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No--it really doesn't seem like
"just yesterday" that we held our first concert here in our home. The fact is,
our memories are so shot these days, that we barely remember that June day in
1995 when Cosy Sheriden graced our little log cabin with her presence.
Many have asked us how we came up with the idea
to do concerts in our home, and although we certainly weren't the first to try
it, we think we may be the longest running house concert series in the northeast
now. We'd heard about singers playing intimate shows for friends and fans in
someone's home and it seemed like a lot of fun--just that simple. (Tim is a guy
who went to Woodstock because it sounded like it'd be a real good concert---not
a "big picture" thinker even back then!)
The secret weapon that all house concert
presenters now have---that maybe wasn't in such great supply at one time---is an
awesome arsenal of hugely talented singer-songwriters. That, coupled with the
fact that the marketplace still hasn't been able to find a home for truly
talented singers and songwriters, has meant that house concerts have become, for
better or worse, one of the very best places to hear intelligently constructed
songs performed by uniquely talented artists. Most of these artists are writing
songs that demand the kind of attention that can best be found in a setting such
as someone's living room. A place where the listener is given the opportunity
to really hear all the writer intends---and where a further illumination can
often be had just by asking the author a question or two. The kind of
interaction between artist and audience that can be routinely found in a house
concert setting is simply unheard of in a "real" venue. Obviously, most of us
house concert presenters can't offer the sharp lighting and the cool reverb that
you'll get in one of those real venues. As we've often told fans, what you get
here is an opportunity to hear a song the way it sounded the night the artist
put down their guitar and said, "there--that one's done".
The musical highlights we've enjoyed in our ten
years of Cabin Concerts are truly too numerous to adequately describe. A quick
glance at a list of the names of artists who've played here (found elsewhere on
the site) will be enough to convince even the most casual acoustic music fan
that something pretty neat has been happening here for the past decade. We're
pretty sure that Lucy Kaplansky's very cool husband Rick Litvin has still only
performed in public at our house. We think Cheryl Wheeler has only done two or
three house concerts in her incredible career--and one of them was here. We
think of a couple of fans who flew in from Indianapolis to see Terre Roche do
one of her first ever solo dates---these fans returned a year or so later to see
Terre and her sister Maggie perform together. Texas is probably the state that
can lay claim to probably the most impressive list of great songwriters---we're
proud to say that we've been able to present some of Texas' best: Tom Russell,
Jimmy LaFave, Eric Taylor, Slaid Cleaves, and Darden Smith have made some
incredible music here. We're presently on what seems like a never ending quest
to bring as many of the awesomely talented Canadian singer-songwriters we've
come to know, to this little corner of the northeast as possible--to date we've
presented Lynn Miles, Fred Eaglesmith, Aengus Finnan, Jory Nash, James Keelaghan,
Terry Tufts, and Tim Harrison. We have presented the incredible British
guitarist Gordon Giltrap---a man we consider to be a true musical genius. We
can still recall the goose bumps the night we saw one of the first perforamnces
by Cry, Cry, Cry at New York's prestigious Town Hall. There were more people in
the front row that night than there were in our house when Richard Shindell and
Lucy Kaplansky did any one of their many sold out shows here. (About six years
after his first performance at our house, Richard Shindell played to more than
600 fans at William Paterson University here in Wayne---and NO--we don't see a
cause and effect thing here---it's just that there really are some great things
happening in the larger world of acoustic music too!).
Indentifying the saddest day we've ever
experienced here in connection with our "hobby" is very easy---that'd be the day
Dave Carter passed away--July 19, 2002. Just five days before, this incredibly
gifted guy and his partner, Tracy Grammer, had performed a couple of sold out
shows here. It was the second time Dave and Tracy had played here and we still
scour the musical landscape in the hope, so far unfulfilled, of finding another
Dave Carter.
Although it may sound a bit surprising, when we
started Cabin Concerts, we had absolutely no hopes, dreams, or plans for what
the future would bring. I mean we didn't even think or talk about where this
might lead or all that might become of it. The recognition this little endeavor
has received has completely shocked us. We've been featured on a CBS television
segment about house concerts that appeared on their CBS Saturday Morning Show
some years ago. We were mentioned in a front page article about house concerts
in the New York Times. New Jersey Cablevision also did a profile on the series
and there have been numerous other newspaper and magazine articles. Needless to
say, we NEVER thought anything we were about to do might end up being
"newsworthy"!!
Now--if you've read this far, we want to tell you
what has been the very best part of presenting these shows (and again--we never
even dreamed that this would be a part of the puzzle). The best part of these
shows has been the fans. Without a doubt, coming to know so many incredibly
interesting, stimulating, inspirational, talented, intelligent people has been
the greatest gift of all. People who have never been here often ask, "Aren't
you afraid of letting all those "strangers" in your house"? Well--we
think if you've been to a house concert you know---there are no "strangers" in
our house. Once a month this incredibly diverse group comes together to share a
passion for music---but more than the music, we have become a community of
friends who have found that we share so much more in common. We are folks who
actually embrace the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. We
are people who will actually leave our houses to be entertained. We've
found that folks who share a passion for this music often share many other
interests. We have made many lifelong friends here, and we know that many of
you have met folks here who are now some of your dearest friends as well.
Some of you who've been with us for a long time
know that, at times, we've need a little propping up! There have been times
when our enthusiasm for this has flagged a bit--indeed, there were some very
"lean" times back in the beginning. Please know that the support and
encouragement so many of you have shown us is GREATLY appreciated. Without a
doubt, Cabin Concerts is still here because of the effort you fans and friends
have put into this as much as anything we have done. We have no idea what the
future of these shows is. It's way too late in the day to create "a plan"
now---we probably wouldn't know how to do it---and we probably couldn't stick to
it anyway. All we're hoping is that this never ending supply of incredible
musicians will still want to occasionally do a show or two in a setting such as
this---and that you wonderful people will still want to come hear them. It's
been a great ten years---THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH!!!
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