WORSHIP AT THE ALTAR OF LIVE MUSIC
I came out a couple of times with my guitar. I asked the agent to leave me alone and I played on the altar. I loved the sound.
There’s another cosy new venue hoping to entice music fans to the Ottawa Valley. Dean Batstone’s Northern Ramble is an 85-seat concert space located in a 130-year-old church in Renfrew.
Batstone, you may recall, is a seasoned musician from Almonte who’s spent most of the past 12 years in the United States. A couple of years ago, he decided to make a change.
“Each year it’s becoming increasingly harder to do much more than break even as I keep putting revenue back into my music, through recording and producing albums and touring,” he said in an interview. “Touring is getting harder and the money coming back is getting less. I had to do something to protect what equity I built up over the years.
“I thought this would be a good vehicle for me to maintain my credibility and expose my craft while supplementing my income. We musicians aren’t big on health plans and salting things away. I had to do something that made sense.”
He needed a place to live, too, so he embarked on a search for a property with good acoustics that was big enough to provide living quarters. After scouring the Valley and looking at more than a dozen spots, he came across Renfrew’s former Baptist church.
It had been on the market for a while so the price was reasonable, but it was the sound that clinched the sale.
“I came out a couple of times with my guitar. I asked the agent to leave me alone and I played on the altar,” Batstone says. “I loved the sound.”
He also appreciated the location in the centre of town.
“Not lost on me is the fact that there are 8,500 people here, so people can walk to it,” he said.
After taking possession last spring, Batstone tackled the renovations, doing much of the work himself. He opened for business
in December.
The name of the venue is inspired by Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble concerts at the late Band drummer’s farm in Woodstock, N.Y., an area Batstone considers a second home. He has plenty of musical friends in that part of the world, including several who played in Helm’s barn.
While Batstone hopes to lure some of them northward, for the last few months he’s been featuring mostly Ottawa-area performers. It’s not a restaurant, although there are snacks, nor a bar, although a bring-your-own licence is being sought. Instead, the focus is on the music.
“My plan was to ride out these quiet months and establish the name so that, when spring comes, the word is already out. Most of the acts I’ve booked just love the place,” he said.
Batstone is also striving for consistency in the booking by ensuring there’s live music Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Touring acts are also welcome to fit in dates, and the space is available for special events.
The regular schedule features an open-stage night devoted to original songs on Thursdays, and a songwriters’ showcase featuring Batstone and a guest trading songs on Fridays. Saturday is the concert night, usually featuring a singersongwriter or band. If a band like MonkeyJunk plays a Saturday, he invites them to explore an acoustic format.
“I’m trying to establish it as a listening room,” he says. “It’s not a dancing hall. It’s a place where the songs are featured more than anything else. My motto is, ‘The song is king.’ ”