Well Saturday night was perfect at The Cup with Brook Ramel’s Holiday concert. The air was crisp, filled with the scents of Chai spices, gingerbread, and fresh baked cookies. The heaters kept us toasty while the steam wafted from our mugs filled with drinks of all kinds. Angelic tunes floated around the atrium as we sang along with those wonderfully familiar holiday favorites. It was a special evening with Lulu in the audience just turning one. Couples were snuggled together and families sang as if in a choir.

Yes, it was truly a special evening with warm smiles and hearts. But we are not ready to end the year yet. We all get to eat and celebrate the holidays but have a chance to wear off those calories on Friday with Swing dancing hosted by Alec. Then before we can bid goodbye to 2008 we have one more special entertainer to enjoy. John Troy will be with us on Dec 27th and you won’t want to miss that!

John Tolley wrote and sang a special song in honor of Scott at our 'Open Mic Night'. The song was titled ‘The Ones Who’ve Loved You’. It was absolutely beautiful and we thank John for the honor and his talents.

We had such a fun Saturday night with lots of diversity. There was a scheduling glitch and our featured performers were not available at 8pm. But never fear, a few performers from Open Mic Night came to the rescue. It was casual, fun and as always, you can count on entertainers to pitch in, sing and draw the crowd together. It was certainly our pleasure to be treated to the sounds of Paul Hines, John Carrillo and Michael Edward.

SAS and Marliese entertained for the second half of the evening so we had a full house of artists each with their unique styles. It was a treat for each to share their talents.

I missed Jason Luckett last Saturday and I can't wait until his next appearance at The Cup. This Saturday's crowd was still talking about his performance and how special it was. There is something about Jason's personality that just sparkles. Add to that his fantastic talent, well, no wonder they are all still talking about it.

This Saturday we were treated to the music of Angel Smythe along with Randy-guitar/vocals, David-guitar, and Abel-Cajon. I never saw the instrument called a Cajon and had no idea what it was but loved the sound. It is a kind of box drum played by slapping the front face with the hands and is the most widely used Afro-Peruvian musical instrument in the 20th century. In Cuba, the Cajon is associated with the drum/song/dance style known as rumba.

Angel had such a positive, energizing and comfortable style, you felt so welcomed listening to her beautiful songs. It was an interesting experience as she has such a centered, quiet sense about her, making it easy to be surrounded by the music. What a peaceful charm. There was lots of great music, stories about family, friends and travels. Angel is going to Nashville and we wish her luck. Hurry back!

Saturday evening began with the Jewelry Fair and Mother’s Day benefit. We had so many terrific vendors selling beautiful items. In addition, we were entertained throughout the event by SWAY, SAS, Angel Smythe and Kahlid Woods each performing for half hour sessions. This is a very worthy cause since a piece of jewelry from each vendor and a portion of all proceeds will be donated to Ashland Home a local women’s shelter, for victims of domestic violence. So if you did not have a chance to attend, please join us again on May 10th and help us make Mother’s Day special for everyone.

Angle Smythe also appeared at Live at The Cup with a full band and they were awesome! There were lots of people to join in the fun and Angel will be back again in August. Stay tuned because you don’t want to miss her.

Saturday night was a treat with Brooke Ramel returning after bringing her new daughter into the world. We welcomed LuLu to The CUP who happens to share the same birthday with Steve, December 29th. How fun is that?

Brooke sounded as magnificent as ever and introduced us to some of the songs on her new CD, Lullaby, just released (I know it’s fabulous because I listened to mine all the way home). We were treated to those special stories Brooke shares when she appears. Motherhood has added extra depth to an already fantastic personality.

A cute side-note to the evening…Brooke has never worn tennis shoes while appearing, but alerted us to the fact that she made an executive decision to do so this evening. We did get a quote from our famous celebrity…”It’s hard to have fun when your feet hurt”. And we had lots of fun!

We had the most amazing Saturday evening with Bernard Parnham from NBC’s Nashville Star, auditioning so many talented performers. There were 28 performances in the 3 hours. Nashville Star has had five seasons and this summer is moving to NBC. Bernard shared his reservations in finding true stars for Nashville in California and has been scouting and holding auditions throughout the state. We were not surprised when he told us the performers he heard at The CUP last night were the best pool of entertainers he had heard by far. And any reservations he had about California were blown away. We knew the talent that appears at The CUP is truly amazing and now the country will know it as well. So stay tuned as we keep track of the competition. We will keep you updated in our newsletter.

Here’s a list of the performers that appeared last night so you can look for them as they get called back and cheer them on. Congratulations to all of you!

http://www.usanetwork.com/series/nashvillestar

We also had an amazing time experiencing the performance of Jason Luckett. What a smile and the joy he sings with, contagious. This was Jason’s 2nd appearance at The Cup and a great way to start the year. Fantastically smooth rhythm reminiscent of ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’.

With Jason’s Mom and Sister in the audience he shared conversations and stories behind the music. We were treated to one of my favorites ‘Stack of 45s’. His song, ‘Democracy at the Point of a Gun’ is in the new short movie ’68 and Clear’, at the film festival. Way to go Jason! He certainly got the crowd going as we joined a sing along. I don’t think my foot stopped tapping. And I believe I saw folks moving their hips as they sauntered to their cars at the end of the evening. Now that was a cute sight.