By the time this post will be visible to the public The Historic Southgate House will have locked its doors under current ownership. I spent just over two years booking shows at the Southgate House and feel it's appropriate that one of the first posts on this new website be a tribute to it. Without the opportunities presented to me under that roof I would not be here today writing about music. I'm not a writer, I'm just a music fan. It was in the Southgate House that I realized the importance of community in our music scene. I would venture to say that without my experiences in that building this site would not exist as it does today.
I've been fortunate enough to play many venues across the country and can tell you with certainty that there are very few venues out there that are as unique as The Southgate House. There are even fewer that are ran by people that genuinely care about music and their city. It's not always about selling tickets and beer. For the Southgate House it was about exposing great musicianship, giving local musicians a place to hone their craft, and giving local music fans a place to go to discover something new every night. That is the reason I feel there is still something good to come from this news. As they mentioned in their press release, it's about the people not the building. The allure of seeing a show in a 200 year old haunted mansion is what gets you through the doors the first time. People come back because the staff makes you feel like it is your house. It would be naive for someone to think that they could simply start booking shows in that building and achieve the same success. The Southgate House staff is still here in this community & I expect great things to come from them.
The best part about the Southgate House was the discovery of something you didn't intend to find. Music venues are typically a destination for something specific. You know that you like a certain type of band so you go see them live. The magic was always when someone stopped in the lounge for a beer and discovered that they do in-fact like bluegrass. Before working at the Southgate House it seems that I had a fairly narrow view of music. I have always been in bands and promoted shows in a few specific genres. I didn't realize how many great bluegrass, rockabilly, and indie bands there were in this city. Since then I've always said that if you put all the great bands in this city in one place people would be amazed at the talent that exists in our backyard. That was the thought behind our reincarnation of cincymusic.com. Hopefully this website will shed some light on our music community, and create a virtual destination for music discovery. It's no substitute for the real thing, but hopefully it will act as a catalyst for a new version of the Southgate House to be born.
