Patchouli at Friday at the Ford

"You've always wanted to play music in the library," injected Julie Patchouli, amid the chorus of tambourines, maracas, cow bells, and drums during the final song of the Patchouli concert at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. "Admit it." I'm not sure many people heard her. The capacity crowd at the September 10th Friday at the Ford concert was having too much fun. The percussive play was a fitting end to an electrifying concert of voice and acoustic guitars.

Julie and Bruce Hecksel performed at our library in 2006 and certainly merited a return to our coffeehouse series. They played mostly original compositions that featured (regardless of whether they were vocal or instrumental) energetic virtuoso guitar work. With five glossy guitars on stands, you saw what they were about when you entered the room. One was a new Spanish guitar of which Bruce was particularly proud. Flamenco is probably one of Patchouli's strong influences, as is the love of the outdoors. Julie sang two of their standards "Hide" and "The Woods" which I remember from their previous appearance (and from my CD that I bought back then) with a mixture of newer songs. Nearly half the concert was instrumental. I particularly liked their new piece "Flamaluna."

After the concert, many people thanked me for the Library offering the concert, which was sponsored by our Western Springs Library Friends. Many also bought CDs from Julie. Patchouli has thirteen CDs, some of which are mostly vocal and some totally instrumental. I have several of the CDs loaded onto my iPod and by clicking shuffle can get a mix similar to the concert.

Many people took our flyers listing upcoming concerts, so I expect we will continue to have full houses at Friday at the Ford through May.