Sterling Heights

Sterling Coffeehouse returns for 22nd year

By Cortney Casey
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Jan Krist and Jim Bizer will close out the Sterling Coffeehouse concert series with a March 25 performance at the Sterling Heights Recreation Center. The series kicks off March 4 and runs every Sunday night throughout the month at 7 p.m. Jan Krist and Jim Bizer will close out the Sterling Coffeehouse concert series with a March 25 performance at the Sterling Heights Recreation Center. The series kicks off March 4 and runs every Sunday night throughout the month at 7 p.m.

Folk music fans will lift their mugs once more to the return of the Sterling Heights Parks and Recreation Department’s Sterling Coffeehouse series in March.

The concerts run on Sunday nights throughout the month at the Recreation Center, which is transformed into a quaint music venue to create a singer/songwriter vibe.

Joel Casey, the recreation supervisor who’s coordinated the program for 17 of its 22 years, called it the perfect way to “break the winter blahs.”

“The ambiance, we try to kind of replicate the old coffeehouse atmospheres from the ’70s, with an intimate setting, so the entertainers can kind of relate to the audience and kind of feed from their energy, and it does happen,” he said, describing attendees as polite, engaged, and focused on the music and the tales told through lyrics.

For most of the shows, chairs are arranged around small, candelit tables, accommodating crowds of about 150-175, said Casey.

The only exception is the annual concert by lively Irish group Blackthorn, which is perpetually popular, selling out weeks beforehand. For that performance, seating is theater-style, in rows, to make way for more spectators — about 300, he said.

Blackthorn is second in line this year, appearing March 11. Balduck Mountain Ramblers kick the series off the week prior, March 4.

“They’re eastside Detroiters, so I think a lot of people kind of relate to them,” said Casey of the Ramblers. “It’s a five-piece group that plays a little bit of folk and a little bit of bluegrass, and throw in a little Irish music.”

On March 18, Claudia Schmidt — whom Casey described as a well-known fixture of the folk set with “a wonderful voice” — will make her Sterling Coffeehouse solo debut. She performed in the series several years ago with The Biddies, a trio that included Jan Krist and Kitty Donohoe.

“It’s just got this great, community concert feel,” Schmidt said of the series. “It seems to be a nice age range. … I really love this kind of concert situation where you tend to get more of a myriad crowd. I think music should unify people and not separate people.”

Schmidt, a native Michigander who relocated to Minneapolis a few years ago, said her show comprises mainly original pieces that span “the emotional gamut” in subject and tone.

“I like to take people on a ride,” she said. “I invite people to sing a lot. I weave in a lot of poetry and storytelling.”

She’ll be bringing her 12-string guitar and her mountain dulcimer, a lap instrument that “tends to have a sweeter, softer sound to it, so it’s a nice counterpart to the 12-string,” she said.

Krist will join Jim Bizer for the finale show on March 25. This is their first Sterling Coffeehouse appearance as a duo; Bizer performed last year with fellow members of the Yellow Room Gang, a collective of songwriters loosely based in Ann Arbor.

Bizer, a Franklin resident, is involved in various projects, but said he and Krist have been partnering up to do “quite a few duo shows” over the last few years. Both vocalists and guitarists, they play primarily throughout the Midwest, but also have toured in other parts of the country, including Texas and the East Coast.

At Sterling Coffeehouse, “we’ll be doing a show of largely original songs, which is quite a mix of stuff — anywhere from poignant to quirky and funny to some sing-along stuff, too,” he said. “We’re in what you might call the folk genre, although it’s quite an amalgam of styles, of course: a lot of the bits of pop music we grew up on, and smidges of jazz and other things that creep into the songs in some way, shape or form.”

According to Casey, Sterling Coffeehouse typically draws a total series attendance of 720-740 people.

“We’re always over the 600 mark,” he said. “The last few years, we’ve been well into the 700s for the four concerts.”

Parks and Recreation Manager Kyle Langlois said Sterling Heights is proud to maintain the series, which he considers a distinctively unique offering, especially because it features and supports local musicians.

“For us, it’s one of the programs that we’re going to continue to sustain as long as we possibly can,” he said. “It’s a niche program. There’s not a program really like that in the area.”

Catch the concerts

Sterling Heights Coffeehouse concerts start at 7 p.m. Sundays throughout March. The lineup includes:

• March 4: Balduck Mountain Ramblers
• March 11: Blackthorn
• March 18: Claudia Schmidt
• March 27: Jan Krist and Jim Bizer

Advance tickets are $13 per resident and $19 per nonresident; tickets at the door are $14 per resident and $21 per nonresident. No tickets will be available at the door for Blackthorn — the show typically sells out weeks in advance.

A subscription special, a package that offers admission to all four shows, is $48 per resident and $72 per nonresident, while supplies last.

Under the Parks and Recreation service sharing agreement recently established with the city of Warren, Warren residents will be charged the resident rate for admission. It’s the first year that deal’s been offered, and “we’ve had a real nice response from Warren residents,” said Parks and Recreation Manager Kyle Langlois.

The Recreation Center is located at 40620 Utica Road, at Dodge Park Road, in Sterling Heights. For more information, call the 24-hour musical events hotline at (586) 446-2692.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Cortney Casey at ccasey@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1046.