Featured musicians frequented now-closed River Street cafe
Several local musicians who enjoyed performing at now-closed River Street restaurant and nightspot The Blue Door Cafe will reconvene for a special benefit concert Friday, Oct. 9, at Cartecay River Brewing Company.
Music will begin at 4 p.m. and last until the venue’s closing time of 9 p.m. All proceeds collected from the Blue Door Reunion performance will benefit the Gilmer Community Food Pantry.
“There’s going to be a tip jar and we will donate that 100 percent to the food pantry,” said singer and guitarist Mike Bean, who’s organizing the special night of music.
Ten years ago, the space at 24 River Street that’s now Emily’s Bar and Restaurant was home to the Blue Door Cafe. The restaurant opened shortly after The Pool Room, the popular hamburger and hot dog spot that operated at the corner of River and Church Street for decades, closed its doors.
“Our vision was a place with good food and good music. It was a labor of love. We worked hard and everybody had a good time,” said Blue Door owner Jim Stover.
Stover remembered the cafe was one of the first downtown Ellijay restaurants to regularly book live music while also serving beer and wine.
“Wolf Creek Canyon BBQ and Jilly’s were also there (on the same side of River Street). It was the three of us and we all had our own personalities,” he said. “I always said we had alcohol for the patrons who came to listen to the music. We didn’t have music to sell alcohol.”
Thursday, Friday and Saturday were the venue’s regular live music nights and several different musical genres, from Motown and blues to bluegrass, rock and folk, were played there, Stover noted.
“A lot of the groups that now play the wineries and vineyards got their start there. The Pioneer Chicken Stand Band played there a lot. Bo Collins and Mitch Mulkey were a favorite on Thursday nights. Barefoot Boone got their start there. (So did) Jack and the Bean and Downtown Roy. We had students who would come down from Young Harris College to play music and there were also quite a few bands that formed out of that,” he added.
“We never had a lot of money, so a lot of the time they played for the fun of it or we paid them with gift cards for food and drink. No one ever turned us down. Terry Ellis and his band, Kharisma, would come up from Atlanta and almost play for free. And that is a high dollar band. They did it because they enjoy Ellijay and they enjoyed the vibe that came from the Blue Door.”
Don Roberts, a member of the band Downtown Roy and one of the local musicians who plans to participate in the fundraiser concert, shared a memory of performing at the Blue Door, where the featured groups set up shop in back of the room.
“I remember that, in order for a patron to be able to use the one unisex rest room in the left rear of the place, one had to go through the bandstand — and then sing a verse — to go in,” he said.
Bean was a visitor to Ellijay when he started performing at the Blue Door shortly after it opened.
“I had a band in Atlanta called the Radio Ramblers so I was living there full time and coming up to Ellijay on the weekends. I would go there every Friday night. All of the people, other than Jim, I had never laid eyes on before. We all met, got acquainted and exchanged musical ideas during the course of that one year experience. A lot of really close friendships were formed,” he noted.
The reunion show will feature a cast of musicians who performed at the Blue Door while it was open from mid-2010 to the end of 2011. Among those expected to participate include Bean and Jack Bellinato’s combo Jack and the Bean, Dannie Wilson and Joy Hice of Barefoot Boone, Terry Ellis, members of Downtown Roy, Cliff Lancey and Jack Monroe, Bean said.
“We’re going to try and replicate exactly what we did at the Blue Door, which was get as many people on stage as we could and we would take turns among us leading a song. An all-night jam is what it became,” he added. “If it’s successful, we might make it an annual event.”
Cartecay Brewing Company owner Brooks Wade said live music has been a popular draw at his craft brewery/taproom since it opened last year at 26 River Terrace, and he’s glad to be hosting this benefit show. “We do live music every Friday and Saturday. We’ve got a stage out back. It’s an outside stage and a fully covered patio. We’re excited to be part of this and happy to be a part of something benefiting the food pantry,” he added.