Little-Known Guitar Series Hosts Name Players

Lou Fancher on November 24, 2015
Stevie Coyle, who runs the Mighty Fine Guitars series.
Stevie Coyle, who runs the Mighty Fine Guitars series.

In an era that leaves music consumers choosing between large concert venues, tiny coffee shops, or living room-size private “house” shows — some say mid-size venues have largely evaporated — an indie house, which opened in 2012 and seats 85 is an anomaly.

Fingerpicking guitarist and singer/songwriter Stevie Coyle’s Mighty Fine Guitars series presents two monthly concerts, on average, in the “Big Room” tucked into the Lamorinda Music store in Lafayette, CA. Lovers and players of the guitar have cause to rejoice because although the occasional singer/instrumentalist, world musician, duo/trio bands, or other configurations appear (Grammy nominated, Indian slide guitarist Debashish Battacharya made a recent splash), you’re more likely to find fingerpickers like Laurence Juber, who played with Paul McCartney and the Wings; Grammy nominated Alex de Grassi (Windham Hill and other labels); Mark Goldenburg, Jackson Browne’s lead guitarist for over 20 years; and other top-caliber, acoustic guitarists.

On rare occasions, and always sold out, Bay Area-native Daniel Levitin — neuroscientist, best-selling author, musician, record producer, and fabulous entertainer in his own right — takes the spotlight for a laugh-filled, highly informative lecture demonstration. Once a year, Coyle himself picks up his “box and strings” to perform a pair of sold-out shows, which offer works reflective of his past and hinting at new influences.

The "Big Room"
The "Big Room"

Coyle grew up listening to a medley: his grandmother’s piano playing, his mother on mandolin, and albums his dad brought home from his work at a Southern California radio station, including The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett and Alvin And The Chipmunks Play The Beatles’ Hits. Picking up a guitar in high school, he joined a bluegrass band, then forayed into theater, theology, circus acts, even appearing as a weatherman on an episode of the TV comedy show, Cheers, before settling into a groove with the Waybacks for seven years. Coyle describes the four-piece band’s music as “newgrass” and although the band continues to perform sporadically, he’s no longer riding that track.

In addition to the approximately 10-month concert season, Coyle offers private lessons and sells high-end guitars in a shop adjacent to the music store. Maker names include Klein, Klepper, Hoffman, Perlman, and Olson, with most instruments in the $1,700-$22,000 range.

“I’ve entered that period people told me about after you’ve run a new business for three years,” Coyle says. “I’ve cut back the concerts to two a month, sometimes three if there’s someone I just can’t pass up. I’m ratcheting up the biz and running it smarter so I can go out and do gigs on alternative weekends.”

"It’s all about the music. And the jerk quotient is low. Unpleasant people never show up.” - Stevie CoyleCoyle offers a pass-the-hat ticket price, with most people paying an average of $20 for a night of entertainment. Sharing snacks, seated just 10 feet from highly skilled musicians, it’s hard to beat the “close enough to inhale a performer’s essence” atmosphere. The set up is low-tech for acoustic musicians — a microphone for the singer and one for the guitar. With an 80/20 split with the house and all merchandise sales going to the artist, Coyle says, “It turns out to be a nice payday. There’s no agent to pay, no overhead for alcohol. It’s all about the music. And the jerk quotient is low. Unpleasant people never show up.”

Essentially, exceptional curation is the main reason the concerts have attracted enough of a following that Coyle sometimes uses RSVP-only or adds a second show so that no one is turned away. He occasionally draws artists from an ad hoc network of “living room concert” solo performers, but mostly, Coyle relies on “folks who housed or fed me when I was on the road so I’m restoring my karma having them in.”