Do you remember the coffee houses of the 1960s where artists, folk musicians, poets and political activists gathered? The coffee house movement never went away and thrives today in small venues across the country. On October 6, a coffee house, Twelve Moons, landed at Noble Horizons.
The coffee house began six years ago as a nonprofit, grass roots group of Northwest Corner residents, some part of the St. John’s Episcopal Church congregation, the first home of Twelve Moons. The members volunteered to organize, identify and entice performers from across the region to travel to a variety of area performance spaces on the first Saturday of every month from 7pm to 10pm. It was an idea whose time had come.
Each event features at least one guest performer and, critically, an open mic segment that draws performers from a wide spectrum of traditional folk, classic acoustic rock, and all genres in between. Organizer Jill Gibbons, who was on hand at Noble setting our plates of nibbles, tea and coffee, said “We do it because we love it. Sometimes we ask ourselves why, but by the end of an evening we always say it was so worth it.”
On this particular Saturday, the duo of Roger and Lenny from Millerton, NY, started the evening off with a mix of familiar songs delivered with soulful harmonies. Jill and husband Ed Thorney (who also doubles as the sound tech) performed next and were followed by special guest artist, Mike Herz, who traveled all the way from Newton, NJ, just for this evening’s performance.
The key to the success of Twelve Moons Coffee House is the lengths to which performers will go to be part of it. All musicians really want is an audience and, as Jill says, “What performers like about Twelve Moons is that people come to listen.”