Berkeley’s intimate “listening room” The Back Room is celebrating 10 years, marking the occasion with a 10-day anniversary concert series this month featuring a range of musical genres.
Founder Sam Rudin is slightly surprised by the milestone. He says, “It was not something that we knew for sure would happen when we started. It was a big risk. It was a big jump off of a cliff.”
When he founded The Back Room on Bonita Avenue, Rudin was inspired by the original 1960s-era Freight & Salvage on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, known for folk and bluegrass shows.
He says, “There are a lot of similarities between us and the original Freight, but there’s one difference. The original Freight did not have jazz. That was exactly the only thing that I wanted to do differently.” He adds, “To criticize the Freight for not doing jazz is a little bit like criticizing a Chinese restaurant for not serving Italian food.”
Holding a maximum of 100 people, The Back Room provides a space for lesser-known professional musicians to perform. Preserving the magic of small venues, it’s a place where performers receive audiences’ undivided attention, a rarity today.
Rudin’s vision also stems from his own career as a pianist with his band, Hurricane Sam & The Headshots, which plays jazz and blues. He wanted to create opportunities for respected, talented professional artists who may not draw the size of crowds that are required at larger venues.
The upcoming anniversary shows from April 16-26 feature a cross-section of programming, from jazz drummer Scott Amendola to youth bluegrass standouts Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, as well as Bululú, Howell Devine, Janam, Golden Bough, Roberta Donnay & the Prohibition Mob, and a closing performance by Bay Area vocalist Faye Carol.
Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, also marking its own 10-year milestone, has been appearing at The Back Room since 2017, when its members were still preteens.
Band member Miles Quale says of the Back Room: “It’s pretty special to us. We’ve been playing there for almost 10 years… Sam has really been supporting the band from the start. We’ve done album celebrations there.” He added, “Bluegrass, as a music, was designed to be performed live — and in a venue like that.”
As Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band prepares for an upcoming tour in Japan, Quale says he and his brother are especially looking forward to returning to The Back Room.
Rudin, who doesn’t equate success with monetary profit, candidly reflects on the decade anniversary: “You’re just trying to put one foot in front of another and keep everything going, which is not easy. It’s a full-time situation. And only relatively recently did I think, ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s 10 years. I have to at least acknowledge that,’” he says.
He points to changes in culture as the reason why there are few spots like The Back Room today. He says, “Back in the ’60s and ’70s, there were relatively a lot of places like this — places designed for small audiences who could really listen to music in a more intimate setting. This was normal years ago. It’s no longer normal.”
Decades ago, musicians could sustain tours through small venues and college campuses, but that is no longer the case. Rudin says, “You could have an entire tour just based on college campuses… You couldn’t do that now, if your life depended on it.”
Rudin says Berkeley reflects this shift: “Anybody under the age of 50… has not lived through the period where this kind of more small, intimate music was part of the cultural mix,” he says.
He does not expect a change without a broader social movement. That, he says, is what makes The Back Room significant.
The Back Room 10th anniversary
Shows start at 8 p.m. unless noted otherwise
- April 16: Scott Amendola’s Anniversary Quartet (jazz)
- April 17: Bululú: A Night of Bubbles & Boleros (Latin)
- April 18: HowellDevine (blues)
- April 19, 3 p.m.: Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band
- April 23: Sam Rudin Duo with Charles McNeal (piano-saxophone/jazz-blues-funk)
- April 24: Mamadou Sidibe (music from Mali)
- April 25, 3 p.m.: Golden Bough (Celtic)
- April 25: Roberta Donnay & The Prohibition Mob: “From Bessie to Billie” (jazz, blues)
- April 26, 5 p.m.: The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol (jazz, blues)
The Back Room is at 1984 Bonita Ave, Berkeley. Tickets are $20-$40 at https://backroommusic.com/.
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