Before 2020 came to an end, Kenny Lambert, founder and owner of Just A Dad From Akron located at 937 Kenmore Blvd., began hosting meetings every Friday to offer support to anyone struggling with drugs or alcohol.
Lambert decided to launch the meetings after a lot of thought and planning and is excited to be in a position to provide the space and support to help people start the New Year sober.
The weekly meetings offer “good vibes” and “are open to anyone who is struggling or has struggled with drugs or alcohol and wants to seek help, or wants to share their experience and offer strength and hope to those struggling,” Lambert says, adding, “The meetings include a mini-lead/topic about a common issue we all struggle with and we share solutions that have kept myself and millions of other sober.”
If anyone knows what it takes to get sober and stay sober it’s Kenny Lambert. A Kenmore native, he was homeless and addicted to drugs and alcohol less than four years before he started Just A Dad From Akron and credits the birth of his daughter as the catalyst that inspired him to get sober and begin a journey of self-growth.
“In March 2020 I made the decision to launch Just A Dad From Akron as not only a brand but a movement.” Lambert recalls. “A movement built to inspire anyone in the community who would listen, and to be the change Akron needs.”
A year later in March 2021, Lambert opened his Just A Dad From Akron retail store on Kenmore Blvd. where he sells branded apparel that includes positive messages designed to empower the wearer. A portion of the proceeds go toward hosting free events and offering relief to the community via various outreach programs.
“My door is always open during the hours of operation for anyone who wants to support the movement or talk about life in general,” says Lambert.
The meetings are held Friday evenings at 8PM inside the Just A Dad From Akron storefront and coffee and donuts are typically provided. Follow Just A Dad From Akron on Facebook for updates and more information.
Still have some gifts to buy and running out of time? We’ve put together some ideas to help you find the perfect presents and take the stress out of your last minute shopping!
Kenmore Komics & Games is a comic book and gaming store offering an incredible selection of modern and silver age comics for all ages, role playing/strategy games and non-sport cards. You are guaranteed to find something for the comic book lover in your life at Kenmore Komics & Games.
Whether you’re looking to give someone their first beginner guitar, bass or ukulele, are in search of a higher end instrument for a more advanced player, or simply want to grab the guitarist in your life some of the essentials like picks, strings, cables, straps, etc., The Guitar Department has got you covered and is fully stocked with a range of instruments and accessories to fit any budget.
Specializing in hand-painted one of a kind vintage furniture and home décor, Marigold Sol also offers Wise Owl paints, painting supplies, stencils, stencil kits and gift cards for DIYers and hobbyists. If you’re looking for a gift that’s truly unique, stop by Marigold Sol – they will even package your gift in a bag so it is ready to give!
ManiKitchen is a family-run tea shop specializing in loose-leaf tea blends, tea sets, tea ware, and accessories. Perfect for the tea lover in your life, ManiKitchen is also offering special holiday tea blends including Pumpkin Spice Tea with notes of Pumpkin Pie, Christmas Tea with delightful Cinnamon and Orange flavors and Holly Berry Tea.
Open Thurs. 12/23 11:30am – 6pm; Closed Fri. 12/24
Kenmore clothier Ethicrace Clothing Co. designs and specializes in t-shirts, hats, hoodies, jogging suits, shorts, jackets, belts and accessories – including its popular jogging suits and short sets. Ethicrace also offers soaps, which make perfect stocking stuffers!
Just A Dad From Akron sells apparel printed featuring original designs and positive messages to empower the wearer. A portion of the proceeds go toward hosting free events and offer relief to the community through different outreach programs. Just A Dad From Akron’s goal is to continue providing service to the community in hopes to promote change, positivity and inspiration.
Kenmore Boulevard shops are full of unique gifts for everyone in your family, including these BLVD cardinal t-shirts available at Marigold Sol, 962 Kenmore Blvd., the proceeds of which support the ongoing revitalization of our community.
Check out all our businesses’ holiday hours and be sure to #shoptheboulevard this holiday season!
On Dec. 17 and 18, the Rialto Theatre and the Summit FM will present Kenmore Winter Break, a two-day festival featuring 12 bands and solo artists in the heart of Akron’s music row, home to five recording studios, two guitar shops, and many of Akron’s working musicians.
Youngstown-born and bred musician/songwriter JD Eicher and his band headline on Dec. 17, and Akron rock/pop/indie sextet Big Pop (whose lineup includes members from Time Cat, Fancy Legs, Free Black!, and The Dreemers) has the headlining honors on Dec. 18.
Cincinnati-based folk rockers the Heavy Hours, who released their first single “Don’t Walk Away,” a folksy anthem co-written by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys last year, Detention (who are now receiving regular airplay on SiriusXM and recently shared the stage with comedian/musician Fred Armisen and Gerald Casale from DEVO), emerging Struthers native Candace Campana, and Rialto staples A Band Named Ashes will also perform.
The event will also feature six Northeast Ohio singer-songwriters who’ll celebrate the grand opening of the Rialto Living Room, a “cozy” live music performance space serving food and drinks located in the front of the Rialto.
“We wanted to do something special in our new space and bring a lot of our favorite artists together for a new kind of music festival,” Rialto Theatre co-owner Seth Vaill explains in a press release. “By December, concert goers are really starting to miss festivals, and it’s been almost two years since we’ve been able to get ambitious and host a big event like this.”
The artists featured in the Rialto Living Room include Jeff Klemm, Jim Ballard, Brian Lisik, Madison Cummins, Chrissy Strong and Barry Carroll. Closing out both nights of the festival is DJ Vinnie G, who will keep the music going once the live performers have finished for the evening.
“This is the type of music event the Rialto and Kenmore can really own and grow,” says musician and Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance Promoter and Experience Manager Corey Jenkins. “The concept is repeatable and the addition of the new Rialto Living Room space enables the live music to remain constant from the moment the first solo act beings at 6 p.m. until the last band of the evening hits its final note in the theatre around 11 p.m. or so.”
Kenmore Winter Break Music Festival sponsors include Akron-based manufacturers SIT Strings and EarthQuaker Devices, as well as Kenmore guitar destinations The Guitar Department and Lay’s Guitar Shop. One hundred percent of sponsor contributions reportedly go toward paying the musicians performing during Kenmore Winter Break.
Tina Boyes and Corey Jenkins of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance are working to promote businesses on Kenmore Boulevard. (Spectrum News/Jennifer Conn)
AKRON, Ohio — Move over Highland Square Porch Rokr, there’s a new music festival in town.
The first Kenmore Winter Break Music Festival, set for Dec. 17 and 18 at the Rialto Theatre on Kenmore Boulevard, is designed not only to break up the monotony of a dreary Ohio winter, it’s also part of a strategy by the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance (KNA) to shine a light on Akron’s “Music Row.”
With five recording studios specializing in singer-songwriters to hip-hop, an historic guitar repair store, an instrument shop and a live music venue with multiple stages, the music industry has deep roots in Kenmore, said KNA Executive Director Tina Boyes.
“We’re finally listening to our musicians and music businesses and saying, ‘What do you need?’” Boyes said. “I don’t know that anyone’s really done that in a concerted way. That’s what we’re trying to do. We already have the music businesses here.”
Since Boyes took the helm of the newly created community development corporation in 2016, KNA has focused on revitalizing the businesses still standing on the Boulevard, Kenmore’s sole business district.
KNA began by spearheading a Better Block festival in 2017, which is designed to show what’s possible in a community, while featuring what’s already great.
That three-day event morphed into Kenmore First Fridays in the summers, which brought food, vendors and music to the Boulevard, drawing thousands of Akron residents over the past few years.
Boyes also applied for, and was awarded, an historic designation for the Boulevard, whose listing on the National Register of Historic Places offers benefits to small business owners looking to make building improvements.
During the long months of the pandemic, 10 new, small businesses opened their doors on the Boulevard, filling in shop fronts and bringing more vitality to the neighborhood.
Now, with a strong foundation under the business district, and the pandemic easing enough for people to come out again, KNA is fine-tuning its focus to help the individual music businesses market themselves — a move that sparked the Winter Break Music Fest idea.
“The businesses need marketing help yesterday, everything from somebody to take a picture, and put it on Facebook to an advertisement,” said Corey Jenkins, KNA’s promoter and experience manager, and the mastermind behind the music fest. “Overall, most don’t know how to do any of that.”
But Jenkins does, having experience both as a musician with the band “Big Pop,” and in corporate marketing.
The Kenmore Winter Break Music Festival is set for December 17 & 18 at the Rialto Theatre on Kenmore Boulevard. (Courtesy of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance)
KNA plans to begin promoting the core music businesses first, and expand to others on the Boulevard as she and Jenkins flesh out the best approach with the means they have to work with, Boyes said.
“There are people living within a block of these businesses that have not known for 15 to 20 years what these businesses even are,” she said. “That’s our job as the CDC here for this district is to make sure people know that this district is great. Magnify that visually, you know, marketing-wise [with signage] and branding. We want to make this affordable and accessible, but it cannot be free.”
The idea for a music fest was sparked when Jenkins began planning promotions with Rialto Theatre owners Seth and Nate Vaill for a relaunch of the theatre. The brothers bought the theater in 2010, and opened a performance venue, an event space and Just A Dream Recording Studios in 2015.
While working on a relaunch plan to showcase the theater’s newly created Living Room Stage for acoustic sets, Jenkins suggested a music festival.
“By December, people are missing the summer music festivals,” he said. “With the COVID stuff, there hasn’t been the opportunity for a lot of that, so I was like, ‘Let’s do something big.’”
The Vaills liked the idea so Jenkins contacted 91.3 The Summit FM, Akron’s original-music station, which agreed to participate. The Summit already refers to the Boulevard as Akron’s Music Row in ads, Jenkins said.
Once the other Boulevard’s music businesses agreed to sponsor the event the festival was on.
“It’s about giving Kenmore and the Rialto a signature music event that is unique and they can own,” Jenkins said.
Promoting the Boulevard as Akron’s Music Row makes sense, said Seth Vaill.
“To be honest, there’s a rich history here,” he said. “I think we start with the musicians and then the people come. I think that’s the key, getting the musicians to come down and play you know, and then people will follow once there’s a community of musicians that are here.”
Big Pop is scheduled to perform at Kenmore Winter Break Music Festival in December.
The Rialto is in good company on the Boulevard.
Lay’s Guitar Shop was opened by Virgil Lay in 1968, serving the likes of Jack Bruce, Phil Keaggy and Joe Walsh. Lay also founded SIT Strings (stay in tune), which is now located about two miles from the Boulevard.
Lay’s is now owned by Dan Shinn, who opened the Loft at Lay’s upstairs from the repair shop, and sells hand-made and custom instruments, vintage guitars, amplifiers and more. Shinn’s brother, Joel Shinn, runs a guitar refinish and restoration business and is working on launching Lay’s brand guitars.
The Guitar Department, a Boulevard staple since 2009, is a new and used consignment shop catering to players of every skill level and budget, and offering music lessons.
Among the recording studios is Thom Tadsen Live Album Recording Studio, in the former Cook Hardware. Tadsen operates a 24-track live and 128-playback music studio specializing in punk, metal, rock and rockabilly.
Boyes likens the services KNA could offer Boulevard businesses to agency work, where offerings would be on a project or retainer basis.
“We’re saying, ‘There’s a whole new group of people out there that could be paying attention to you, that want to pay attention to you, and we can reach them,’” she said. “Let us help you.”
No one came knocking on Sandra Saulsberry’s door for approval six years ago when “a guy from California” wanted to paint a mural and make Summit Lake more friendly to a mostly younger crowd.
Saulsberry and her neighbors balked at the plan after a long history of well-intentioned visionaries swooping into their Akron neighborhood talking about what’s best for them. But in the six years since, the 30-year resident of Summit Lake has been on a journey with the Civic Commons, a Knight Foundation-funded collaborative that engages residents on reimagining public spaces and fostering community.
Saulsberry was initially leery of these latest philanthropists, architects and civic leaders. She even said she Googled for dirt on Dan Rice, who’s overseeing the project as president and CEO of the Ohio and Erie Canal Coalition. Eventually, Saulsberry said Wednesday from the eastern shore of Summit Lake, she trusted them and, more importantly, let them trust her.
“You know,” she said with Rice, Mayor Dan Horrigan, Council President Margo Sommerville (whose ward includes the lake) and Akron Program Director Kyle Kutuchief with the Knight Foundation all sitting behind her, “when the Civic Commons did do this park right where we’re standing, I came down one evening and just sat on a swing at sunset.
“It was such a beautiful day,” she said. “In the midst of it, a large bird flew over the sunset and I thought, wow, if I had a camera and took that picture and put it on Facebook and asked someone, ‘Where do you think I was vacationing at?’ they would have never dreamed that was a scene from Summit Lake.”
That’s a still frame from the photo album that has become the community-led vision for reimagining Summit Lake. And with $2 million in support announced by Horrigan on Wednesday, that vision has never been clearer now that the first two phases of this $10 million-plus project are fully funded.
City Council has been asked this month to approve the $2 million allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan Act as part of an annual spending measure that funds city government for the first three months of 2022, until the entire annual budget is ready.
Last year, council unanimously approved $3 million for the Summit Lake renewal project, which includes a $3 million trail around the lake that spins off the Towpath Trail, a bridge from the community center playground to a new north shore boathouse, canoe launch area and pavilion, and a full extension of the floating boardwalk to span the width of the lake, connecting Summit Lake and Kenmore while allowing boats to pass under an arched walkway.
Building bridges, building trust
Residents like Saulsberry say they see the plan as truly for and by people who’ve stayed near Summit Lake for decades, enduring urban renewal projects that cut them off from economic opportunity and private disinvestment that’s led to more demolitions and empty lots than there are standing houses on some streets.
A century since the upper class flocked to a Ferris wheel, boardwalk and tiled swimming pool of “Akron’s Million Dollar Playground” at Summit Lake, the next chapter of recreation — of place-making and community-connecting, of bringing people of various walks of life together to foster empathy and understanding — is being written with local residents instead being handed to them.
“I learned so much about trust,” Saulsberry said. “Do I allow people to come into my space and see who I am as a resident? And that’s still an issue in this neighborhood, that we don’t trust people. Well, trusting people who come to your community and open their hearts and ask, ‘Well, what do you want?’ and not ‘what I want to give you’ — that’s invitation right there to know that ‘I’m not out to take anything from you. I’m coming to bring. And I’m going to bring what you like, what your family will enjoy.’”
Rice and architects with City Architecture presented preliminary designs Wednesday. Wayfinding markers staked around the lake that morning flapped in the breeze, allowing the more than 100 community stakeholders in attendance, including County Councilwoman Veronica Sims and City Council members Jeff Fusco and Ginger Baylor, to place the location of the new pavilion and boathouse or the bridge that will carry people off the Towpath Trail to the north shore.
Juleian Curtis with City Architecture led the many community meetings that shaped, and reshaped, the planning. For example, a west shoreline amphitheater that might have been a destination for people living elsewhere was rejected by local residents, whose opinions took priority.
Curtis recalled that as an undergraduate at Kent State, he was assigned to reimagine Summit Lake. It was 2011, before the Reach Community Center was built, before a studied declared the water clean enough to boat and fish (and getting cleaner), before Civic Commons got involved and installed benches, picnic tables and a public space that fills with farmers markets, bands and festivities in warmer weather.
“It’s even better than we imagined it would be,” Curtis said, looking at a giant poster board of the preliminary plans he helped design.
Timeline for construction
Rice and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, along with the city and other partners in the Civic Commons, are overseeing a total of $40 million in improvements at Summit Lake and Lock 3, a downtown park set for a complete overhaul next year.
At Summit Lake, the $3 million trail is in the final design stage, Rice said. The plan is to bid the work in early 2022 and break ground in the spring or early summer.
The rest of the Phase I and II improvements at Summit Lake — the boathouse, a parking lot for boat trailers and another for guests, a bridge and pavilion, and an open lawn area for community events — will undergo nine more months of design. The plan is to leave as many trees as possible to serve as a natural sound barrier with the interstate not far away.
Construction would commence in 2023 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony toward the end of the year.
Phase III of the Summit Lake Vision Plan will then shift focus to the Kenmore shore, where Rice said $5 million to $7 million in potential upgrades are still being sorted out by residents.
Reach Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.
Taylor Rahe is a Kenmore resident and stay at home mom to two young children she and her husband Ben, a business owner, are raising. Since moving to Kenmore about a decade ago, Taylor and Ben have been actively engaged in the community – particularly with Friends of Chestnut Ridge Park and Project Shine.
1. How long have you lived in Kenmore and what attracted your family to the neighborhood?
We moved to Kenmore eight or nine years ago when Ben was on staff at First Glance. We have since purchased both our first and second home here. We have stayed for the community and seeking the welfare of our neighborhood. The affordable cost of living in Kenmore has also provided us with opportunities to invest and pursue business ventures.
2. You and your husband are active with the Friends of Chestnut Ridge Park, how did you become involved in that group and why is Chestnut Ridge Park special to you?
We live very close to Chestnut Ridge Park and take our two young kids to play there nearly every day! When we moved in three and a half years ago there was already a movement to make improvements and maintain the park and we jumped in to support however we could. We just started showing up to meetings and availed ourselves however we could.
3. You also got a disc golf course installed at Chestnut Ridge Park, what’s your advice for people who have never played, but want to learn, and what do people need to know in order to go play at Chestnut Ridge?
Chestnut Ridge is the perfect place to check out disc golf if you are new to the sport! It was designed with new people in mind. Discs can be purchased for $10 or less at Play it Again Sports. We are still working on getting signs in at the park and until then the best way to navigate the course is through the UDisc app. We would also be more than willing to show people around and lend a disc!
4. What is your favorite spot in Kenmore? What do you love about it?
Besides Chestnut Ridge we love Old 97! It’s such a gem. I love the unique drinks they have and the atmosphere.
5. You and your husband worked with Project Shine to renovate the exterior of elderly resident’s homes with teens. What can you tell us about Project Shine, why it’s important to you, and how others can become involved?
Ben and I became involved with Project Shine through First Glance when we would take students to participate. I served on the board of Project Shine from 2017-2019. I love Project Shine for the two fold aspect of the ministry – not only is it a service to the community, but it is teaching local teenagers how to serve in their community! It’s awesome to drive through the neighborhood and see the homes that have been painted throughout the years and be reminded of the good memories and friendships we have through Shine.
6. What is your favorite Kenmore memory or story to share with people?
I don’t have one specific moment in mind, but I love when we all come together for First Friday or other community events when the BLVD is packed with people we love and we can bounce from person to person catching up. [Editors Note: Light The BLVD is coming December 3!]
7. You can only pick one Kenmore Pizza – Pierre’s, Rocco’s, Regina’s, or Talamo’s – which one is it going to be and why?
Pierre’s! His Pierre’s Pizza is my all-time favorite. Pure garlicky goodness.
8. What concert or event would you love to see at The Rialto Theatre?
As far as bands go- I would love to see Needtobreathe there! Also either a showing or performance of It’s a Wonderful Life at Christmas time would be so fun!
9. As a resident, where do you see Kenmore in ten years?
I see a vibrant boulevard with thriving shops and businesses.
10. What do you want the world to know about Kenmore?
We are a true community here. We are a part of a bigger city, but we have the community aspect of a small town. People have roots here. We have festivals/events like a small town- community Thanksgiving, Christmas on the Boulevard, Easter on the Boulevard, First Fridays.
Kenmore Boulevard is quickly becoming Akron’s hotspot for fun and safe nightlife and The Nite Owl Restaurant, located at 992 Kenmore Blvd., is a major contributor to this new fun scene.
Owner Sharness Dowdy is a devoted mother and passionate entrepreneur. The Nite Owl was located in Barberton before moving to the Kenmore location in September of this year. September also marked The Nite Owl’s two year anniversary of being in operation, a milestone Sharness is truly proud of.
“I wanted to quit so many times but I am a Capricorn, a true GOAT reaching the top of every mountain I encounter”, Sharness writes in a recent Facebook post.
The Nite Owl boasts a truly diverse menu with soul food classics such as shrimp and grits but also has Italian staples like Alfredo. The menu has a pleasant rotation, with new exciting dishes being added and seasonal favorites being retired until next year. The Nite Owl menu offers great lunch and dinner options with affordable price points. The Nite Owl really lives up to its name, with menu options available until twelve am on weekdays and two am on weekends.
The Nite Owl staff offer warm, friendly, and quick service. My order of chicken wings was ready within twenty minutes of ordering and had a perfect balance of sauce and crispness. The fried green tomatoes I ordered were so delicious and authentic they took me back to my summers spent with family down south. The restaurant was immaculately clean and the staff all had personal protective equipment.
With a google rating of 4.9, it’s no wonder why The Nite Owl is quickly becoming Kenmore’s go-to eatery. So if you are on the boulevard patronizing one of the many local businesses, be sure to give The Nite Owl a try, they will not disappoint.
The Nite Owl is open Tuesday – Thursday from noon until midnight, Friday from noon until 2am, and Saturday from 4pm-2am for dine-in or takeout orders. The Nite Owl updates its menu on its Facebook page and orders may be called in at 234-678-7488.
Editor’s note: This is the third story in a series spotlighting live music venues in and around Akron published by the Akron Beacon Journal.
For the Vaill brothers, Seth and Nate, owning the Rialto Theatre in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood has been an outgrowth of their own musical passions.
Seth, 36, and Nate, 41, originally from Norton, put together the folk band, A Band Named Ashes, when Seth was about 19 and Nate was about 24. Nate wrote music, played guitar and was lead singer, and Seth started in the band playing bass before moving to keys.
The sons of Norton teachers, the brothers dropped their own plans to become educators as they began touring regularly with their band. In 2008, they started recording and editing their own music at their home studio, which led to engineer Nate gaining recording clients.
“We need a facility to kind of house bigger artists and do bigger recording,” Seth Vaill related about the brothers’ goal at the time.
They started renting-to-own the old Rialto movie theater at 1000 Kenmore Blvd. in 2010, creating a recording studio for themselves and other musicians while renovating the theater over the next four years.
The goal was to create one venue where musicians could record, practice, mix, edit and perform. That includes providing a theater performance space for album release parties.
The Vaill brothers purchased the 1920s-era Rialto in 2014, going into family business with parents Bill and Sue with Just a Dream Entertainment Inc. The Rialto Theatre was born in 2015 when they got a liquor license, and local artists started playing at the venue.
By 2017, the Rialto was growing and attracting traveling artists, including Clark Beckham from American Idol. They have also hosted comedians, including Dustin Diamond (“Screech” from “Saved By the Bell,”), and they rent for private events.
Among its diverse offerings, the venue also has swing dancing nights the second and fourth Wednesday of every month.
The Rialto closed due to COVID-19 in March of 2020 and didn’t reopen until this past July. The theater hosts artists in every genre, including folk, rock, hip hop, country and alternative.
Now, the brothers are gearing up to open an intimate new live music performance space — the Rialto Living Room. It’s a lounge area at the front of the building where guests can get a drink at a new second bar, order sandwiches, salads or appetizers from a small café and listen to music.
The space was created by relocating the Rialto’s front recording studio and moving it next door on Kenmore Boulevard.
The Rialto Living Room will have its grand opening Dec. 17 and 18 at Kenmore Winter Break, an annual mini-festival that features local musicians. Each night will feature three bands on the main stage and three solo artists in the Rialto Living Room.
Vaill recently talked about the Rialto as part of a Beacon Journal series spotlighting live music venues in and around Akron. (Some responses have been edited for brevity.)
What does the Rialto Theatre have to offer that might be different from other area music venues?
We try and take an opportunity for artists to do multiple things at our venue. And what I mean specifically about that is the recording, the mixing, playing at an actual performance space where the venue is dedicated to the show. We actually record — both video and audio — the actual shows. So the artist can actually take that home, and we’ve done Live at the Rialto. So in other words, we actually use the space to record the performance so they can actually release the album. We’re run by musicians for musicians and music fans.
What’s the most challenging thing about running a concert venue?
Making each show as successful as they can be, and a lot of that has to do with attendance. You need to create avenues to make each show have a little spice to it. You give your audience opportunities to kind of see new things and create opportunities to see new stuff. We’re not gonna do folk all the time. We’re gonna do a hip hop show, we’re gonna do a theater show, we’re gonna have a play, we’re gonna have a comedy show.
Conversely, what’s the most rewarding thing about running a concert venue?
We think music — arts and culture — is one of the most rewarding things in our society. We think it’s an opportunity for people of all different backgrounds to share something.
What have been some of the most memorable shows at the Rialto Theatre?
The most important show is the first show we ever did back in May 2015 [including A Band Named Ashes and country artist Mark Leach], because that was the start of our wonderful venture that we’re doing today.
Why was it important for you to include two recording studios at your venue?
One is more like a vocal booth, the other is more like a band setup. We think it’s important, because for artists having an album recorded and tracked is a really important part of being a musician.
Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
