Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Skie’s Storytellers soothes summer heat

By Sarah Poulton

A relaxing evening with acoustic music by various local artists may be the perfect close-to-home getaway on a hot, summer Sunday night.

For the past two summers, Dan Sweeney, owner of Skie Promotions, has been organizing the Skie Summer Storyteller Series at Barleys. Chapter two, which was held last Sunday, featured local artists The Starlight Darlings, Gee of 5 Elements and Todd Kaden from Asleep.

While the performances don’t necessarily have to be acoustic — Kaden was certainly plugged in — Sweeney said he prefers a quieter, sans drums ambience for people to gather.

“I turned it into a more intimate setting where the artists have a chance to tell a story or two about their song and people at the bar could have a conversation, but still listen to good music,” Sweeney said. “I was going for that intimate, rock stars unplugged kind of feel.”

He said the initial idea came about when local acoustic artist Jordan DePaul wanted to perform. DePaul, who was a minor at the time, drew a younger crowd and needed to have all-ages shows. Barleys agreed to those conditions, but it had to be on Sunday nights.

After his first Sunday show, Sweeney said he had a great turnout and wanted to create a series. He thought the name “Storyteller” was fitting and scheduled two additional shows last summer. He began making contacts with other bands, and continued his series through the winter.

“I had a lot of bands like Relic and Aura who wanted to turn their hard rock set acoustic,” Sweeney said.

There will be four more chapters this summer going through September. Rajma, guitarist for Triple Threat, serves as the host and emcee for the shows. Rajma opens every show with a few acoustic songs and announces the rest of the acts giving the show a mature feel while catering to young people.

“I consider Rajma to be one of the best musicians in Youngstown for a long time,” Sweeney said. “He’s good on the mic and comfortable with it. I’m more of a behind-the-scenes guy.”

DePaul, who now has a full band called The Reputations, has been playing Storyteller shows for more than a year, and said the laid-back setting helped him to interact with his crowd during all his shows, and made him much more comfortable on stage.

“I love the shows, they’re just fun shows to play,” DePaul said. “It’s just a bunch of family and friends around, everybody supporting what we do.”

DePaul said he’s become so comfortable in the Sunday evening atmosphere that he doesn’t think twice about telling jokes and making a fool of himself. He said every time he’s played a Storyteller show, there’s been a good turnout, but even with a large crowd, there’s something special about the series.

“It’s always going to be intimate, no matter what,” DePaul said. “Usually a bunch of my friends come out, and a bunch of fans that we’ve made over the past year.

Frank Nolasco of The Starlight Darlings said they played their first Storyteller show March 8 at Barleys. He said they had a really good turnout, which enticed him to go back again. He describes his band as a “high energy acoustic band” that likes to interact with the crowd. For them, he said the atmosphere can be challenging at times, but still produces a good show.

“I think [The Storyteller Series] is a really good idea,” Nolasco said. “I think one of the great things about Youngstown is diversity.”

Nolasco said he thinks the shows are promoted well, but because it can be hard to get a good crowd on a Sunday night, he would like to see the series moved to either Fridays or Saturdays.

Sweeney said now that DePaul and fans have turned 18, he’s considering changing the shows to Saturdays. He said he also hopes to open his own venue soon, but for now, he’ll stick to Barleys because “it has character.”