They started Olive Street House Concerts, now known as Olive Street Presents, in 2009 after attending a show in Arkansas. They liked the artist so much, they asked him if he would ever consider coming to Kansas.
The process for finding musicians is sometimes as simple as it was for the first concert; they’ll hear an artist somewhere else and reach out to them. But, other times it’s the artist who reaches out.
“They're kind of their own network,” Poole said. “They would tell their friends they played at Olive Street, it was a great experience, it's a fun place to play, they've got a great sound system and things like that. So, we would have people then reach out to us. We didn't have to really chase a lot of them.”
Once a musician is booked, attendees must make a reservation online by donating $20, all of which goes to the artist. On the day of a show, Poole and Puckett move their living room furniture - which is small and lightweight - out of the way, set up a stage, 30 chairs, lights and audio equipment.
The audience is limited to 30 people mainly because that’s how many can fit comfortably in the room. However, it also works well for the environment Poole and Puckett want to create.
“It's a listening room experience,” Poole said. “It's not a concert in a park, and it's not a party with somebody singing in the background. The focus is on the artist and the music, so 30 is like a club setting, kind of intimate. And we think the larger it gets, it gets a little more complicated to manage.”
Over the years, Poole and Puckett have built a core audience. They share the artists’ music online prior to concerts, but most people who come say they don’t listen to the songs beforehand because they trust Poole and Puckett’s selections.
This core audience is key to the community-building aspect of Olive Street Presents. They show up an hour before each show for a potluck. Puckett described it as a happy hour, and said attendees can get competitive with the dishes they bring.
“Some other house shows that we've been to, somebody might bring a package of cookies or something like that,” she said. “The focus really isn't on that. But I think that's part of the experience for us, is people bring fantastic desserts and roasted vegetable dishes. You just never know what you're going to get.”
For Puckett, the connections made at the shows are part of what makes the experience rewarding.
“We have a couple that live just a few blocks from here and another couple that live in another part of town,” she said. “They had known of each other, but they discovered here during conversations at a show that one husband's dad was best friends with this other gentleman when they were growing up as kids, and they didn't know that until they met here and got to talking about it.”
The connections and sense of community found at house concerts are not only felt by attendees and hosts, but they’re also felt by the musicians. Amelia White and Carter Sampson played at Olive Street Presents on May 18. They’re both experienced musicians with multiple albums and tours under their belt, and they’ve both played in a variety of venues.
“Doing house concerts, you really get to see a lot of people coming together in a small community and there's just so much love,” White said. “It's really beautiful. You can't go on vacation and experience this.”
In addition to the sense of community, house concerts also offer a more engaged audience for artists. With the “listening room” environment, artists know their audience is there solely for the music.
“Sometimes in a bar, you might have a handful of people there to see you, but you also might have a handful of people that are there for a bachelorette party,” Sampson said. “So getting to play for people who are really, truly music lovers, who really want to hear every word is really special for us.”
May 18 was Sampson’s third time performing at Olive Street Presents. Both she and White agreed that, in addition to getting paid well, the comfort of a house concert and relationships they build with the hosts are more perks they don’t get from other venues. Sampson lives in Oklahoma, so she runs into Poole and Puckett at different festivals. She has similar relationships with hosts in other states.
“It's awesome,” she said. “I feel like I have friends all over the country, and that's really special.”
Poole and Puckett have experienced this with other musicians as well. On a vacation in Nashville last year, they ran into several artists who they had hosted and got to see them play at bars and other venues.
In the end, their motivation to host house concerts is tied to what makes up their mission: people and music.
“We make no money from it,” Poole said. “Every donation that we secure goes back to the artist. We're not taking 20% or anything like that. So the reward is just to build the community and to enjoy just superb live music.”
Information about future concerts can be found on the Olive Street Presents website.
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