Coffee with Conscience Presents Music for Charity

Coffee with Conscience has been experiencing a series of big events in the world of folk music.

Event organizer, Ahrre Maros, called the concert several Saturdays ago "the trifecta." It consisted of David Roth, Reggie Harris, and Greg Greenway.  All three artists are currently touring separately, but Maros managed to convince them to play a show together.  

The volunteers set up, organize the refreshments (including coffee from Ahrre's Coffee Roastery), and clean up after the show.  The event is filmed and airs on TV-36.

Featuring a series of folk artists each week, the Coffee with Conscience series is currently in its tenth season.  It is usually held at the United Methodist Church, but due to scheduling conflicts it was held this month at the First Baptist Church.  Because of this, Maros made a joke at the start of the concert calling it "Coffee with Conscience on tour."

One third of the proceeds from the ticket sales benefit a rotating monthly charity. The charity currently being highlighted is Contact We Care, a local mental health non-profit providing a series of services to those in crisis.

Currently in its 35th anniversary, Contact We Care has been promoting the work of the group during the concert series. Generating roughly $700 from each concert for their mission, the group makes a presentation on the suicide calls the organization's volunteers receive during a duty shift.

Maros opens up each show, with a charity representative speaking, before the performances take the stage. During the trifecta concert, the artists took turns in presenting their songs, while the other performers provided backup vocals and intrumentals.

For many there was also a part for the audience to sing along.  They sang songs on a variety of subjects.  Greg Greenway sang one song, which he started with the declaration that "this song starts out in utero."  David Roth sang a song, which had been written as a project with a class of third grade students.  The audience helped to sing the chorus which went "We belong together/ we'll be friends forever/ will we fight? No never/ because we belong together." 

The songs during the concert touched on a variety of serious and not so serious social subjects.  Songs were played covering serious topics such as news coverage of wars vs. coverage of celebrity lives and gay marriage laws.  There were also sillier songs dealing with things like hatred of those from the state of Missouri or televisions on airplanes. 

The set was peppered with funny comments and stories.  David Roth read a report written about him by a 9-year old, which included the words encougement and coarage.