Michael Pickett’s Taking The Blues To The Country-The story of Amazing Coffee, the hip little coffee house that says, Yes I can.

Madoc, ON. There was a time in this fair land/So the old musicians say/Where every fifty miles or so/There was a really cool place to play. (With apologies to Gordon Lightfoot) Nestled on Highway 62, on the edge of the picturesque village of Madoc, Ontario lies the Amazing Coffee shop. Inside, owner Tony Long and his hip and dedicated staff offer 23 varieties of coffee from the most exotic highlands of the planet, places like Madagascar and Fiji in vivid flavours and strengths. As the only certified Specialty Coffee outlet for miles around, business is good. The light lunch card is long on healthful and tasty wraps, sandwiches and salads, all locally sourced and prepared to the highest of standards. A casual look around however reveals this is a kickass coffee shop and then some, First tip-off is the stack of roots and folk music CDs from Canadian artists offered for sale. On the wall to the right of the counter is a calendar of live events, hosted within the brightly painted walls of the Amazing Coffee. Who knew? And when the last name on the list is multi-Maple Blues Award winner Michael Pickett, well, now we have to find out just how amazing this place is and how it got that way. Pickett, who played his first gig at Amazing Coffee last Spring, says it’s all about the vision of one man, venue owner Tony Long. “It’s truly a little gem and when I look at it, you realise it only came about because one man. Tony wanted to have a live music venue so he started one. So refreshing these days when all you hear are the negatives about opening a live venue. Tony just went about making it happen, in the scale he wanted it to happen, and now his music nights are becoming a magnet for performers passing through and music fans in the area. I hear all kinds of acts are calling Tony to get on his bills and that’s a good thing:” Tony Long in Costa RicaBut how exactly did a music loving marketing magnate from Toronto by way of Montreal create this unlikeliest of live music venues? The hard way. A serious illness caused Tony to reassess his place in the racing of the rats and he promptly dropped out to the bucolic charms of Madoc. After looking at a number of business models, Tony decided a high-end coffee shop seemed the best fit. Long is a genial big man, slow to riff on his accomplishments, quick to praise the inspiring qualities of the musicians and his neighbours. “ I guess the idea for a live venue came from a local musicians named Catfish Willie, who worked with us a while. He was hooked into the Quinte Guitar Association, which brought in players from time to time. On one occasion four years ago I heard they were bringing in an act; on the spur of the moment I asked if it were likely he’d do a little show out our way. He did and it went so well I was hooked on the idea of having live music in my community “ But how to make a live music venue viable in the heart of rural Eastern Ontario? Drawing on his marketing background, Long came out with a unique business model which guaranteed the artists would make a nice gate on a slow night and the house would make nothing. This is a successful business model where the house takes squat? It is if you’re Tony Long. “ My idea was to make live music available to my neighbours and area music fans, I came up with an idea of pricing the events which mixed pay-what- you-can with reserved seating. The AC holds 42 people including the Fire inspector, so what we do is offer a reserved seat for $20.When you enter, your $20 is given back in the hope that when we pass the hat, you’ll give some or all of or more than the 20 to the artist. I’m proud to say the house takes not a nickel. I make my money in the coffee business”

“ Some people give nothing because they don’t have it. This is not a wealthy community and I’d hate to think that someone here who likes the music couldn’t get in to hear it because of money. That wouldn't sit right with me. It’s important to bring quality music to my neighbours, if only to remind folks of the power of live music and to act as an inspiration to the kids, that people do go around playing and singing their own music. The kind of music the Amazing Artists Program offers everyone can relate to, even if you’ve never heard it before.” Michael Pickett are among the artists who've played the Amazing Coffee house.As with the coffee business, the Amazing Artists program’s success is based on offering a quality product no one else has in a high traffic location. Since its inception in 2007, the lengthy roster of artists who’ve played the room include Terry Tufts, The Laws, Rick Fines, Norm Liotta, Laya Jane and Oliver Johnson. As with any labour of love, Long lavishes serious attention on his artists; the Amazing Coffee website carries a comprehensive bio for every artist who’s played the venue and he’s worked on making playing Amazing Coffee a sweet deal. “ Its great for the musicians, they get a nice payday on a Wednesday night when they'd probably be sitting in a motel room drinking beer and strumming, it's on the Toronto-Ottawa corridor, so it’s easy to factor into a tour, there’s no liquor licence so you’re playing to people who are there for you and your music and we put them up in my home, out in the woods by the Moira river”.

Then there’s the venue itself, a post WW11 wooden structure whose spatial dimensions and relative lack of sound-reflective surfaces makes for warm acoustics all around. Or as Michael Pickett remembers it: “ With the two rooms where they are, it’s a strange looking set-up and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I got into the sound of the room from the first few chords I played; it was warm, rich and totally amazing for the size”. Long’s audience is split roughly 50/50 between locals and fans from the Belleville-Trenton-Campbellford nexus, with a thin but steady stream coming up from Kingston and down from Toronto. The building was once the area’s midwifery and Tony notes every so often someone at a show will mention they were born in the building and how nice it is to see it in the business of life again. All shows start at 7pm, being this is a farming community and though these folks do love their singing and picking. there are cows to be milked and fields to be tilled come morning. For the musicians, it makes for an early start to the next gig. Unless you’re Michael Pickett. “ What I didn’t know when I booked him is that Michael’s idea of a relaxed intimate set is to play ‘till everyone drops. He’s a great showman, he’s got the tunes and the fans are having a great time. But as it goes on, folks don’t want to leave lest they miss anything or hurt the performer’s feelings but they still have to be up before dawn. When I mentioned this to Michael, he had the brilliant idea to thank anyone who had to leave for coming and inviting the others to stay on for much more music”. Pickett is chuckling as he recalls the gig: “I stepped onstage to a full house; some of them knew my music, some didn’t; but everybody had a helluva time before the night was done. I got so into it I didn’t want to stop”. Michael Pickett gets another shot at bringing down the roof at Amazing Coffee next Wed. Sept. 8 http://www.amazingcoffee.ca/ http://www.michaelpickett.com/ Lenny Stoute