Quiet! This is the Listening Room
The Low Branches will be performing at the first Listening Room show.
It’s hard for people to pay attention to a quiet, acoustic act in a bar setting.
That’s the frustration local singer-songwriter Jonathan Vassar was facing.
“You have to respect the place you’re playing. You can’t yell at people for talking in a bar. However, it can be frustrating for a quiet musician to get people to listen in a loud place.”
Vassar started rounding up friends and colleagues in the acoustic community, who all felt the same way, and The Listening Room was born.
The Listening Room is a floating show series featuring Richmond area acoustic singer-songwriters. It offers a monthly show that is a focused, quiet experience for both performer and audience. The only rule is that no talking is allowed during the performance.
“I used to set up shows at Betsy’s 10 years ago and they were perfect,” Vassar says. “People were quiet and into the music. That type of event is hard to come by now. It’s usually a bar, a house show or a bowling alley and you can’t really focus on the music at those places where there’s other stuff going on.”
As Vassar gathered support from the acoustic community, the idea began to take off.
“When Jonathan first mentioned the idea to me, I immediately gravitated toward it,” says Chris Payne, founder of Richmond music social network site The Richmond Scene. “It exudes what I’m trying to do my website - fostering community, bringing people together and helping connect the artists with the audience.”
Chris Edwards, member of the Speckled Bird as well as Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries at St. James’s Episcopal Church, felt that the church space he worked in would be a perfect fit for the project.
“Part of the idea for the church space [the Michaux House, across the street from St. James’s] was for programming. The church wanted to make that space available for community projects.”
The format of the show will consist of two 15-minute sets by younger songwriters new to the scene followed by a 30-minute set by someone who is more established.
The first Listening Room show is Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 8pm at the Michaux House, 1135 West Franklin St. (use the basement entrance on Birch St.) and features The Low Branches, Englishman (from Kentucky) and Ferdinand Thomas.
Not only does the Listening Room provide a quiet and focused environment for musicians and concertgoers, it also heightens the awareness of songwriters in the Richmond music scene and creates a supportive local network.
“People are scattered in the acoustic music community,” say Matt Klimas and Christina Gleixner of the Low Branches. “There are an increasing number of really good acoustic artists. We need a space for these artists without fitting them into an establishment like a bar or house show. We want to offer them an option to be in a place that’s right for them.”
“It’s definitely a community involvement,” Vassar says. “Matt Klimas is working on graphic design. Recording engineer Allen Bergendahl is taping the shows. Photographer Leslie Edwards is taking photos. So many people want to be a part of it. We’ll gladly take all the help we can get.”
“I hope it encourages younger songwriters to come along,” Payne says. “Somewhere they can work on their craft with an interested audience.”
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