Anne Bangert, who serves alongside of Covington as a volunteer coordinator of the series said, “My experience was the same. It felt like a listening room as opposed to a bar or someplace where people are there, but not really there to listen to the music.
“We really liked that,” Bangert said. “When Steve found out Keith and Antoinette were retiring as the organizers of it, he called me and asked if I wanted to help organize it, and we decided to go ahead and do that.”
The first Music Collective will be 7-9 p.m. Feb. 28 at Miami Regionals Downtown Hamilton Center on High Street. The performance is free and open to the public. Steve Adkisson, The Sweet Peas and Terry King are set to perform.
Both Covington and Bangert are professional musicians, who have played at the venue. They have a folk-Americana duet called Stick & Bindle and they are also members of the band, Steve Covington and the Humble Strays.
The Music Café series ended in December 2022 with a finale after a 23-year run. The previous coordinators of Music Cafe, Keith Jones and Antoinette Webster, also retired at the end of last year after many years of service in their roles.
“I hated to see it close down, because in all my years of playing, there really are no spaces like that, where it’s a free show, and people can come in, and it’s always a good, mixed crowd,” Covington said. “It seemed like the right thing to do, and everything fell perfectly into place. We are going to try to keep it like the same principle it was set up on — a quiet listening room to bring listeners and performers together.”
The Music Collective, held the last Tuesday of each month, is a performance opportunity for musicians of all experience levels. Typically, musicians sign up in advance to participate.
The venue is already booked through April. Hamilton’s own The Half Suns, Easy Tom Eby, The Anno Project, Bob Kotz, The Marquis Ducaine Project and the Cedars Brothers are slated to perform in the coming months.
Covington said one thing they plan to implement is a “tip jar.” Musicians volunteer to play at The Music Collective. Other initiatives include promoting the various performers and expanding The Music Collective’s brand on social media.
The Music Collective also hopes to record the performances and provide a recording to each performer.
How to go
What: The Music Collective featuring Steve Adkisson, The Sweet Peas and Terry King
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 28
Where: Miami Regionals Downtown Hamilton Center, 221 High St., Hamilton
Cost: Free
More info: https://sites.google.com/view/musiccollectivehamilton/home?authuser=0
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