Marsh Street will not only please the ears and those with happy dancing feet on Friday April 25, but tease your taste buds with a Cajun style dinner!

It should be great fun with a shrimp and chicken jambalaya. Starting at 6:30 p.m. it will run until 8 p.m. when the bands will start tuning up. Tickets are $18 and available at the Centre 519 599-7837 and also at one of our traditional outlet - Jessica's Book Nook in Thornbury. It will be a great way to start a fabulous evening of jazz.

Marsh Street will have the Regal Jazz Band playing in the auditorium for toe tapping, handclapping, dancing and a great time!

Ooops - I gave out the wrong web site address for the Georgian Sound Jazz Festival on the last weekend in April. If you want details, click the links provided, or call the Festival Hotline at 519 599-3223. Tickets to Jazzmania are $15 and there is a shuttle bus to take you from one venue to another. Now that's a great evening!

Theatre fun
The Centre is ringing with laughter already as rehearsals are well under way for Exit Who? As usual, the Thornbury Community Theatre is having a ton of fun getting ready for their latest production. The show plays on Thursday May 1, Friday the second and Saturday the 3rd.

Tickets are available for this comedy mystery by Fred Carmichael at Jessica's Book Nook, the Crow's Nest in Collingwood and Stuff to Read in Meaford. They are $8 for adults in advance and $10 at the door, $4 for children. Tickets for these nights have often sold out long before the play date... so do get your tickets early.

Ian Thomas
Ian is one of the Lunch At Allen's artists performing at Marsh Street Centre in a fund raiser on May 10.

As well as being a member of Lunch at Allen's, Ian has a long history in Canadian music archives.

He was born in 1950, and began taking piano lessons when he was six and then picking up guitar when he turned 13.  Despite his popularity as a rock singer songwriter, Ian studied conservatory piano, orchestra technique and arrangement and while still in his teens arranged music for the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony.

In the mid-60s he was part of a folk trio that was joined by two other musicians in 1969 to become Tranquility Base - a progressive folk group with rock roots.  Some of us remember Ian's  gold record Painted Ladies which launched his career as a solo artist and won him a Juno for Most Promising Male Vocalist. In addition to becoming a well-known and very popular singer-songwriter, he also worked as a producer in the music department for CBC radio.

His brother is Dave Thomas of SCTV and "hoser" fame and fortune, so Ian's sense of the ironic and fun is not surprising. At one time he performed on the Red Green Show.

He is a prolific musical artist and has continued to write and sing his own songs as a solo artist and also groups. Pilot, Time is the Keeper and Hold On ring some bells, and many were covered by other groups.

During this period he made a guest appearance on SCTV and wrote the  the theme song and co-produced the Hoser movie Strange Brew in which his brother starred.

In the early 90s, he joined a group called The Boomers  - a collection of Ontario musicians who had played with many of Canada's greats. This group released several albums from their beginnings through September 2002. Anne Murray and Better Midler each chose and recorded one of Ian's songs.

His music is lyric, his words range from political and social commentary to wry and sometimes poignant observations about the human condition. He continues to write and perform and tour throughout Canada., most recently with Lunch at Allen's and his friends Marc Jordan, Murray McLauchlan and Cindy Church

Tickets to Lunch at Allen's fund raising concert on May 10 at 8 p.m. are $50 and available at the Centre - 519 599-7837, Jessica's Book Nook, Stuff to Read in Meaford and The Crow's Nest in Collingwood.

Exit Who?
Also coming up is Thornbury Community Theatre's Exit Who? This mystery-comedy, by playwright Fred Carmichael -- author of more than 50 comedies -- has some wacky characters caught up in a story about a missing microdot that contain secret plans.

It's on stage at the MSC Thursday, May 1, Friday, May 2, and Saturday May 1. Tickets are just $8 each in advance ($4 for children) at Jessica's Book Nook, Thornbury; The Crow's Nest, Collingwood; and Stuff To Read, Meaford. Tickets at the door on performance nights are $10.