One of my earliest ideas for programming at The Listening Room at 443 was a monthly singer-songwriter showcase featuring talented local artists. I love the intimacy of these types of shows and it’s fascinating to hear the stories behind the songs. When done right, the audience leaves feeling like they have a personal connection with their favorite artist.
I thought it made perfect sense for the type of room we wanted to create, and it would allow us to showcase more local songwriters. But, with everything else we’re trying to get done to get the cafe open, I just didn’t have the brainpower or time to devote to putting the project together.
In the meantime, I kept hearing rave reviews about a guy named Stephen Douglas Wolfe.
People who I knew to be devoted live music fans and whose opinion I trusted were saying, “You REALLY should check this guy out for the new room”. He doesn’t play very often in Syracuse, so I didn’t have a chance to catch him live, but I liked what I found on YouTube.
I reached out to see if he might be interested in performing at the room. In the course of our email convo he mentioned that a couple of years ago he did a live webcast from his living room called “Live from the Wolfe’s Den”. He would invite a couple singer-songwriter friends over and everyone took turns talking about their music and playing a few tunes. But, after he and his wife Catherine welcomed their adorable baby daughter Elliott it wasn’t practical to run the show out of their house anymore. He had been on the hunt for the right space to relaunch the series, so we decided to host it at the room beginning in February.
The featured artists for our inaugural show will be Corey Paige, J. Mettler and Josh Coy.
Second Sundays with Stephen Douglas Wolfe will be held on the second Sunday of each month from 5-8pm. There will be a $5 cover charge to help us with the guarantee we are paying the artists and it includes complimentary light snacks. We’re really excited about this new series and we hope you’ll join us for this very special, intimate experience with some of CNY’s most talented songwriters.
