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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Ed Santen and Rachel Sams play a Guest Performer
Night at Habit’s.
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It's a Tuesday night in Cincinnati, and if you're looking for some quality musical entertainment, you're pretty much out of luck.
Tuesdays often are a black hole of booking for club owners, not even far enough into the workweek for revelers to celebrate getting past hump day. And who really wants to miss the latest exciting adventures on television's Big Brother ("Cindy makes a sandwich," "Robbie shaves his knuckles")?
Of course, there are exceptions to the Tuesday night dead zone. Recently at Allyn's Café, the popular, largely R&B venue/Mexican restaurant on Columbia Parkway, you could find members of five or six local original bands mingling easily with fellow musicians and music fans and, most importantly, listening to the latest creations by some of the city's most promising songwriters. Welcome to Songwriter's Night, Allyn's style.
Bill Donabedian -- usually the drummer for local band Crosley but tonight on guitar -- is on stage (actually, a small performance area under the TV set and front window of the club) with singer/songwriter/impromptu percussionist Swarthy. The venue is a particular favorite for Donabedian -- he and his bandmates hatched the idea for Crosley last year at an Allyn's Songwriter Night session.
The duo runs through a brief set of Donabedian's Pop-oriented songs, which are instantly catchy and well written. They're a nice surprise, which these kind of nights, at their best, are full of.
Donabedian is at the bar afterwards, talking to well-wishers, bandmates and other musicians. He says tonight is the first time he's performed this way -- singing and playing his own songs -- and admits to being a little nervous beforehand.
"But now that I've got this first time out of the way," he says, "I know I'll be doing it a lot more."
That's what this subtle weekly event is all about: testing new songs and getting in front of a potentially nurturing audience. Following Donabedian's set, songwriter/ pianist Rhonda Everett, a performer from Dayton, lugs her keyboard on stage as Simpletons frontman Eric Diedrichs, the "host" of Allyn's Tuesday nights, works to mic the acoustic bassist's instrument.
It's also Everett's first time here, and the crowd, while chattering a bit loudly at times, responds enthusiastically. A small clique, presumably friends from Dayton, crowd the front table and give their utmost attention. Around the venue, people drink and chat, but always with an eye toward the stage.
Diedrichs took over the songwriter night a couple of years ago when the previous host, Brian Lovely, could no longer do it. ("And I think I was going to it two years straight before I hosted it," Diedrichs says.) He also performs at the nights, usually opening and closing them with his own songs.
"It's a great outlet to get feedback," Diedrichs says of the night's popularity with musicians.
Diedrichs says that when he gets response from songwriters in attendance, which he often does, it helps his creative process.
"People will say, 'Hey, I really like this or I really like that,' " he says of the kinds of feedback. "Or 'I loved how it goes to the chorus.' And then I'll know that something is working."
Singer/songwriter Jason Arbenz of the local group Throneberry is milling about Allyn's, getting ready for his set. While not his first time playing solo acoustic -- he used to open shows at Bogart's by himself -- this is his first time on stage in a while, and he tells me he's going to play just new songs, ones that he's yet to work up in a band setting.
Arbenz's bandmates, past and present, have been hanging all night to lend their support. Again, while the talking from the audience makes it somewhat difficult to hear, his songs (and a couple of well-done covers) are well-received. He seems satisfied with the overall experience.
"I benefited most from it because it gave me a deadline to finish up some songs that I'd been working on," he says. "I did it once, and now I feel like I'm polished enough to where I'm ready to do it again."
Of course, tonight's chatty crowd is slightly unnerving.
"It's a tough venue," Arbenz says, "because people talk through your set. If you have a table that's there to see one person and then that person's done, they're going to talk."
Diedrichs concurs, adding that the artists usually get more out of playing when people give a little more attention to those on stage.
"It differs," he says. "On nights when it's more of a listening crowd, you'll definitely get more feedback. But some nights you'll get people who haven't seen each other in a while or something, and it's harder (because they talk through)."
Kicking Habit's
The concept of songwriter nights and open mics is nothing new and hardly a fad. And it's certainly not indigenous to Cincinnati.
Still, the current crop of local songwriter/open mic nights around town has helped to develop talent and in the process has created intriguing little sub-scenes around town.
From open jams to structured acoustic sets to full-on revolving band sets, these open forums often serve as a nice departure from a performer's usual band. Unlike playing at a bar as a featured act and having to play the expected set list your audience wants to hear, these nights allow established acts to try new things and enable greener artists to get their feet wet.
Johnny Schott runs the show at Habit's Café's Guest Performer night in Oakley every Sunday. He and his band, Mama's Boys, arrive at the restaurant/bar about an hour before the gig and set up their equipment and the P.A. system. A small yellow legal pad materializes, and some of the first open mic participants stroll through the door with their guitars and head to the performance area to sign in.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Rebecca Vie hosts open mic night at Arlin’s.
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"(Open mic nights) aren't just immediately successful," Schott says as he washes some pint glasses behind the bar, jokingly saying that's how he got the venue to allow him to do the performer nights there. "Some people come out and see that we're successful and they want to try it themselves. But club owners have to realize that you can't just set up a microphone and expect people to show up."
Schott's nights are entering their fifth year at Habit's. But he's been hosting acoustic open mic nights for 30 years at various venues around town, at one time even conducting three open mics a week at three different bars.
Schott says he doesn't really like the format of some open mics that allow acts just one or two songs -- "That's right when you start getting heated up," he says -- so he allows acts to play three to five. Then, like a lot of such nights, successful artists often are invited back at some point to be the featured act, playing a 35-55 minute set.
Schott reckons that nearly every acoustic act in town has played one of his nights over the past 10 years because it's such an accommodating environment.
"I think most of them like the concept of coming in to a quality audience and not having to schlep gear around, yet sound really good," he says. "It gives them an opportunity to try new material on people different from their regular audiences and to generate some new fans. Obviously, it's also a networking opportunity, not to mention a chance to sell CDs, if they have them.
"A number of groups have been formed out of networking at our nights, and quite a few groups have used our nights as a series of dress rehearsals prior to taking their stuff into the club scene."
Following Mama's Boys' energetic, opening set, Tom Smith of the Post Punk band Dophesus takes the stage and rambles through a set of rootsy, well-played Folk/Blues. As the audience grows, the tables get packed with a fairly diverse crowd.
Lawrence Adams, formerly of the band Last Man to Fly, takes to the stage for a set of lilting, Jeff Buckley-esque songs. Adams later tells me he's in the process of forming a new band and that this night was a great chance for him and his bassist to get the new material out.
Later, the featured act, The Kopeks, take the stage and the audience erupts. Schott tells me that the duo were regulars at the local open mic scene and they drew such a fervent, large following that he decided to give them a featured slot.
"One of the great parts about doing this is watching people grow and make the most of their talent," Schott says. "For a lot of them, just getting up on stage that first time is a dream come true. Others take it well beyond that."
Getting off the Ground
Local open mic and songwriter nights in Cincinnati are pretty diverse, and they're also different from some of the more well-known nights in other cities. Many of the popular places out of town have a selective sign-up process that often can involve some kind of screening process.
Schott says he had to audition for a slot at an open mic at The Gaslight, a Folk venue in New York, where he played years ago. And to play The Bluebird Café in Nashville, perhaps the most renowned songwriter night going, you must send music in to be judged by a panel. It's a far cry from most of the local nights, which generally just allow people to walk in and put their name on a list.
Local singer/songwriter Lynn Callihan has played The Bluebird and several other such venues around the country. He liked the Nashville experience so much, he says, that he modeled his own songwriter night at Covington's Village Pub -- which ran for a few Tuesdays last month -- after it.
Callihan says the idea of an "open mic" doesn't really appeal to him as a songwriter. So he instead used The Bluebird concept of having artists predetermined before the show and also giving the artists a digital recording of their set.
"There are quite a few hoops you have to jump through in order to be considered for their stage," he says, referring to The Bluebird. "For open mic, (you) bring a guitar, sign a list, play your tune. Both get you in the public eye, but the ones that have worked best for me have been those that take the time to review my tunes and help me to refine them before taking them to the stage. Diamonds are easier to sell than coal."
Like other artists I talk to, Callihan says he appreciates the more intimate setting that an acoustic songwriter night can provide. There is a certainly a purity and immediacy about acoustic music, something that artists who play with a full band often miss out on.
"Honesty, compassion, reality check," Callihan says when I ask him what he gets out of performing at such events. "My stomach still turns into a typhoon and my hands still sweat. That pretty well sums it up. It's one of the most real feelings you'll ever know as an artist. When others tell me it's stage fright, I just smile and say, 'No, it's simply my passion rushing to the surface to meet the storm.' "
Callihan is currently looking for a new venue to host his songwriter nights. When asked about what happened at the Village Pub, where he still performs on Tuesdays, he simply responds, "It's all about money. I don't feel customers and management really gave it a chance."
Judging from some of the open mic or songwriter nights, it's clear that while a successful night needs time to develop, it really can blossom into a pretty lucrative venture for club owners -- especially since these events are usually hosted on "off" nights that wouldn't get much business anyway. Still, Callihan says he's having difficulty convincing establishments of taking a slight risk.
"You have to sell them a product others have presented before, with the guarantee you can produce a positive cash flow for their establishment without any cost to them," he says. "Unfortunately, that's almost impossible. In my time alone, I invested over 10 to 12 hours per show, between recording, performing, then taking disks back to my studio and remixing, then burning the mix to disk. There is a cost factor involved.
"But if you can get over that hurdle and the mystery of who will show up -- artists, patrons or anybody -- then you have a product to sell. So in order to give a guarantee, I'd have to start polishing up on my ESP."
Still, despite the setbacks, Callihan says he won't stop trying. Cincinnati might not have the quantity of songwriting talent (or wanna-be talent), but it certainly has a lot of quality.
"From what I've heard in the past few weeks (of songwriter night hosting)," he says, "there are some truly gifted artists who live in this area."
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Eric Diedrichs hosts and performs at Songwriter Night
at Allyn’s
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Open Wide
If you think there's not much difference between "songwriter nights" and "open mics," you need only check out some of singer/songwriter Rebecca Vie's local open mic extravaganzas.
At Arlin's in Clifton on the first Thursday of each month, Vie presents her night with a totally open mind -- meaning you might see anything from a flutist to a Funk band. And, during the school year, Vie hosts Thursday open mics at Baba Budan's near the University of Cincinnati, with the potential for everything from dramatic readings to someone playing a tiny thumb piano to people just talking about their weekend. It can be a little grating at times, but the event's complete openness is also somewhat refreshing since you truly have no idea what's coming up next.
Vie got her start as open mic hostess about three years ago at the Mad Frog in Corryville. She'd been playing the club's front room with a small P.A., and when her musician friends would come see her, they'd ask if they could do a song or two. When the club had a difficult time filling a weeknight, they told Vie to take the night and do what she wanted. She suggested an open mic event.
From there, she moved to Baba's, a coffeehouse that's somewhat more conducive to listening to more intimate music. Then, last year, musician Bridget Otto moved out of town, leaving her Thursday night open mic nights up for grabs at Arlin's, where, it just so happened, Vie was bartending.
The most recent Arlin's open mic was a good representation of the kind of cross-pollination that goes on at some of these events. Jake Speed is on stage, playing his affable brand of Woody Guthrie-inspired Blues/Folk with a small combo. Just a week earlier, he was at Habañero's restaurant down the street, where Todd Ethan, who also does Allyn's nights, hosts his own Songwriter Night. Vie herself plays at Allyn's and Habañero's in addition to previous Habit's nights.
Vie says the group's incestuous nature is beneficial, especially when it comes to booking.
"It's really cool, because Jake was booking his own songwriter night at Cody's Café and made sure it wouldn't take place on the same nights as any of the other ones," she says.
Arlin's moves their music to the outdoor patio in the summer, which provides a lovely setting for the event. While the most recent open mic was well attended, it isn't always guaranteed to be packed. A good amount of people were present throughout the night, though there was a lot of turnover when acts would finish.
Rob Hamrick, formerly of local bands Sleep Theatre and Witches Wah, follows a tight, jammy Funk/Rock group with just a couple of new, beautiful songs he's been working on. The exciting thing about these nights is their often eclectic nature, but it's slightly discouraging to see people heading for the exit as soon as their friends are done.
Vie says she's encountered a little slot-hogging at times, when bands or performers show up and try to bully their way into a better time period. She has none of it, saying she makes a point of being fair with all of the artists who participate.
"If everybody realizes it's everyone's show and not one person's, it's really good," she says. "If someone wants a specific time because they want the spotlight, they're not going to get it here."
After Hamrick's set ends, a boisterous young man plugs in his guitar and plucks out a nice Radiohead cover, followed by a few decent songs of his own. Between songs, he tells the 15 or so people left that he's drunk, which wouldn't be apparent if he didn't announce it.
It's clear he's somewhat new to the music world, but his songs show potential. Still, his nervous defense mechanisms make for an interesting presentation overall, and I tell him I enjoyed his set as I walk out of the bar.
"Yeah, right," he snarls back.
But you can be sure he'll be back -- at Arlin's, Allyn's, Habit's or elsewhere -- at some point down the line. If he does, he'll likely grow as a musician, performer and songwriter with the help of an audience and his fellow musicians. ©
