Cafe Eleven

Cheryl Wheeler, Melissa Kauttu

Friday - Dec. 1st, 2006 - $15

If your idea of a folk singer/songwriter concert is a bunch of people clapping politely after songs, and then sitting quietly while the performer says things like “This next song is about …”, well, you’ve never seen a Cheryl Wheeler concert before.

Cheryl’s concerts are more like what you would find at a comedy club than expect to find at a folk music concert. She will tell a story that has you rolling in the aisles, and then sing a song that leaves you wiping tears from your eyes. She will talk about some serious current event, and then sing a song that will have you howling with laughter. Her entire concert is a emotional roller coaster.

Her set list used to be a crumpled piece of paper with a bunch of song titles. She has improved on that. Now she has a picture of her border collie James in a plastic holder with the set list written on a piece of paper tucked behind the picture. After each song, she’ll look at the list and decide what to do next. If somebody calls out a request, and her guitar is in the right key, she might try it, even if she hasn’t done it in a while. If she has two sets back to back, she almost never does the same (or even similar) group of songs.

Her funny stories between songs show as much diversity. Each time she tells a story, it will be a little bit different, so even if you’ve heard it before, you still find yourself laughing.

Cheryl Wheeler snippet from a live performance of one of her joke songs