Focal Point: Fifty Years Lucky

By Judy Stein

Focal Point is a small music venue featuring performers who rate a closer look than they’d get in bars. Operating continuously from 1975 to the present hasn’t been easy: over the years we’ve journeyed from the spare room of a music store, through a long period as a floating concert series/folk club in church basements, rented auditoriums, the furnace room at COCA, private homes and parking lots, to a permanent building at 2720 Sutton Blvd in Maplewood. We’ve called ourselves a coffeehouse, a folk club, a traditional arts center, and most recently, since acquiring the permanent address, a listening room. 

The ”listening room” title is important: we have been able to configure the space for optimum sound quality; we’ve found the most appropriate equipment for the space, and have always been lucky in attracting sound technicians who love the room, know the instruments and voices, and take pride in their work! 

Focal Point has always been volunteer-run: money generated by concerts, donations and grants goes to pay the musicians and the building expenses: rent, utilities, that kind of stuff. The people who run the shows, choose the musicians, build the stage, operate the sound, write the grants, pay the bills, feed and sometimes house the performers, maintain the website, archive the concerts, take the tickets, etc etc etc …. all do it for different reasons, but they all do it for free! Our volunteers all have their own reasons for showing up and doing what they do; for fifty years now Focal Point has run along with a crew of self-motivated, intelligent, skilled folks who need little or no oversight to create a superior, unique institution.

Here’s one example of how the volunteer thing works: Geoff Hermann, a Focal Point volunteer, grew up listening to KSHE like most of his friends, went to clubs, heard cool music, perhaps paid a bit closer attention to the music than his peers did. One night, (2014, he thinks) he found himself listening to Cree Rider’s family band’s annual Cree Fest, at Off Broadway, celebrating Cree’s expert take on Americana with a host of like-minded bands. In the crowd were a few Focal Point staff members, who told him that several of the bands featured at the Creefest were regulars at Focal Point. Geoff showed up at a Focal Point concert, liked the look of the place, the music, and the people—and offered to volunteer.  Geoff was working for the Rockwood school district as building maintenance and locksmith, freely offering those considerable skills to Focal Point.

The luck works both ways: Attending more of Focal Point’s eclectic trad/folk/international/blues concerts, Geoff soon learned where his preferred country/Americana songwriters fit into the overall picture of American country and folk music.  He became better acquainted with related sounds such as bluegrass, old-time, and Irish music. He added new favorites to his playlist. And as situations arose, Geoff expanded his skills to include lighting and camera work when we began streaming and recording shows during Covid. 

And then one day, he was helping to refinish the floor with Eric Stein, Focal Point’s longtime sound engineer. Geoff’s phone playlist was going strong, Eric said something like “That’s a great selection of music; you should talk to the booking committee and get some of those guys in here.” And so, roughly five years ago, Geoff joined Focal Point’s booking committee, fitting in handily between the old-time country, Irish, jazz and blues and international members by sticking mainly to his Americana songwriters area of expertise. 

Geoff’s concerts on our calendar show up perhaps once or twice a month; upcoming artists presented by Geoff include Todd Shaeffer on February 15, Buddy Mondlock on March 1, and Sam Robbins on March 21. 

Pay us a visit; check out these and all our other shows at thefocalpoint.org ! Also, watch this space for perhaps more volunteer insights, or in-depth visits with performers, or whatever we think would interest you about Focal Point’s activities. We’re a lucky institution, and grateful for it.

Judy Stein grew up in East St Louis. She has been singing, according to family members, since birth; actively collecting songs since about 12 or 13 years old. Along with the Irish music, She has volunteered at Focal Point from 1983 to the present, occasionally running the venue single-handedly. She also produced a weekly KDHX radio show on Sunday mornings, from1987 until they moved to Grand Center.