Back in the previous century, 1979 as a matter of fact, in the mythical land of New York City, a band of primarily local political activists, many of whom were songwriters and musicians, came up with a radical idea for the time - compete toe-to-toe with the commercial “establishment” that was successfully running a number of popular “folk” clubs. This would take place in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan… some of the priciest real estate on this or any other planet!

There were a number of regional organizations such as “Songs of Freedom and Struggle”, that held weekend gatherings in the country, for sharing musical and political expression; or supported such organizations as Clearwater and Greenpeace. But they were largely inter-connected by virtue of the fact that they shared a common bond of socially-conscious music and philosophy.

At this point, a number of us began searching out possible rental areas suitable for such an undertaking; and thought we’d struck the “mother lode” when a very prominent organization, with a reputation as the “lynch-pin of liberalism”, gave us a weekly space from which to promote our agenda. THE PEOPLES’ VOICE CAFE was born!

The very first night, after hearing some of the sentiments musically offered by our band of “revolutionaries”, we were deemed “too liberal” by this bastion of liberalism; and asked…or rather TOLD…to move elsewhere! After a couple of similar “adjustments to our accommodations”, we thought we’d finally found a “home.” To celebrate, we were able to secure Peggy Seeger as our featured “performer du jour!”

How to mount a speaker

We were in a “shared” space, since apparently everyone in Manhattan had keys to the place. We were so giddy, not just for “snagging a Seeger” for our first event, but also from the audience turnout, and because it had catapulted our rag-tag group into one of “honor.” Then, someone made off with our humble “sound system,” that we’d probably pieced-together for a few bucks and a lot of masking tape!

Naturally, we were devastated! Barely off the ground… and now back to square one! Within a few days, the caretaker for the church that had become our weekly “arena”, called to ask where we wanted the packages stored, that had just been anonymously shipped to our attention. When we went to see what he was referring to, since we had no funds with which to order ANYTHING, (especially since our devastating burglary,) we were speechless!

Person or persons unknown had purchased us a “State-of-the-Art”, for its time, sound system to replace our loss! It was some time later that we learned that our benefactor had been PEGGY SEEGER, who, to this day, 30 years later, denies any knowledge of the gift!

Thirty years ago, the landscape was filled with any number of excellent places for the singer/songwriter to learn and perfect their craft. Today, unfortunately, most of them are “history”… replaced by fast-turnover, fast-food outlets; but fortunately, today we have the renewed, revitalized “house concert” atmosphere, enabling the performer to be heard, appreciated and enjoyed virtually anywhere, rather than having to drive long distances to be able to compete with a noisy, inattentive bar crowd for attention.

This arrangement also allows the performer to offer their own CDs, DVDs, Videos, books, artwork… and any number of items directly to the audience members, without going through a middleman, thereby realizing more of an earned profit on a variety of independently-generated items. This also allows the audience members to physically interact with the performer, giving candid feedback almost simultaneously, permitting the performer to alter a particular lyric to mirror a region, or situation, in effect assuring that the content is as “current” as the individual concert dictates!

All performed through a non-existent or “humble sound system.”

–Ned Treanor


Read more letters from Ned.
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