… you are on the 48th floor and you see papers, office supplies, and debris flying by your window. And smoke. Lots and lots of smoke.

Sure enough, it’s time to gather your people and head for the stairs. It’s 9/11. You make it down 8 stories and on the way start helping/convincing a struggling woman to get down the stairs. Unexpectedly, the intercom instructs everyone to go back to their floors - now it seems like a blown fire drill. But this lady was leaving anyway, so you escort her to the elevator down to the lobby. And to safety.

Then the second plane hits, and you manage to get out of the building and join the others as they run from the ashes and smoke.

Meet Pat and Dolores.

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1. How did your house concerts come about?

PocoNotes is a direct result of the tragic occurrences of September 11th. In fact, we’ve been known to say that the idea for PocoNotes was conceived in Tower 2 of the World Trade Center as Pat was making his way out of the building for what we now know was the last time.

Two decisions were made that day: to continue to live our daily lives without fear…as a way of maintaining our personal freedom and to make the second half of our lives count - in a way that we could - in a way that mattered to us…and live music matters a lot.

I guess it was just one time too many seeing a sole acoustic musician struggle to gain the attention of his audience with little success - and zero support from the venue’s management - that catapulted us toward deciding that we would work to provide the “listening” environment.

So, with our personal funds, we launched PocoNotes with the intent of elevating local musician’s exposure by having them open for world-class, internationally-touring musicians.

2. What’s been the key(s) to building and maintaining your audience?

This is the struggle. We present NPR artists in totally non-NPR environments. However, from minute one, we committed to only presenting exceptional musicians that would, undoubtedly, give our audiences the experience of a lifetime. With “quality performances” as our brand, we feel that people will eventually come to our shows, even if they aren’t familiar with our performers, because “PocoNotes always puts on a great show.”

3. Please share one of your favorite house concert moments so far….

Our current season is, in reality, “house concerts…on steroids” in that they are held in a 150-seat venue that is an 80-year-old community landmark that actively pursues its vision to be an educational and cultural hub for its residents.

For us, the best moments are those when you know that your efforts to treat your musical guests exceptionally well have been noticed and that a lifelong relationship built on mutual trust and respect has been born. Having a record label contact us with their artist’s report that “Pat and Dolores are the nicest people to ever book a show for me…” is worth every moment of angst and every dollar spent.

4. A little of your personal history would also be great…

I can’t say that we’re middle-aged because I don’t fully expect to live to be 112; however, we’ll let it suffice to say that we are of the “Woodstock generation.” That’s probably why we are on a mission to re-engage our peers in the live musical experience. After all, we’re the ones that heard some of the most incredible live music that was ever created.

Sadly, most folks our age prefer to stay home and enjoy re-runs of “Law and Order.” Frankly, we felt that way, too. However, we’ve eliminated the “cattle call” environment, the excessive ticket prices and the substances and replaced with respect for the artists, the audience and the venues. As Jorma Kaukonen, our mentor, would say…”it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

We’re both veterans of Corporate America and, between us, have logged in decades with a variety of Fortune 500 companies. We still have - and need - our day jobs, especially since with the exception of a minor grant in 2008, all of our events have been funded by us personally.

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The stories of the 9-11 tragedy will be with us always, but now I can’t help but wonder - how many other great things came from the people who survived?

Play. Listen. Enjoy yourself. For the moment, it’s all here for you. Tomorrow, it might not be.

Fran