Seven Steps Up launches a listening room musical series just in time for Spring. Come hear Alice Peacock sing and pick up your vegetables from Visser Farms Thur, March 3, 2011.

We are lucky in music on the West Michigan shore. We have smaller audiences. We have smaller auditoriums. Am I bragging or complaining, do you ask? In balance, we have taller dunes and wider rivers and deeper groves of cherries, peaches and apples. Our location north of Chicago and east of Milwaukee and along the road to Detroit brings us amazing musical acts who combine vacations and tours when they come to perform for us. For example, Natalia Zukerman often graces us with a performance at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts, usually a Monday night show during the Summer Studio Session series. Catie Curtis came to visit us this summer at Camp Blodgett and by December, she had an invitation to the White House for a Christmas Concert. Out at Fenians Irish Pub in Conklin, Michigan, among the apple orchards of Sparta, it seems that the Prime Minister of Ireland is sending their finest bands as cultural ambassadors, including Beoga and Lunasa. For the record, Lunasa turned down a White House invitation for St. Patrick's Day, 2009 I think, whilst their Prime Minister visited too. Yes, Lunasa had a gig with all those Irish music lovers in New Mexico and would not cancel, even for two world leaders. I hear the group rescheduled at White House following St. Patricks Day.
It might look as if January is at your door, but in the musical and agricultural world, we are planning March. We have Alice Peacock at Seven Steps Up Thursday, March 3, 2011, beginning a three stop Midwestern tour. In Conklin, the ides of March, March 15, marks the return of Lunasa to Fenians. Why not buy a share of the Visser Farms CSA for pickup at Seven Steps because the hoop houses should have fresh leafy greens by then?
Tuesday is a lousy night during the winter in West Michigan, and many joints run their beer and free pool specials to beg people to come out. That's when Seven Steps Up opens for an open mike night with their house band, Exit Seven Left, often seen at Old Boy's Brewery or Odd Side Ales. You know the house is serious about an open mike when a name is put on the job. Theater Bar in Grand Haven Michigan advances Big Daddy Fox for the Monday open mike. The Livery Brewing Company has supported a Monday night Folk Open Mike under the guidance of chantuese Venitia Sekema and the band Hardwater Biscuit. I have yet to make the Tuesday night at Seven Steps, but Exit Nine Left rolls with Mikki Marsh, twice invited to Kerrville Folk Festival's New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters.
Open mike is step one for hopeful musicians, and you simply have no idea what star-to-be is going to perform. I hear Jewel performed at open mikes in Traverse City, Michigan. Well, to be frank, I remember chatting with a blond female musician in 1984 setting up at the Sawmill and then staying for her first set. However, Jewel was ten at the time and she didn't play Ray's Coffee House in Traverse City until her sixteenth year, while studying at Interlochen in Grawn, Michigan.
I took a few moments trying to size up Seven Steps Up accomplishment, booking Alice Peacock, whose music you have heard on television and in movies. It helps to see that she's hitting two prestige venues in California January 2011 and following her Spring Lake performance with the Memorial Opera House, Valparaiso, Indiana and a prestige venue in Chicago, SPACE of Evanston, Illinois. I have no idea if Baby Joey, her one year old, has picked up his first guitar yet. Can you imagine learning your guitar from your mom? Like SPACE, Seven Steps up will offer cabaret seating, so book a table for your friends and you.
This puts Seven Steps Up on the map right from the very start. I often hear troubador class acts at the Howmet Theater, Beardsley Theater and the Dogwood Theater, and they all love the audiences for quiet listening and the venues for raising them above the fray of bar band stages. And that's what Seven Steps Up is designing from the very beginning with the "Pin Drop" series. People in the musical industry know what that means. Just attend a performance with drinks served and an announcement will be made, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, we're creating a listening room environment tonight. You can chat downstairs in the pub or go outside and smoke." I am certain this fact will reverberate though the musical road from here to Chicago to Mackinac Island.And while we're talking about musical roads, always remember, we're pretty much due north of Nashville.
Seven Steps Up opens Alice Peacock's Midwestern Tour, Thursday, March Third.
http://www.sevenstepsup.com/
Memorial Opera House, Valparaiso, Indiana. Almost 400 hundred seats.
This is the second stop on Alice's Midwestern Tour, Friday, March
Fourth.
http://www.mohlive.com/
SPACE in Evanston, Illinois is the Society for the Preservation of
Arts and Culture in Evanston. This is the third and final stop on
Alice's Midwestern Tour, March Fifth. If you want another stop, go ask
Alice! I don't know if SPACE has bottle service, but seating is
Cabaret style. Call ahead to reserve a table for friends. Call really,
really early because these sell out first.
http://www.evanstonspace.com/
Alice Peacock and spring arrive in Spring Lake, Michigan right around
the same time:
http://alicepeacock.com/
Alice Peacock on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Peacock
Alice is quite the live item on the California musical tour, including
Los Angeles. She'll perform at The Mint, Los Angeles, California, On
Pico Avenue, just outside of Beverly Hills and on way to Venice Beach.
The 1937 nightclub features a recording studio. I guess Alice likes
older venues, such as Seven Steps Up and the Memorial Opera House.
http://www.themintla.com/
You'll find Soho Restaurant and Music Club in the heart of Santa
Barbara on State Street, on the way to the Santa Barbara Pier. It is
often a performance stop on the way to musical stardom, and David
Crosby, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross and Umphrey’s McGee have
performed at Soho Restaurant and Music Club.
http://www.sohosb.com/
Run Amok Promotions is dedicated to bringing true American troubadours
to a genuine listening room experience in Spring Lake, Michigan.
You'll want to run amok at one of these concerts, but you'll also love
the quiet purity of a genuine musical showcase.
http://www.runamokpromotions.com/
Catie Curtis performed for West Michigan musical fans at Camp
Blodgett, on the water in West Olive, Michigan. She performed a
Christmas concert in the White House this year.
http://catiecurtis.com/
A Natalia Zukerman show is a sign of summer in West Michigan.
http://nataliazukerman.com/
Saugatuck Center for the Arts
http://www.sc4a.org/home.php
Camp Blodgett hosts four outstanding concerts at their lodge, free
seating on the expansive deck overlooking Lake Michigan.
http://www.campblodgett.org/
Visser Farms, Zeeland Michigan
http://visser-farms.com/
Exit Nine Left is becoming the house band for Tuesday nights at Seven
Steps Up. Get you veggies and your music Tuesday night. The Livery of
Benton Harbor, Michigan also combines CSA pickup with a musical
performance space. (Exit Nine Left at Seven Steps Up. I sense a
connection here).
http://www.exit9left.com/
Fenian's Irish Pub in Conklin, Michigan. The serving of Guinness is
revered here. Great hard cider of tap too, Crispins. The men from
Beoga taught me to drink hard cider over a few small ice cubes. This
is a fine example of a cultural exchange.
http://www.feniansirishpub.com/
http://www.crispincider.com/
Lunasa returns to Fenians in the springtime, March 15, 2011!
http://www.lunasa.ie/
Please, please, please bring back Beoga to Fenian's Pub and I promise
not to propose marriage to the violinist again!
http://www.beogamusic.com/
Big Daddy Fox rarely pauses for the cause.
http://www.bigdaddyfox.net/
The Queen of the Monday Night Open Mike, Livery Brewing Company,
Benton Harbor, Michigan.
http://www.venitiasekema.com/
Kerrville Folk Festival
http://www.kerrville-music.com/
Will the next Jewel arise from the scene at Seven Steps Up. Stay tuned.
http://www.jeweljk.com/
Interlochen Center for the Arts.
http://www.interlochen.org/
Salt of the Earth, Fennville, Michigan
http://www.saltoftheearthfennville.com/