Folk music is in the house

ean and Larry Underberg never used to listen to folk music before. She was a hard rock AC/DC fan. That changed in January 2002, when Larry heard the Cantrells for the first time. The Nashville duo lit up Grace Cafe with their harmonies and musicianship. Since then Underberg, a speech professor at Southeast Missouri State University, has become a bot of a folk music impresario.

He has helped book acts for the City of Roses Festival and for Old Town Cape's Tunes at Twilight series. Together the Underbergs have established their own house concert series. They have their own brochure and Web site (www.angelfire.com/folk/houseconcerts) and are booked for monthly concerts through April 2004.

Together with Teri Wondra, who was the first to host a house concert in the Cape Girardeau area, and Lindsey Bowerman of Grace Cafe, the Underbergs have helped put Cape Girardeau on the folk music map. "Our contact information is out there now," Wondra says.

Now folk singers are calling Cape Girardeau. Larry Underberg says traveling musicians trade information about people who host house concerts like commodities.

Close contact with Cousin Andy's Coffeehouse in Carbondale, Ill, has helped the Cape folk

ing performers can pick up two shows in close proximity.

The Underbergs have a sunken living room which makes a perfect stage. Larry convinced a reluctant Jean that buying a P.A. system was essential before their first concert in December, by the Chicago duo Small Potatoes. Small Potatoes said the acoustics in the living room were so good they didn't need it. "I said, 'No, you don't understand,'" Larry recalled.

The Underbergs' three cats -- Rhino, Cleo and Gash -- often become part of the show. Regular audience members refer to them as the Undercats.

Jean is a disability examiner for the state Department of Secondary and Elementary Education. They moved to Cape Girardeau from South Dakota five years ago. Putting on the concerts, Larry says, "has made us feel more a part of the community."

The singers usually spend the night at the Underbergs' house and they always receive all the money that is donated, usually $8 per person, in addition to being able to sell CDs.

The Underbergs enjoy all the guests. They convinced Danzig and Woolley, who played May 29, to spend an extra night so they all could go to the local wineries.

Guests at the concerts, usually attended by 20 to 25, are invited to bring their own beverages. Coffee is provided. The concerts themselves still make Jean a bit nervous. "When you're the hostess you worry if the house is neat, and are the cats going to interrupt the show," she said.

Psychologist Joan Singer and her husband, Dennis Herbst, have missed only one of the Underbergs' house concerts. They also hosted one of their own.

Intimacy is an important part of the attraction, she says. "You can talk to the artists. It's very close up."

Until recently, she primarily listened to rock 'n' roll, classical, blues and country music. "I never really thought of myself as a folk music fan," Singer says. "Now that I hear it I like it."

Her husband especially likes the house concert environment because he is allergic to cigarette smoke.

Wondra has hosted a few house concerts but these days is mostly interested in booking shows for whomever wants to have one. "Anybody can do house concerts," she says. "That's what's nice is having the community support." Right now she's looking for somebody to provide a venue for the duo Somebody's Sister on June 22.

She annually attends the Kerrville Folk Festival, 18 days of performances in Central Texas. A number of the people who have played intimate house concerts in Cape Girardeau -- Small Potatoes and Darryl Purpose, for instance -- perform before thousands at a time at Kerrville.

Wondra just returned from the 2003 festival, where an appearance by Judy Collins sold out one night's show and where Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame usually performs.

The Underbergs don't use the term folk music to describe their concerts because some of the musicians they book don't fall into that category. For instance, the band Still on the Hill will bring bluegrass, jugband and blues into the Underbergs' living room on Sept. 11. Bailey Jester, a duo due July 24, also play some bluegrass music, country and rock. Bailey Jester won the 2002 Roots Album of the Year and Roots Song of the Year at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards.

Larry Underberg is interested in social movements. His master's thesis was on the religious cult known as the Moonies, for his dissertation he researched the Hari Krishnas. "He's the only person that actually looks for them in an airport," Jean quips.

Folk music is concerned with social movements, too. Danzig & Wooley, Amy Martin and Robert Hoyt are just some of the recent visitors whose songs contain messages that go far beyond moon and June rhymes.

Wisconsin singer-songwriter L.J. Booth is the next artist on the Underbergs' schedule, performing at 7 p.m. Thursday at their home. He is known for his storytelling, and his music has been described as an unknown treasure. Phone 334-7692 for reservations and directions.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

UNDERBERG HOUSE CONCERTS

Thursday: L.J. Booth, a folk storyteller.

July 24: Bailey Jester, a duo who play folk, bluegrass, country and rock.

Aug. 21: Cindy Kalmenson, a Nashvillian known for her originality.

Sept. 11: Still on the Hill, who combine bluegrass, folk, jazz, classical, jugband and blues music.

Oct. 16: Greg Klyma, a social commentator, storyteller and comedian who also is a fine musician.

Nov. 12: Dalziel, a duo who produce a lot of sound.

Dec. 4: Jack Williams, considered one of the best guitarists on the folk music circuit.

Jan. 15, 2004: The Cantrells, a Nashville duo. "She sings like an angel, he plays like the devil," one reviewer said.

Feb. 4, 6 or 8: Dana Robinson, a singer in the tradition of Woody Guthrie.

March 18: Amy Martin, a singer-songwriter who made a good impression in performances here in May.

April 16: Robert Hoyt, an activist with a sense of humor.