Every third Thursday in Madison, Indiana, at a narrow little bar called The Drake, with a long and hallowed history and inexplicably named after a male duck, local songwriters perform their newest creations, often for the very first time in front of a live audience. It’s a chance for artists to test their new songs in the crucible of clinking glasses, boisterous conversation, and mouth-watering smells wafting from the kitchen right behind the stage. It’s called New Noise.
The event is the brainchild of Robert Reynolds and Dan Mahoney, and it’s a direct offshoot from an earlier series of songwriting workshops spearheaded by Jane Vonderheide. “Dan is the main guy on the New Noise project now,” explains Robert. “I was part of the conceptualization and implementation of it, but Dan is making it happen month to month.
“The Songwriter Workshops were kind of a revelation,” continues Robert. “I was moderating those sessions, and we discovered we have so much great talent in and around Madison, we had to provide some kind of outlet for those folks to get their work out in the public eye.
“So we picked a handful of the best and most promising songwriters from those workshops and invited them to play at The Drake, in front of a live audience. Now the thing you have to understand about playing in a bar environment, it’s the real deal, and it’s not always easy. People may or may not be paying attention. It might be noisy. But that’s the point of the exercise. Music is a two way street, between the performer and the listener. You have to make a connection.
“What’s amazing to see sometimes, when you have a very special talent, the audience will recognize what they are seeing and respond. We had a songwriter named Sammy Riggs come through a while back, and she literally quieted the room when she started playing. Her stuff was that good. She earned the respect of the audience and immediately won them over.
“But there are also advantages to playing new music in a noisy bar on a Thursday night. There’s no pressure to attract an audience … the regular crowd is already there. And you don’t have to worry about pleasing people so much. I’m actually enchanted by The Drake. It’s such an historic place, so many great musicians have played there over the years. It’s a perfect venue for what we are doing.
“We’ll generally have 6 or 7 folks lined up, and they will play 2 or 3 songs each. It starts at 7pm and goes until everyone has had their turn. And just to be clear, this is not an open mic situation. It’s a curated new music showcase. If someone has original songs and they’d like to be included, they need to get with me, Jane or Dan.”
I spoke to Dan Mahoney and a couple of the musicians playing on the Thursday I was there, and it is clearly a much appreciated opportunity. Dan said, “It’s a good pipeline for our songwriters to move from writing songs to performing them.” Jordan Wilson offered, “It’s only natural, if Madison is gonna be Indiana’s Music City, we need an outlet for original songwriters, just like Nashville or any other music town.”
And Noah Wright explained, “As a songwriter, having this monthly event serves as a useful deadline, encouraging me to finish up songs and get them ready for people to hear. It also is a great way to collaborate with fellow local artists.”
New Noise happens at The Drake every 3rd Thursday of the month, and starts around 7:00pm. And I should mention, The Drake is a lovely spot to hang out with friends and maybe enjoy a fresh-cooked pizza, any other night of the week. They have live music quite often on the weekends and Andre behind the bar is one of Madison’s great bartenders (among many!)
HOT TIP OF THE WEEK
The music calendar is chock-full this week, as usual, with a lot of our favorite familiar artists playing at our favorite friendly places. But there are a couple of “specials” that caught my eye. They are all on Saturday, but if you don’t mind “hopping” around a bit, you could enjoy a bit of each. First up is another in the series of mini concerts at Analog Coffee Shop, at the corner of Main and Broadway. That one starts first at 5:00. Next up is a fun “band competition” show at Mad Paddle, starting at 6 and running until 9. It’s a contest for slot playing at the upcoming Roostertail Music Festival. And finally, this one is super cool – some vocalists from Madison High School will be performing a few tunes from the Wizard of Oz canon at Ohio Theater, at 6:30, right before the screening of the movie Wicked For Good at 7:00. All you Oz/Wicked fans will want to see this!
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