For the Sunday night Groove, it’s the ORIGINAL Scruffy’s

/TORONTO NORTH/

It’s more than a little confusing to me that there are now not one or two but three different pubs that go by the name —or have in the past gone by the name— of “Scruffy Murphy’s”. The original Scruffy Murphy’s Irish Pub, at 150 Eglinton Ave. E., has been around a good long while now, perhaps 15 years or so, and has always had some sort of live music regularly featured, even if not promoted as efficiently as it could be —the club’s scruffymurphy.com website [note there’s no plural “s” in the name] is still stuck on April.

The second SM that I became aware of, in Etobicoke, now seems to call itself Scruffy’s Irish Pub, but used to be a Scruffy Murphy’s when it opened and was, at least originally, connected with the Eglinton Ave. operation. Obviously they parted ways at some point since they now have two completely different logos and websites. Now the newer Etobicoke SM has recently opened a second location in Mississauga.

The Etobicoke and Mississauga pubs share the same logo and scruffymurphys.ca website [note they use a second “s” and are a “.ca”, not a “.com”] on which they both have pages of location-specific information. Both apparently offer entertainment but in each case the site calendars are way out of date. The Etobicoke room’s calendar covers January through March of this year while the Mississauga outlet’s listings are only of shows from February of 2012!

[You can see why this makes it very important that musicians who have gigs at any of the three of these pubs need to make sure they are very assiduous about including the address and area of the room prominently in their promo. Simply posting on Facebook that “I’m playing at Scruffy’s tonight!” may end up really pissing off some of your fans when they go to the wrong city to find out that you’re nowhere in the vicinity! Googling the name Scruffy Murphy’s is a whole separate adventure, with variations of the SM name apparently having been employed by all three of the rooms at one time or another.]

At any rate, the two Scruffy joints that I’ve visited –the original and the Etobicoke room— are both really mostly about selling food and beer and don’t have dedicated stage areas, which is not a crime by any means if you handle things right, which in the original location they do.

For starters, the music lineup at the Eglinton Ave. original locale is a solid one and they’re consistent about presenting live music. While the bands are set up in rather an awkward spot (the design of these kind of faux-Irish rooms doesn’t make for the best site lines no matter where you put them) and there are no stage lights, whenever I’ve been there to see a band audiences seem to have no difficulty getting into the vibe.

Sunday nights in particular are a highlight of every week, for that’s when the stellar talents of the Groove Stone band come out to host a weekly jam that’s been running for at least several years now. There are always plenty of very talented jammers on hand –famed bass player expatriate to Bermuda and world-traveller Kojo Ferguson dropped in to perform a few weeks ago while in town and was joined on stage by one of the club’s part-time servers, lovely Jennifer Little, who toured with Kojo and his Graffiti Park band in Bahrain five years ago and who now also has her own band, Tangerine Tornado.

The host ensemble includes killer Rock drummer Dale Harrison (known to many for his role with The Headstones and also these days with Alannah Myles’s band, among other name acts), delightful and versatile veteran bass player Stan Miczek (who’s been involved with hosting jams since before I started this publication 22 years ago) and guitarist Kevin Reid. I know these guys and they come by their band name honestly and they are as good as it gets when it comes to jam hosts. (There’s also a fourth member of the group, but I don’t recognize him from his photo and the band doesn’t have a website and doesn’t bother to list its member on its Facebook page, so he’ll have to remain nameless for now.)

Two of the Stoners (if I may be so familiar as to call them that), Harrison and Reid also team up with Miguel On Bass to comprise another jam host band: The Brand New Low, which runs a very successful weekly Wednesday jam at the Sixth Line Pub in Oakville, and which I told you a little bit about on May 25 of last year in a story about the pub’s first anniversary bash. (Back then the jam was on Tuesdays but was switched a few months later.)

[I wrote about Groove Stone before though too –on January 25 of 2011, when I had to report that their weekly Tuesday jam over at what was then Chick ‘n’ Deli (now Seven44 and operated by a completely new owner) had been classlessly cancelled with no notice and a bogus excuse after a five-year run. That was not long before the Deli closed and was subsequently sold. The final line of the story, referring to Harrison, proved prophetic: “He’ll still be around when The Deli is just a memory.”  QED.  That story, btw now appears in The Vault section of the Moon website, where subscribers registered with the site can access it.]

Subscriber or not, you can access the band live and personal tonight and every Sunday at Scruffy’s starting at 10 p.m. and there’s no cover.

LISTINGS:

Listings preceded by an asterisk (*) are repeating weekly events. Admission prices followed by a slash and minus (/-) after the amount indicates door charge with availability of cheaper rates for some purchases. /+ indicates stated price is minimum.

Names of subscribers appear in bold and include a live link to their websites where applicable. Advertisers’ listings are in larger type, include live link to website and also have ad icon included in listings.

11-2> Evan Desaulnier @ Relish, 2152 Danforth Ave. TO East ~Jazz

11am-2pm> Gloria Valentine & Nina Shapilsky for Jazz Brunch @ Free Times Café, 320 College St., TO ~World Jazz

*11am-3pm> Rockabilly Brunch with The Cosmotones @ Dominion On Queen, 500 Queen St. E., TO ~Rockabilly

*noon-3> Julian Fauth’s Blues Brunch @ Axis, 3048 Dundas St. W., TO West ~Blues

noon> Humber College Community Music School Recitals @ The Rex, 194 Queen St. W., TO ~Jazz

noon> Michael Johnson Music Studio Seventh annual student recital and Spring Celebration [last of 4-part weekly series] @ Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. W., TO West ~$15/-

**1-5> Open Folk open stage with Doc Higgins & feature Sue Wood @ 1 Wallace Drive, Barrie & live online @ http://justin.tv/openfolk

1> Allison Cameron & Friends @ Tranzac Club (Southern Cross), 292 Brunswick Ave., TO

2-5> James Clark; Maria Ryan @ Village Vinyl Music Emporium & Café, 2925 Lakeshore Blvd. W., Etobicoke South ~indie Roots Pop

2> Roman Walte @ Full Of Beans, 1348 Dundas St. W., TO West ~Roots Pop originals

*2-5> Allyson Morris & Adrean Farrugia @ Morgan’s, 1282 Danforth Ave., TO East ~Jazz

2-5> Jam with host Bill Black @ The Working Dog Saloon, 3676 St. Clair Ave. E., Scarborough

*3-7> Pat Perez & John Dickie band feat. Mike Sloski, Ian Desouza & Norman Brown @ Linsmore Tavern, 1298 Danforth Ave, TO East ~R&B

*3-6> open mic with Nicola Vaughan @ Hirut, 2050 Danforth Ave., TO East

*3-7> open mic @ Moskito + Bite, 423 College St. TO

7> Uke 416 @ C’est What, 69 Front St. E., TO

*3-6> Michael Brennan @ Graffiti’s, 170 Baldwin St. TO ~East Coast Rock/Blues Roots

*3-6> Gear Music jam @ Moonshine Café, 137 Kerr St., Oakville; $5

*3-7> jam at CJ Barleys, 213 The Queensway, Keswick

3> Bluegrass Menagerie feat. Mathew Fines @ Black Horse Pub, 452 George St. N., Peterborough

*4-8> Michael Theodore 4-piece @ Timothy’s Pub, 344 Brown’s Line, Etobicoke ~Pop

4-8> One King @ Blue Goose Tavern, 1 Blue Goose Rd., Etobicoke South

*4:30-8> New Orleans Connection All Stars & guests @ Grossman’s, 379 Spadina Ave., TO ~New Orleans Jazz

*4:30-8> Chuck Jackson’s All Stars @ Roc’n Doc’s, 105 Lakeshore Rd. E., Port Credit ~Blues

5-7> Chris Kettlewell @ The Rex, 194 Queen St. W., TO ~Gypsy Swing Jazz

**5-8> John Borra & Sam Ferrara w. guest @ The Communist’s Daughter, 1149 Dundas St. W. TO West ~Country

*5-9> George Olliver & Gangbusters @ Seven44, 744 Mount Pleasant Blvd., TO North ~vintage Pop Rock/Can Rock; $

5-9> Jay Vasquez Motown Mania @ Legends On The Queensway, 1184 The Queensway, Etobicoke South ~Motown hits; $10

5-8> Tim Bradford @ The Local, 396 Roncesvalles Ave., TO West ~old time Country

5> Monk’s Music @ Tranzac Club (Southern Cross), 292 Brunswick Ave., TO

5-8> Anita Eccleston Jazz Band @ Gate 403, 403 Roncesvalles Ave., TO West ~Jazz

*5-9> All ages open jam with Juggernaut @ West Shore Bar & Grill, 877 Bayly St., Pickering

**5-8> The Stew with guest tba @ Mulligan’s, 2458 Dundas St. W., Mississauga

6> Kristine Schmitt @ Cameron House (front), 408 Queen St. W., TO

*7-1> open stage with hosts Steve York & Tony Rabalao (2 songs each -signup @ 7 or pre-sign online) @ The Supermarket, 268 Augusta St., TO

*7-11> Karaoke with Rob MacArthur @ The Edge, 250 Bayly St. W., Ajax

*7-9:30> Pram Trio @ The Rex, 194 Queen St. W., TO ~Jazz

*7-11> open jam @ McGradie’s, 2167 Victoria Park Ave., Scarborough

**7-11> The Nomads with special guest Dave Murphy @ The Harp, 55 Lakeshore Rd. E., Port Credit

*7> open jam @ Black Swan Pub Burlington, 4040 Palladium Way, Burlington

*7> open mic with Randy Hill @ Black Horse Pub, 452 George St. N., Peterborough

7:30> Jeff Scarrott Trio @ Tranzac Club (Southern Cross), 292 Brunswick Ave., TO

8> Whiskey Epiphany @ Moonshine Café, 137 Kerr St., Oakville

8> Kate & Rich; Hale & Hearty @ Free Times Café, 320 College St., TO ~Jazz/Classical

*8:30-12:30> karaoke with The English Rose & The Mad Scotsman @ Gryphon Pub, 114 Dundas St. E., Whitby

9-1> Root Down Trio @ Gate 403, 403 Roncesvalles Ave., TO West ~Jazz

9> Los Cabelleros del Son @ The Local, 396 Roncesvalles Ave., TO West ~Cuban traditional

9> Terry Blankley @ Simcoe Blues & Jazz, 926 Simcoe St. N., Oshawa ~Blues

*9-1> jam with Mike Roland and Lenny Vaccari @ Stewart Maguires Landing, 15 Allan Dr., Bolton

*9-1> jam @ Ivy Arms Pub, 201 Main Street East, Milton

*9:30-2> jam with the Stir It Up Band featuring Bryan Van Dusen & David Macmichael @ Relish, 2152 Danforth Ave. TO East

*9:30-1:30> jam with Rebecca Matiesen & Phoenix @ Southside Johnny’s, 3653 Lakeshore Blvd. W., Etobicoke South

9:30> Victor Bateman Trio @ The Rex, 194 Queen St. W., TO ~Jazz

*10> Horshack feat. Chris Caddell @ Orbit Room, 580 College St., TO ~Bluesy contemporary & classic Rock

10> The Woodchoppers Association @ Tranzac Club (Southern Cross), 292 Brunswick Ave., TO

10> The Beauties @ Dakota Tavern, 249 Ossington Ave., TO West ~Rootsy indie Rock

*10> open mic/jam hosted by Phill Hood (with backline avail.) @ The Cage 292, 292 College St., TO

10> The Double Cuts @ Cameron House (front), 408 Queen St. W., TO ~Western Swing

**10> Blues jam with Brian Cober, Bill Hedefine & guest bassist @ Grossman’s, 379 Spadina Ave., TO

*10> jam with Groovestone feat. Dale Harrison @ Scruffy Murphy’s Uptown, 150 Eglinton Ave. E., TO North

10> Sean Pinchin’s Blues ‘n’ Beers @ Roc’n Doc’s, 105 Lakeshore Rd. E., Port Credit ~Blues

10:30> Geoff Unplugged @ The Hideout, 484 Queen St. W., TO ~indie Rock

*10:30> Phil & John Show feat. Phil Naro @ The Dickens, 423 Elizabeth St., Burlington ~contemporary & classic Pop Rock

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