Saturday Night at Over Yonder
Like most good things, I first heard about the Over Yonder Concert House through the whisper stream that runs through our local Toledo art scene. The whisper stream, the unofficial water cooler out on the patio, or the front door of your local art or performance venue, where local artists share laughs, triumphs, losses and ideas. It’s where we share about what we’re listening to, what we’re reading lately, and where we’ve been. During a few of those artist smoke sessions I started to hear about Over Yonder, some mythical backyard concert series hosted in Toledo’s Old West End.
Then as fate would have it, local songwriter Ben Stalets kept asking me to read poems at his local shows, and some of those shows were hosted by Rob Krain, and Over Yonder Concert House, and as fate sometimes works in my life, Rob liked my poetry enough that he not only became a Patreon supporter of mine, he also asked me to read poems to open a show for internationally touring songwriter, Rod Piccott. That show was last Saturday, and friends let me tell you all about it.
First, Over Yonder Concert House is in fact a backyard concert series. Rob hosts them behind his house where he has a small custom built wooden stage and room for a few dozen lawn chairs, please bring your own, thank you very much.
Over Yonder shows always feature traveling and touring songwriters, all of them on labels, and all of them with thousands of miles and shows under their feet and the stories to go with them.
Rob says Over Yonder is his hobby, and upon one meeting with him, I could tell he was doing this for love. I don’t know anything much about what he does on a day to day basis, but I know it involves a whole lot of music. In our brief chats and messaging, he’s shown a deep and vast familiarity with the sometimes obscure, guitar playing storytellers that I claim as artistic influences.
Now, I’ve never been a touring musician. I only know three chords on the guitar, but I could never figure out any strumming timing and years of factory work haven’t been kind to my hands. I can’t hold an ink pen for 15 minutes without my hand going numb, let alone try to hold strings down for long, but I’ve read poetry in every kind of venue you can think of from museums to alleys, dive bars to libraries. I’ve read poetry with hip hop artists and metal bands, with solo singer/songwriters and at underground punk shows. I know a thing or two about venues and hosts, and I know good ones when I find them, and Over Yonder is about as good a tour stop as you’ll find in the Midwest.
Rob and and Over Yonder are dream hosts. All of the proceeds from every show go directly to the touring musician, and Rob and his wife cook up a potluck dinner and offer a bedroom for their musical guest of the evening, giving them a touch of home in between the roadside motels of tour life. Of course, with the shows hosted in their backyard, they’re not real public with the address, and they often host shows in other small local venues like The Original Sub Shop or Black Kite Coffee House. If you see a show you want to attend and there’s no address, message the host for a little vetting, and show up. It’ll be one of the most wholesome music and storytelling experiences you’ll find these days.
Now that I’ve done my best to tell you how cool I think The Krains and Over Yonder are, without embarrassing them all too much, let me tell you about Rod Piccott and the show last Saturday night. It rained, so attendance was small enough that the concert moved indoors to Rob’s living room. Luckily the rain held off long enough that the grilled and smoked chicken got done. It was tasty, and so were the homemade cookies. I ate light, because I never eat much before a show. Whatever poems I’m about to read won’t be the same if I’m bloated and sluggish, so I nibbled a little pre show, grateful as an artist and a bachelor for homemade offerings.
Because of the rain, and small gathering, all 15 of us or so, sat in a circle around The Krain living room, and Rob introduced me and I read four poems. The small relaxed vibe the show had taken on was perfect for telling a little story and reading a poem. I chose a four poem set list that featured my best Toledo, union and blue collar factory work, and it went pretty good.
Then Rob introduced Rod. He picked up his pretty Martin guitar and standing in the entrance between the dining room and living room in the Krain’s beautiful Old West End home, gave us the best $20 living room concert you’ll find all summer.
Rod played his hit song ‘Welding Burns,’ a song that brings a warm smile to my blue collar poet’s heart every time I hear it, and he set about telling us stories about his road adventures, his life lived touring from show to show, and singing us the songs that had brought him this far.
It was cool that my good friend Tom Cline could be there. Tom is a retired UAW worker turned actor that’s made it onto the small and big screen, and he and I both have a shared love for music, baseball and second chances in life, and I knew Tom was going to dig my poetry set and love Rod’s music. I was right. Rod has some blue collar working songs and some about second chances that caught me and my buddy Tom both wiping our eyes and holding tears in our hearts a few times.
And it was great that my good friend Laura and her boyfriend Jasen were there. Laura is about as close to an expert critic of literature and songwriting as I’ve ever met in my life, and I knew she’d dig Rod’s tunes and the Over Yonder vibe. Pretty sure she did, and I got to meet Jasen, and he and I traded some good film and tv show ideas, you know, it was a great Saturday evening.
Rod, who had sound checked and prepared for an outdoor show on a July Summer night, didn’t miss a single step in adapting to the smaller turnout and more relaxed living room venue, a testament to the hundreds of shows that he’s played, big and small, and in multiple countries all over the world. He abbreviated his set a little, and sweated and sang his ass off inside a 100 year old house, but he gave us our money’s worth, and Saturday night security blanket smiles to go with it.
That’s the thing about Rod’s songs. They’ve got that blue collar grit and working class artist authenticity that’s hard to find on mainstream radio these days. His lyrics are a mix of heartbreak hard truth and mischievous smiles that know we’re going to survive them all and wind up right here, having a good time in the Over Yonder Concert House living room.
Later, after the show had ended and I’d hugged my friends Tom, Laura and Jasen, I got a chance to talk the artist life a little with Rod and the Krains, and I could have stayed for hours trading stories, but I made myself leave after 30 minutes, walking out with my camping lawn chair over one shoulder and two of Rod’s poetry books tucked under the other arm. Did I mention that he was also a poet? Interesting cat, and you should check out his work. His albums are on most platforms and he has a website under his name. I know you’ll dig his stuff, too.
Go follow the Over Yonder Concert Series, and if you like good times and good music, see you at a show soon. Sometimes you have to take long road trips and eat bad gas station food to see a great show on a Saturday night. I live for those Saturdays. But sometimes, if you pay close enough attention to the whisper stream all around you, you can find the best good times, and with a homemade potluck dinner, right in your town’s own backyards. Those are Saturdays worth writing about.
Photo of the promo poster. It never gets old seeing your name on a poster. Never.
A Toledo treasure, both the sticker and the House.