Want to go?
WHAT: Mickey Kelley and Mike Willis
WHEN: 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., July 6 & 7
WHERE: The Listening Room at OurGuest Inn and Suites Hotel, 220 E. Perry St., Port Clinton
COST: $13.50/show (includes two drinks)
INFO: 419-734-7050 or thelisteningroompc.com
It’s no secret that in the bar business music is often the vehicle used to drive up liquor and beer sales.
You know, either blast good tunes or book a cover band that kicks out the hits one after another. Granted there’s nothing wrong with this business plan, but something missing from the area is a venue where the music comes first. You know, a place where up-and-coming artists can play their material for an eager audience looking for an intimate musical experience.
Someone hoping to fill this niche is OurGuest Inn and Suites Hotel owner Ron Miller, who is proud to unveil The Listening Room. The longtime Port Clinton resident and business owner believes the venue’s name says it all. Opening the venue will be singer-songwriters Mickey Kelley and Mike Willis July 6 and 7 at the 100-seat club located inside of the OurGuest Inn.
Funcoast.com talked to Miller about the impetus for The Listening Room and why he thinks it’s destined for success.
Funcoast: How did you conceive the idea for The Listening Room?
Ron Miller: If I were to say, “Let’s go out and listen to some music,” we’d end out at a bar somewhere probably listening to a cover band. And in the bar people would be laughing and talking and not paying attention. If we were in Nashville, we’d end up in a little club with few hundred people and there would be some young artist trying to make the big time. They would be up there playing their own songs they wrote and there isn’t a person in the place saying a word. Everyone in there would be locked in on the artist. It’s quite prevalent in markets like New York City, Nashville and Los Angeles, and even around the country more and more where people actually are there to truly go see the music. They’re not there to dance or talk. I think there’s a tremendous demand for people that are 35 and up who still want to hear live music but they don’t necessarily want to be in a loud, noisy bar.
Funcoast: The notion for The Listening Room makes sense but how hard will it be to book the venue?
RM: I have a lot of contacts in Nashville. Like those guys – Mike Willis and Mickey Kelley – coming up for that first show are young musicians who have been in Nashville for the last four or five years. They’re traveling the country. They’ve opened up for a lot of big acts. They’re songwriters writing songs that are being pitched to the big artists all of the time.
Funcoast: Considering you’re not looking at a huge overhead, meaning paying large fees to get big-named artists to come to Port Clinton, odds are this will help The Listening Room. Still, could the club grow into something bigger?
RM: We don’t see it as getting really big. The room only holds 100 people, and we think one of the charms of it is going to be the fact it is a small venue and no person is more than 35 feet from the stage. So we don’t expect it to grow into a really large thing. The price is really affordable. It’s $13.50 for a ticket and that includes two drinks. We just kind of feel it has the possibility to become a year around venue where we can bring people in that will be interested in before dinner shows at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday nights. We see this as something people can use tying into going out to dinner, that type of thing.
Funcoast: It sounds like musically speaking you’re be concentrating on country artists?
RM: Yeah, mostly songwriters. We could see it evolving and maybe into some comedy possibly. We’ve already been approached at bringing in some children artists on a Sunday afternoon or something. One other thing we may get involved with is during the week we may try to find a night that is a regional songwriter night. In fact, I received two calls today from local songwriters looking to play.
Funcoast: What does that tell you, that your doors aren’t even open and yet people are calling for gigs?
RM: I am a musician myself and I can tell you one of the things musicians who write their own material are always looking for is a venue where they can play at and people are actually paying attention because so many musicians find themselves in noisy bars and frankly people are watching the televisions. The whole idea behind this is it’s very likely that some of these people that will be playing at The Listening Room in Port Clinton over the next year or two will probably become big stars. When you walk into the Bluebird Café in Nashville, you’ll see pictures of a young Alan Jackson and Taylor Swift because they played there before they were big stars. We feel like we can bring those kinds of people up here.
For more information, visit thelisteningroompc.com.
Schedule of Musicians:
Mike Willis and Mickey Kelley: 6 & 9 p.m. July 6 and 7
Noah Collins: 6 & 9 p.m. July 20 and 21
Annie Mosher: 6 & 9 p.m. July 27 and 28
Erin Thomas: 6 & 9 p.m. August 3 and 4
