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Arts & Entertainment

Cafe Ella Crowd Eats Up Live Music

Innisfree plays for the dinner crowd at the Watsovnille cafe.

Everyone heard Ozomatli was coming to Watsonville on Friday night, but far fewer people knew they could catch a live music show over dinner to start off the weekend.

The band Innisfree, a trio based in Santa Cruz County, performed soft melodies of Celtic music and other notable hits such as Kenny Loggings’ Danny’s Song and Van Morrison’s Crazy Love on Friday night at in Watsonville.  Several guest had the chance to hear live music from 6-8 p.m. and a good crowd was on hand.

The music went great with the atmosphere as guest enjoyed glasses of wine and delectable pizzas straight out of a wood-fire oven. The staff ,along with owner Ella King, was hard at work but also enjoyed the background beats. 

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“It’s just new, something nice, something different,” King said, “There’s really nothing like this in Watsonville.”

She’s right, because it is uncommon to find a small café or restaurant in Watsonville on Friday nights with a live band to go along with a great meal amongst family and friends. It never hurts to have music at the dinner table. ; live music is an added treat.

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“We’ve had the Irish band, we had a Brazilian band. We got a friend of ours that plays in a Cuban band, so probably bring them in,” said King, “We’re really open to whomever that’s doing good music that wants to get their sound out there.”  

King likes to mix it up and bring in bands that play music with great vibes and of course appropriate for her guest. Some wannabe rapper can’t just come in and start spitting lyrics that would take a Costco-size box of soap to wash out his mouth. 

As closing time was near, the staff in the kitchen was on clean up duty and the band was on their last set of songs to play for the night. The members of Innisfree, Sarojani Rohan, Richard Dwyer, and Martin Krilonovich spoke a bit about how the band got together.

“Originally there was a different three-piece. It was Sarojani and two other guys.” said Dwyer, “One guy had an unfortunate accident at the border in Canada and the other guy decided that he wanted to do something other than Irish.”

That’s when Dwyer and Krilonovich came to the rescue and helped their friend Rohan to continue the sound of Innisfree.

“Martin stepped in on guitar and I accidently sang a song at the Brit one day” Dwyer added.  

The group says they have a close relationship and in fact Krilonovich’s daughter is in Rohan’s music class at . A passion for great Celtic music and the luxury of great friendship makes this band fun and entertaining to watch.

Café Ella hosts its next mini concert Dec. 9, featuring the Brazilian band La Boom Cosmos. Make sure to come out next time and enjoy great music along with some good food.       

 

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