Calypso to cello this week

OK, first I owe an apology to one of my guitar-playing buddies whom I told to go check out the Coppertop as a possible venue for his band. His report back from the trip: "Dude, nice room, but we have two drummers! We'd never fit."

OK, so I get ahead of myself sometimes, and he's right: the Coppertop stage is tiny; the crowd is close. In other words, it's the proverbial "good things in small packages" sort of place. And did Trebek  ever understand that last week when it pared down to  an acoustic trio and still rocked the lounge with its originals and inspired covers of songs by Cheap Trick, Bob Marley and others.

The music scene at the mountain has gotten pretty popular, so the Wah is offering two shows on some days, sort of a traditional apres-ski session set starting at 3 p.m. before the 8 p.m. night show. Joe Macey is doing  the first apres set this Saturday. Macey, who produced a CD of country originals, is a regular on the singer-songwriter circuit and opened for many country greats playing at Indian Ranch.

Andy Cummings helms the afternoon show on Jan. 21, and Fern & Rita handle the apres-ski duties Feb. 18.

This week also ushers in Island Breeze, the calypso trio offshoot of long-running reggae band Hot Like Fire. Island Breeze plays Thursday night for a Goslings Dark n' Stormy party. More on Island Breeze tomorrow.

Wah favorite Sean Fullerton (shown in video) is back  for an 8 p.m. show Friday, while the Alan Stone Project is on tap for Saturday night. The guitar-and-cello duo Tall Heights plays Sunday at 4 p.m. to wrap up this week's Coppertop offerings.