Open mic night at S’Hortet Saturday 8th AugustAugust 6, 2015

Deia tea room, S’Hortet is fast becoming one of the most pleasant places in which to spend an evening in the village. Despite, or perhaps because of, being off the beaten track, S’Hortet is the place where more and more Deia people are choosing to gather.

Now that the future of music at Sa Fonda is temporarily uncertain, S’Hortet is also one of the few places in Deia offering live music and entertainment.

Recently at S’Hortet

Recent events in S’Hortet’s garden have included a poetry performance by Roger McGough, the perennially popular British poet with a strong connection to Deia, and music by Tomás con Gas.

Mellow, laidback Tomás con Gas offer up a crowd-pleasing mix of familiar and occasionally obscure classic folk and rock, mainly from the 1960s and 70s. Tomás is musician and writer Tomás Graves, who also sings and plays bass in Deia’s own Pa Amb Oli Band, and Gas is long-time Deia face Gus.

A perfect setting

I was lucky enough to take part in a night of spoken word at S’Hortet last summer. Unlike Roger, a seasoned performer who read his poetry and acted as MC that night, I prefer to do my thing accompanied by music – if you can call it that. This way, if people don’t like the words they can listen to the strange and wonderful sounds. On that magical night, when there may or may not have been a full moon, sounds were provided by Deia musician Daniel Alzamora-Dickin and visiting American singer/dancer Stephanie Wilson.

At one point, I was reading a poem about the power of my mystical connection with Deia as Daniel played what looked like the tube from a vacuum-cleaner and Stephanie made wordless witchy sounds. I looked up at the illuminated church high on the mount above me and it looked so aptly beautiful I forgot what I was meant to be doing.

Open mic in Diea

Open mic is very Deia, it has to be said.  Robert Graves was always keen to rope in anyone who had a talent for his annual birthday party performances. The counterculture musicians who made Deia their home from the mid-1960s onwards were happy to play with anyone who could contribute something. Today, the village is filled with talented people always keen to jam or otherwise do their thing.

It’s one of  the aspects of Deia that visiting musicians and performers love about the place. And the village prides itself on its creative vibe.

So it’s no wonder that open mic nights like those hosted by the Pickerings in the past at their home have always attracted good crowds – of performers and audience members. Saturday at S’Hortet should prove to be another memorable night in the great tradition of open mic in Deia.

Finding S’Hortet

I started by saying that S’Hortet is a little off the beaten track. What I meant is that it’s a pretty long way down the Clot. Also, the garden in which the stage is set up is more like a handkerchief than Shea Stadium so it’s probably a good idea to head for S’Hortet sooner rather than later on Saturday.

Links

S’Hortet’s Facebook page

David Holzer is a freelance writer who has been coming to Deia for almost 20 years. Apart from loving the village, he is fascinated by the – without being too pretentious – cultural history and significance of Deia.