This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 27, 2012 - Early this spring, the Beacon wrote about a new music series called the Songbird Café. Founded by Steve St. Cyr, the series took its inspiration from the intimate, “in the round” performances featured on a regular basis at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tenn.
At the Bluebird, four musicians seated in a circle take turns performing their songs – surrounded by a small audience. That’s the format St. Cyr decided to follow with the Songbird Café series, which started in late October 2011. The first lineup included singer/songwriters Kevin Bilchik, Brian Henneman, Kip Loui and Caleb Travers.
Since then, the Songbird Café series has presented nine more performances – most at Focal Point in Maplewood. Bilchik, Henneman and Loui returned, and the list of other talented performers at Songbird Café concerts includes Michele Isam, Dave Toretta, R. Scott Bryan, John Wendland, Brian Curran, Andy Ploof, Auset Sarno, Lynne Reif, Ryan Spearman, Kelly Wells and nearly 20 other musicians.
I recently talked with St. Cyr to find out how the series is going and look at its future.
“We celebrated our first anniversary about a little more than a month ago,” says St. Cyr. “Ten shows altogether, and I have to say I feel very good about it. But there’s definitely more to presenting a concert series than I first realized. There was definitely a lot to learn!”
St. Cyr quickly discovered that, if he wanted to realize his goal of presenting concerts on a monthly basis, he had to work several concerts ahead, to make sure he could present the best possible combinations of musicians.
“We got off to a good start with the first shows in October and December of 2011,” St. Cyr says. “But then I had to really work to get the musicians I presented in January and March 2012 in the pipeline. Now I’m getting a lot of input from people who come to the shows about musicians they’d like to see – plus a lot of inquires from musicians interested in playing.”
St. Cyr also learned that it was equally important to put together a group of musicians who, at least in certain aspects, had something in common.
“The ideal format was to have two pairs of musicians who already had some rapport between them,” he says. “With that as a start, it’s easier to build a camaraderie between all the musicians.”
The most recent Songbird Café performance, the first away from Focal Point, was at the studios of KWMU Radio in Grand Center. St. Cyr was happy with the results and hopes to branch out to other locations eventually. But he still sees the Focal Point as the sereis’ primary location.
“The Focal Point setup just really fits thematically with the intimate concept of the series, “ he says. “When I started this, I envisioned it as a moveable feast – moving around to a variety of locations. That will hopefully still happen, but Focal Point feels like home.”
Looking ahead to 2013, St. Cyr has booked musicians for the first Songbird Café concert on Jan. 23 at the Focal Point, with the March concert there as well. A look at the lineups indicates that the series is taking on more of a regional focus in performers.
“For January, we have brothers David and Jeff Lazaroff, and their band has been to Austin, Texas, several times. They got to know Elizabeth McQueen, the singer with Asleep at the Wheel, so she’s coming up to be part of the January show.
“For upcoming shows, we’re bringing in Erin O’Toole and Dale Hannah from Greenville, Ill., where they present a similar signer/songwriter series. And we’re lining up a couple of musicians from Nashville. One of them used to work the door at the Bluebird Café. So who knows where we’ll go from there!”