Amid the essentials found within Southgate House Revival’s office is a massive collection of show posters. Posters are hung on the walls, stacked on shelves, rolled up in plastic bins and nestled in just about every other spot that isn’t currently taken up by a computer or filing cabinet. It feels like a museum in the making; a museum for a venue that’s been around — in one form or another — for four decades and for the man that made it all possible.
Ross Raleigh, the owner and operator of the original Southgate House music venue (just across the river from Cincinnati on Third Street in Newport, Ky.) and later the Southgate House Revival (three blocks away in Newport at 111 E. Sixth St.) died on June 7, 2018, but he left behind a legacy that’s as simple as it is meaningful: Give musicians and music fans a place to have a good time and be sure to treat everyone like family while they are there.
“In this business, you can’t say, ‘Here’s my business plan and I’m going to stick with it for the next 20 years,’ ” says Ross’ daughter Morrella Raleigh, who is also the general manager of the Southgate House Revival. “The business itself changes drastically over time, and I think it was part of the nature of his personality that he was a ‘go with the flow’ kind of guy, so he would be open to new things all the time and I think that was part of what made (the Southgate House) the great place that it was.”
Ross started the Southgate House endeavor in the 1970s after attending Bluegrass festivals and wanting to give the artists a place to play year-round. While he started with a focus on Bluegrass and Country music in 1976, within a few years the Southgate House opened its doors to anyone who didn’t have anywhere else to play — it became a supportive haven for touring acts and especially local musicians from throughout the Greater Cincinnati region. Hosting everything from Punk to Country bands — and most points beyond and in between — the Raleighs took their philosophy with them when they relocated from their original home in a historic Newport mansion and opened the Southgate House Revival in an old church in 2012.
Morrella says her father wanted everyone to have a good time at the club, as long as “no one is damaging anything or hurting each other,” she says. “He didn’t want a place that was rowdy. He wanted people that liked to have a few drinks and people that wanted to listen to music.”
Ross built the Southgate House’s reputation the old-fashioned way, by welcoming anyone who walked in the door, sitting them down and having a conversation. Time and time again, Morrella has heard stories of people who unknowingly spoke with Ross, shared a few drinks and only later found out he was the owner of the establishment.
“He loved talking to people; he loved meeting people; he loved people that had different types of stories, different types of backgrounds,” Morrella says. “And he could talk to them. And because he was so well read and liked music and film so much he had something he could talk to most people about.”
It is this earnest and endearing devotion to keeping the Southgate House a welcoming environment for people from all walks of life that will be remembered most about Ross Raleigh. Fans and musicians from across the country have poured out their fond memories to Morrella since his passing, stories that have taught her even more about her father than she had ever known.
In many ways, Morrella has carried on her father’s work. She has kept up the tradition of buying multiple copies of CDs from bands she particularly enjoys in order to pass them out to friends. Our recent interview also often veered off into memories of shows gone by and anecdotes about Ross — the man was a storyteller and that has definitely passed on to his daughter.
Even with Ross gone, the aura of the Southgate House is still one of openness and warmth. You only need to look at all the smiling faces of the staff and patrons alike to know that while Ross is gone, he is far from forgotten.
For more on the Southgate House Revival, visit southgatehouse.com
This article appears in Jul 11-18, 2018.
