LIVING ROOM BALLADEERS: HOUSE CONCERTS BECOMING POPULAR VENUE FOR ACCOUSTIC MUSIC

Upstairs in Teri Wondra's Broadway apartment, guests arrived bearing salads, fruit trays and the like for a potluck supper. Down in the parking lot, New England folk singer Cliff Eberhardt checked the oil in his Chevy conversion van. An hour later, Eberhardt tuned his guitar to begin an increasingly popular event in the world of acoustic and folk music -- a house concert.

Eberhardt has recorded six albums and often performs in theaters that seat up to 500 people. But performing in people's houses is becoming an important part of his schedule, especially since he doesn't like flying.

"House concerts can pay more than a regular gig," he says.

Unlike playing at a theater or night club, performers receive all the gate at a house concert. They also can sell CDs during the breaks and usually are treated to dinner and a bed to spend the night in if they like. Like Wondra, the hosts are just grateful to be able to hear live acoustic music in such an intimate atmosphere.

Wondra hosted the house concert, her second, simply because she loves music. Since folk music is scarce in Southeast Missouri, she decided to import it for her own benefit.

"Music gives me so much pleasure," she says. "... It fills me up."

Tuesday night, Eberhardt and backup singer Laurie MacAllister performed in Chicago. Wednesday night they appeared in Wondra's apartment, and Thursday night they were due in Omaha, Neb., for a concert. Eberhardt has scheduled six house concerts during the one-month tour that began Saturday in Philadelphia. The tour includes a stop at the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival in Lyons, Colo., where 10,000 people will attend the concerts.

Intimate setting

After finishing supper Wednesday night, 20 people crowded into Wondra's living room to hear the concert. Almost all were people Wondra knows. Some sat on stuffed chairs already there, others on folding chairs and even lawn chairs. Eberhardt and MacAllister stood near the front door and sang without microphones.

She painted delicate harmonies atop Eberhardt's scratchy, harder-edged voice, a combination that worked together beautifully.

Eberhardt, who is single, writes many of his songs about relationships. "About not having a wife and family," he laughs.

Some, like "I'm Having a Voodoo Morning, My Darling" and "You Always Say You Love Me Everytime You Break My Heart," were quirky.

MacAllister sang "If You Are Not Sure," a song she wrote to reassure her insecure boyfriend. She broke up with him two months later, she confessed.

Eberhardt has local roots. He was a fixture on the music scene in Carbondale, Ill., in the 1970s, playing with Shawn Colvin and with Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows. He recalls playing at dance at the VFW in Cape Girardeau.

He had been driving a New York City cab for seven years and struggling as a folk musician when his voice suddenly became familiar singing "The Heartbeat of America -- Chevrolet" commercial. He hasn't had a "regular" job since. Originally signed by Windham Hill, he now has a contract with Minnesota-based Red House Records.

Humbling for performers

Touring in a van and playing house concerts makes him feel like Woody Guthrie, Eberhardt says. "It's very adventurous."

He likes the mix of both theater concerts and house concerts, but says the latter can be humbling for performers accustomed to theatrical settings and royal treatment from promoters.

Fans sometimes take advantage of the intimate setting at house concerts on the East Coast where he is more well known, he admits.

"Sometimes it can get a little too personal."

That did not happen at Wondra's apartment, where members of the audience bantered with Eberhardt only when he asked questions and schmoozed with him cordially during the break and after the concert. Something about being in someone's living room shortens the psychological distance that can exist between performer and audience in even the most intimate club.

The audience included Barney Hartline and Jim Hickam, two of the three hosts of KRCU's "Your Folk Connection," Grace Cafe talent coordinator Lindsay Bowerman and others who simply like acoustic music.

Better than a radio hit

Jan and Mary Gieselmann sat on a couch and sipped cool drinks through the evening. He admired Eberhardt's guitar playing and the fact that both were performing songs they knew will never become radio hits.

"I like them because they don't kowtow to the mainstream just to sell albums," he said.

MacAllister, who lives in New York City, is just beginning her career. She is a former corporate psychologist who analyzed work relationships for companies with the goal of increasing productivity. The job offered security but didn't make her feel good. "Music is this lighthouse to me," she said. "I'm proud of being a musician."

Now she is trying to build a music career without the aid of a recording contract. She recorded her first album, titled "These Old Clothes," on her own. Business concerns compete with her creative side for time, but the do-it-yourself nature and growing popularity of house concerts allows her to circumvent the usual routes musicians follow.

"Five years ago we wouldn't have been able to do this," she said.

Connection with audience

Clubs like New York City's Bottom Line and Club Passim in Boston are called "listening rooms" because they cultivate an environment where songs can be heard without the interference of bar noise and socializing. Musicians are drawn to house concerts because they want that same connection with the audience. "They don't want to have to compete with the cappuccino maker," she said.

Wondra met MacAllister at the Kerrville Folk Music Festival in Texas, an 18-day event that is like an annual Woodstock for folk music. Wondra offered to host a house concert if MacAllister was ever coming through the area. That's how Wednesday night's concert came about.

The Internet has enabled the phenomenon of house concerts to blossom, MacAllister said. A site called www.houseconcerts.com is just one of hundreds of hits a Web search will produce. Fans can keep track of performers' touring schedules and performers can find people along their tour route who host house concerts.

A bed in the back of the van makes it possible for one of the musicians to sleep while the other drives so they can schedule a concert almost every night. Sometimes dinner is at KFC, but sometimes it's in the warmth of the house of someone who has invited them there to hear their music.