A Place for Musicians

After 5 years of owning Javalina's Coffee & Friends, a specialty coffee shop that grew into Tucson's premier venue for live acoustic music, I sold the shop in December of 2008. But my passion for connecting musicians with appreciative audiences could not be contained! In February of 2009, I formed a non-profit called Live Acoustic Venue Association (LAVA) and started scheduling shows at a variety of locations. We did a Friday night series at Montgomery's Grill on South Country club in March and April as well as a Boogie n' Blues Festival in March. And we're doing a series of Western music shows at Saint Ann's Chapel on Bob Fee's Ranch on the eastside of Tucson. The latest project is a series of concerts on the lawn in the courtyard of the Civano Neighborhood Center. Just bring a lawn chair and a $5 suggested donation. There is also a new Italian restaurant called D'Auria opening in Civano, so I'm looking forward to checking that out before the first show.

I envision Tucson as a city that will be known for live music performance in much the same way that Nashville, Austin, and New Orleans are. We certainly have highly talented musicians living here as well as some great musicians coming through on their way to Phoenix, L.A., Las Vegas, and other destinations. Now we just need to evolve our culture to appreciate and reward musicians for their performances.

I frequently receive requests from musicians to announce their shows around town on my website calendar and newsletter. Having worked with over 300 musicians, you can see how this could get out of hand very quickly. So I'll make this offer to any musician: come out to any of our upcoming LAVA shows, and if I don't know you already, please introduce yourself. After attending a show, you can post your upcoming performance schedule and/or a link to your website on this blog. I'll be letting my 3,000+ newsletter subscribers know about the blog, so your coming out to support other musicians will bring some great exposure for your own performances.

Our own calendar is available at http://www.lavamusic.org/calendar.html.