The Battalion
LIFESTYLES
4
Monday, S
I
Monday, September 24,1990
ront Porch Cafe serves
customers menus of music
By ROB NEWBERRY
“My theory has always been to try to bring
stuff front the outside into College Station, be
cause College Station tends to be isolated," Hugh
Stearns, owner of the Front Porch Cafe, says.
The Front Porch Cafe, with its long history of
music and entertainment, has become the pre
mier venue for live music in College Station since
it opened last fall.
Already scheduled for the fall semester are
two “Funk Fests” with three regional acts: House
in Orbit and Joe Rockhead from Austin and Beat
Temple out of Houston.
1 hen there’s an upcoming anti-censorship
benefit with the Rhythmatics on Halloween. “It’s
called ‘Nasty As We Wanna Be’ and we’re giving
all the money to whoever is running against Jesse
Helms,” Stearns says.
Stearns has scheduled sarcastic rock kings
Front Fishing in America for a few dates this se
mester, as well as bringing in guitar whiz Preston
Reed and Robert Earl Keen Jr., an old Ag who
played with Lyle Lovett when they went to school
together in the early ’80s.
Ah eudv. )i. Medlow, Panjandrum, and Front
Fishing have told Stearns that the Front Porch is
their favorite venue in College Station. Dallas in
dependents Ten Hands recently sold out the
Front Porch, and Stearns hopes to bring them in
for two shows next time.
I he schedule at the Front Porch has gotten
pretty regular, according to Stearns. "We have
local bands on Wednesday, then funk or reggae
on Thursday. We try to reserve the weekends for
blues and f olk.”
“Tuesday is open-stage acoustic night, and the
turnouts have been pretty good. They have
dropped just a little since we added the $1 cov
er,” he explains.
“On Monday, we try to get our hands on some
foreign films or cult films to show, but our
choices have been limited,” Stearns says. “We’d
like to get more stuff that you can’t see in the the
aters around here.”
Scheduled for October 3 is Poetry in Traction,
the Front Porch Cafe’s poetry reading night. If
all goes well, Stearns wants to do Poetry in Frac
tion ever) Sunday.
Stearns says he enjoys getting students in
volved with the Front Porch. Already, every
Thursday is a benefit for the student radio sta
tion KANM. In the works is a benefit for Pro-
Choice Aggies, and Stearns says he would like to
pursue some kind of event with MSC Town Hall.
The newest part of the Front Porch is The Bug
Zapper. Selling imported goods from Guate
mala, Mexico, and Turkey, as well as handmade
jewelry, A&M student Mark “Bingo” Barnes set
up shop with former student Deb Crowe and
Sally F'reeman in the front porch of the Front
Porch.
“I really want more stuff like that to go on,”
Stearns says. “I hope to get some regional artists
to do an exhibit here for some of the shows, like
we’ve had in the past.”
Stearns says, perhaps a little sarcastically, that
the history of the Front Porch is his favorite
story. “Originally, this building was outside town
where it was the Shiloh Baptist Church, a little
get-down gospel type of place. Then in 1978 it
moved here as Grins.”
“After changing hands once, it opened up as
Dr. G’s around 1984, which lasted about two and
a half years, then it became Morgensterns.”
Stearns came here last year when the now-de
funct Brazos Landing, a live music venue and
A us
crcn
David Garza
Photo by Eric Roalm
Coffe
See Porch/Page 7
The many names out front hasn’t kept success from the Front Porch
Cafe.
Black clouds
Simon) best d
Reed’s finger-pickin’ playing leaves audience feeling good
By TIMM WOOLEN
MA n MCBURNETT
Preston Reed performed an almost impos
sible task Saturday night - he played an acous
tic guitar version of James Brown’s “I Got
You (I Feel Good).” I he 200 people at Front
Port h (tale obviously felt good after hearing
Reed’s fingers work acoustical magic in a vir
tually flawless two-hour performance.
Reed, a Wisconsin native now based in
Minneapolis, said in an interview alter the
show that as early as age 17 he got serious
about playing guitar and developing his
trademark f inger-picking style.
In 1979, at age 24 he released his first al
bum, Acoustic Guitar, which he produced
and made on his own. About three years later
he signed with the Flying Fish label, and put
out three more records. He has since released
two more on Capitol, including his recent
Blue Vertigo.
Reed said his abilities
taught, but credits several
sonal influences, including
Hendrix, Duane Allman anc
The musical connection between these art
ists and Reed is not readily apparent when lis
tening to his music because his style is unique.
At times during the concert you could hear
bits of rock n’ roll, jazz, blues, reggae and
even country, which combined to make in
credible music.
The guitar virtuoso himself describes his
re mostly self-
uitarists as per-
ohn Fahey, Jimi
Pat Metheney.
music as “a mish-mash of different styles. I
call it progressive finger-style guitar.”
Reed was alluding to finger-picking, simi
lar to banjo playing, in which he wears picks
on all five fingers and strums the strings rap
idly.
He demonstrated his versatility on many of
the songs by simulating the sounds of other
instruments wath his six- and 12-string gui
tars. On almost all the songs he played bass
line (or at least rhythm lines) on the lower
strings while simultaneously playing the lead
on the higher strings.
Reed has played over a dozen times at the
Front Porch Gafe, under the Gafe’s various
names over the past years. Saturday night, his
show was simulcast on KAMU radio from 10
p.m. to midnight.
He played most of the tunes off his Vertigo
album, but the 23 songs he played, including
two encores, spanned his 11-year, seven-al
bum recording life.
Injecting witticisms between every number,
Reed said he decided to name a song after a
Texas town, and chose Flaionia. between San
Antonio and Houston. To give an idea of his
sound, certain riffs of “Flatonia” are similar
to Yes’ “The Giap” from The Yes Album.
"Hammerhead” featured the hammer-on
style of playing, in which Reed tapped the
ck i
frets on the neck to produce sound, instead of
See Reed Page 7
dominated the
Town Hall’s Gc
The evening
by Dream Ho
/ BEVELIERS 7
Sing 61 Swing!
Perform with us!
Wanted & Needed:
-Alto
-Tenor
-Rhythm Guitar
-Bass Guitar
For more
information call:
845-5974
ASAP!
Hey Ags!
Interested in Meeting Some of
the Newest Aggies Around?
Fifty Japanese Students From
TAMU-KORIYAMA
Will be on Campus for the Texas Tech Game
Weekend, and Would Like to Spend Two Nights
in the Residence Halls with Aggie Hosts.
For information on how you can
host a Koriyama Aggie call Luke at 845-8770
or Eric at 845-1515
Sponsored by
rHa'
guitarists/vocal
student in Eng
Stacy Lieder. I
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