ListenLocalSD showcases great music talent

San Diego is full of the round-robin style performances where musicians gather together, play their songs, talk and entertain. One of the best of these round-robin style performance series is the monthly Acoustic Alliance, organized by Cathryn Beeks of Listen Local Live. The series began back in December of 2004 and it has taken off from then.
What Acoustic Alliance does is gather twelve of the best songwriters, mostly from San Diego, whether they are veterans or new discoveries to the music scene around town. Each round is made up of four songwriters during which they share the stage and trade the spotlight to perform three of their best songs.
The who’s who of the local music scene has participated in the Acoustic Alliance. Local musicians include Gregory Page, Jeff Berkley, Robin Henkel, Steph Johnson, Dave Howard, Tim Flannery, Aaron Bowen and dozens more. Even lead singers from bands have participated in this event, including Matt Molarius from Transfer, Zach Goode from Divided by Zero and Matt Silvia from Sweettooth.
The talent just gets better each time and it looks like it will keep going for as long as Cathryn Beeks wants to keep doing this fantastic music concert series. It’s not just local musicians who are having the opportunity to perform. Out of town musicians, such as Christopher Dallman, Jeordie, and Kyler England have performed as well.
People who are tired of paying big money for music events will definitely get their money’s worth at an Acoustic Alliance performance. The admission charge is only $6 for more than two hours of great entertainment with twelve great musicians. You can’t beat the price- usually if you go to a concert with twelve musicians it’s a festival and it costs a lot more than $6. Plus, the setting for Acoustic Alliance is intimate with candle-lit tables and you can mingle with the audience and the musicians themselves. Since attending a few of these events I have made some really great new friends as well as new contacts in the local music scene and have discovered new favorite musicians, too.
Cathryn Beeks has done a lot for the local music scene by putting on the best round-robin style of music events in San Diego. Because the word about Acoustic Alliance has gotten out, there are often heavy-hitters on the bill. It’s not just the heavy hitters that people come to see, but the new talent waiting to be discovered. Not just to be discovered, but to be given a chance to gain exposure to a wider audience because it is really hard to get to play in certain venues around town without a following or a great demo.
This is what is so exciting about going to one of these events. You have the opportunity to hear all kinds of different singer-songwriters in action. If you don’t like a certain performer’s style, then you have an opportunity to hear the next performer and so on, but I’m pretty sure you will end up liking the entire performances over all.
Catheryn Beeks also promotes local music showcases at the Tiki Bar in Pacific Beach on Thursday nights. On select Friday nights, showcases are done out at the Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club as well.
Thanks to Cathyrn and various supporters in the community, events such as the Acoustic Alliance will hopefully continue on for years to come. Besides Cathryn, her staff includes the talented Erica Mantone as well as Tim Flack who does a lot of the photography at Acoustic Alliance. These talented people are part of why the local music scene is so active.
If you would like more information about the Acoustic Alliance as well as Cathryn Beeks and her local music showcases, you can go to her web site at http://www.listenlocalsd.com/ to obtain information about her events. Also you can obtain information about local artists and if you are in a band or are a musician yourself you can signup to play in a showcase.