A11

Kevin Steen

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Speak Up

Musicians are always making political statements, and the famous people who sing in coffee houses are no exception. Like the guy who wrote this song:

"Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside, and it's ragin'.

It'll soon shake your windows, and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'."

Coffee houses have always witnessed counter-cultural revolution, but the focus of counter-culture is different for every generation. In eighteenth century America, coffee houses were the symbol of nationalism, but in Europe, they were the great equalizers-the equalization of class, the promotion of free speech and capitalism, rebellion against the monarchy.

Coffee culture affected music, too. JS Bach's Coffee Cantata (Schweigt stille, Plaudert nicht, 1732-34) is a satirical commentary about a daughter's coffee addiction in a time when her beer-drinking German society had not yet embraced coffee. The daughter Lieschen says, "Father, don't be so severe! If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat."

During the mid-20th century, the coffee houses of Britain, like West London's The Troubadour and America's Gaslight Café in Greenwich Village, New York, once again hosted the cry for cultural and political change. Acoustic, folk and even jazz musicians flourished at coffee houses in other major American cities like Boston and San Francisco.

They were venues for poets like Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and, like Bob Dylan's words above, reflected the consciousness of a generation through their music. While famous secular musicians spread the love, the coffee house model was also a phenomenon among evangelical Christians in America. During these decades they used coffee houses to proclaim their own message of peace.

The Troubadour is one of the few independent fifties-style cafés that have survived the tidal wave of big international coffee chains in England. We don't have a long history of hosting famous acts like The Troubadour does, but if you come out to enjoy acoustic Wednesday nights, who knows? You might be able to say, "So-and-so was just starting out when I heard him (or her) at Damascus."

* Kevin Steen is a true coffee lover and proprietor of Damascus Coffee House in Riverview. Do you have a coffee question for Kevin? Visit him at the shop, or call him at 855-4646.