, when someone who claimed to be Penny Lang called. But this person sounded, to put not too fine a point on it, like Mercedes McCambridge practicing for her role in The Exorcist.

"I've got this throat thing, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to perform."

Indeed she did have a throat thing. And we had a bunch of people coming for our first anniversary house concert. We'd ordered a cake. Argh.

But we had a couple of things in our favor. Thanks to our pal Ana Miura, we had a singer-songwriter named Amy Campbell coming to open. They had been doing dates together and had finished up their mini-tour, and Amy was coming to do a couple of tunes to get things started.

We also had our pal Sarah Johnston coming to help set up the house, and she plays, as those who saw her at our Chris Whiteley and Diana Braithwaite show know VERY well.

And heavy doses of slippery elm andVicks Vapo-rub infused steam later, we had a fine time of it. Penny didn't do full sets, and her voice was far from Penny's best. But Amy helped out (and impressed the hell out of us), and Sarah went from house-setter-upper to opening act. As you can also see, the show was held on the occasion of Earth Hour, and we did the first hour by candlelight. It was quite lovely -- more lovely than the pictures reflect.

Sarah rocked, Amy impressed, and Penny moved. And the cake was delicious. Then we collapsed in relief.