Susan McDonald
Special to The Journal
Innovation and quality are the keys to success at Westerly’s Knickerbocker Music Center, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this month.
The quality of acts taking the stage, particularly those coaxing blues from guitars and horns, quickly established the Knick, as locals call it, as one of Southern New England’s best places to catch a show.
Innovation came into play decades after the Vitterito brothers turned their ice cream shop into a dance and dinner club, once the repeal of Prohibition meant they could serve alcohol. That’s more of Mark Connolly’s contribution to the club's storied history.
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Connolly, executive director of the Knick (named for the Knickerbocker Express train that once brought musicians north from New York City), has found creative ways to attract today’s audiences and keep the facility not only relevant but essential to the community.
“This was a place where Buddy Guy, Arthur Collins and Stevie Ray Vaughn played. How can it not continue?” asked Connolly, a Connecticut restaurant manager brought in to revive the facility in 2011.
“Updates required since the Station nightclub fire were expensive, and they needed help getting back in financial shape," he said. "I thought I’d maybe be here a year, but I fell in love with the music and what it could become.”
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Renovations of the club and new creative partnerships
In the years since, Connolly has overseen reconstruction within the club’s existing footprint and renovations of the performance space to enhance the concert experience. He expanded the schedule and genres — think Deer Tick and Leon Russell — and forged key partnerships, bolstered by a multimillion-dollar community fundraising campaign, with the nearby United Theatre and Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School.
“The United Theatre, right around the corner from us, had been closed since the 1980s, and the community raised the funds to buy it and the building next door. We’re now a sister company, allowing us to centralize programming and marketing,” Connolly said.
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Partnering with the Philharmonic school allows the Knick to reach more of the community, add performances and create a musical center for the entire area, he said.
A walk around the building might spark memories for Westerly natives, thousands of whom attended banquets and wedding receptions in the facility through the years. A towering mural featuring a train gliding along piano key tracks is reminiscent of the club’s early days, and a silhouette of Vaughn — who often played there with his brother Jimmie, or Roomful of Blues, which got its start there — hints to its greatness.
The club where Roomful of Blues got its start — after first being turned town
“The owners originally turned the guys in what later became Roomful of Blues down when they asked to play,” Connolly said. “They finally let them play on a Sunday, which no one really wanted. It turned into a huge event and they played every Sunday night for a long time. People would climb through the windows when the shows were sold out!”
Other changes — some of which were as simple as leaving the Knick’s neon light on all the time for visibility — include refurbishing the performance space and transforming the adjacent men’s bar into a tap room.
“When I got here, the walls were white," he recalled. "It looked more like a VFW.”
Painted dark green, they now encase updated seating areas and a stage raised 13 inches so people have a better view of the performers.
“It’s cooler and clubbier,” Connolly said, adding that the tap room gives a different sort of feel.
“It had five TVs, heavy drapes and opened at 9 a.m. for third-shifters to get a drink," he said. "Taking out the TVs made it more about the music, and more hipster.”
Jon Batiste residency brings national TV exposure
During the pandemic, the Knick became the ultimate hipster location when Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste took up residence to work on projects and stream nightly appearances on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“There have been so many big names here,” Connolly said.
Some of those names will be on hand for the 90th anniversary celebration planned at the Knick for Saturday, July 29, at 8 p.m. The all-ages show will feature the Knickerbocker All-Stars (whose release "Love Makes a Woman" was nominated for the Blues Foundation's 2019 soul/blues album of the year), with Brian Templeton and boogie woogie pianist Arthur Migliazza.
https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/arts/2023/07/21/westerly-rhode-island-blues-club-knickerbocker-cafe-to-mark-90th-anniversary-with-a-musical-bash/70408425007/