The new Redstone Room in downtown Davenport is larger and more accessible to the public, than its predecessor one floor up.
With two high-profile concerts – Robert Randolph on Aug. 20, and Rufus Wainwright Aug. 23 – the new concert venue and bar is now open on the ground floor at Common Chord, 131 W. 2nd St., Davenport, last occupied by The Garrison restaurant.
This past April marked the 20th anniversary of the second-level Redstone Room as part of the River Music Experience, originally opened as a museum of American roots music. The facility created for RME, now known as Common Chord, was a large space intended for displaying exhibits.
Since then, the nonprofit organization redefined their mission as a community music organization. A new, right-sized and right-cost facility at ground level in the heart of downtown Davenport aims to strengthen the organization’s reach, accessibility, and impact.
Common Chord is moving out of the second floor of the historic, four-story Redstone Building (which dates from 1892).
The first show in the new Redstone Room presented gospel musician Robert Randolph, which had an audience of 275, executive director Tyson Danner said Monday. They are approved by the fire marshal for a total capacity of over 450, but would never host that many, he said. The old Redstone had a 250-seat capacity.
The “Music on Main” fundraising campaign already has met half its goal of $3.2 million, Danner said.
“So we're in really good shape, and that's just really since the spring,” he said. “It's moved at a great pace, thanks to a few real lead gifts that really helped us kick things off.”
As the Quad Cities’ community music organization, Common Chord presents concerts by local and touring artists in the Redstone Room and in partnership with community sites. The youth educational and enrichment programs provide access to musical experiences through local school districts and community partners.
These programs serve more than 55,000 community members through more than 600 concerts and educational programs each year. Danner wants to hire more local musicians to go into schools for outreach.
“They have to be a musician and they have to know how to work with kids, and those two things don't always go together,” he said.
Common Chord’s educational programs for K-12 students in Scott and Rock Island counties include InTune Music Mentoring, the Jerry Brown Acoustic Music Clubs for youth and adults with disabilities, instrument loans to schools and students, RiverCurrents field trips for local fifth-grade students, and week-long rock and blues camps for teens.
The $3.2-million “Music on Main” campaign (for the larger Redstone Room) has two phases: the first to support the facility move within the Redstone Building and the second to build an endowment to ensure future sustainable growth.
The fundraising is being led by Common Chord’s new development director, Margot Day, who started Feb. 4 in the new position.
Saving money in facility costs
Moving down to the first floor will save over $90,000 in annual facility costs. “So right off the bat, we're in a much more stable place and we can reinvest into growing our programming,” Danner said, noting Common Chord is part of a condo-like association that has to contribute to maintenance and repair costs for the entire four-story building.
With the second floor, basement, and the first-floor former Lemonade Stand space (all for sale), Common Chord will go from owning over 40,000 square feet to about 9,000, once it gets rid of the extra space, Danner said.
While the public spaces are open, Common Chord will take at least two more weeks to finish building out backstage spaces and its new first-floor offices (mainly where the former Garrison speakeasy was), he said. For touring artists, they can offer a much more accessible green room, shower and laundry facilities. The public response to the new Redstone Room has been good, Danner said.
“Everybody has instantly loved it. I think it feels so familiar, and that was purposeful,” he said. “It's not exactly the same footprint, but it's similar. And it feels the same. The stage is on that end. The bar is toward this end. But it's sort of the same furniture layout. So there's so much that feels familiar when you walk in. It's just sort of elevated up a level. And that was our goal.”
“Upstairs was great. It just happened to be completely hidden away from anyone who might stumble across it,” Danner noted.
“So if we could retain the feel of that space but put it in a larger location that people could actually stumble upon, that was the goal. So little touches like, you'll notice the bar, the same company that poured the red concrete bar upstairs, we brought them back to replicate it down here with the same finish and same color and everything.
“So those little touches to bring that familiarity in while also elevating it a little bit, like the red curtains and nicer space and the refresh, the entry with the stone veneer in front. So people have loved it,” he said. “Our staff have settled right in because functionally it operates very similarly as to upstairs, except that there's six entrances instead of one.”
New small community stage
The new venue is wider overall, and the stage is larger, compared to the old Redstone. There’s even enough room for a small community stage (named for the late Ellis Kell) back in a corner by the end where the bar is, and there’s a curtain that can close off that area, for smaller acts.
Ellis Kell, 61, of Rock Island, died suddenly on Dec. 16, 2016. He was a co-founder of RME; worked as director of programming and community outreach, and was a well-known blues musician and bandleader. The new Redstone bar has a photo of Kell on one of its shelves.
The small community stage will be used like Common Chord used to have in the former Mojo's Café (where Lemonade Stand was). “It's a nice size for a solo or duo, maybe a trio group,” Danner said.
“One of our biggest goals with this space was flexibility, which we don't have upstairs,” he said. “Here, you know, for a quiet singer-songwriter show where we don't want bar noise, we can close that and leave a little doorway. We can close it completely just to do stuff in front or open the bar on Mondays and Tuesdays with some live music. There's a lot more we can do to make this space suit the event.”
While the Redstone Room logo is on the front window, it won’t be at the rear of the stage like upstairs, but the new Redstone will include a 12-foot projector screen that goes on the back, the far upstage curtain wall.
“So like upstairs, we do our slideshows, like upcoming shows. We'll be able to do that before shows,” Danner said of the screen that can slide up and out of view. “And then some bands, they like to project their logo up while they play and things like that. So we'll be doing that. Otherwise, it's motorized, so it can just go away during the show.”
QC muralist Sarah Robb reunited some of her former Metro Arts students (who created the exterior murals on the Main Street side of the building) to paint live during the first new Redstone shows.
Danner said he’s not sure where in the space those will be displayed, but for now are on the windowsill on the 2nd Street side.
Need for new endowment
Now that Common Chord is 22 years old, a new endowment will provide a necessary steady income source.
“That gives you a level of stability that you just can't match anywhere else,” Danner said. “We're just over a 20-year-old organization, which is pretty young in the grand scheme of things. You know, there are plenty of 100-year-old arts organizations that have an endowment that they can pull from every year. Because you don't know what's going to happen in the world.
"In the world, things go up and down. But to have an established endowment and to continue to grow it lets us have that steady source of income that we can use to fuel our programs.”
Given the turnover in the former restaurant space since Danner has headed Common Chord (eight years now), he’s more optimistic for the Redstone Room 2.0.
“This will be the 4th, I guess, because it was Woodfire Grill, Taco Bar, Garrison, and now— I think this is going to last a little longer,” he said. The side of the building facing the Skybridge Courtyard will have doors that open to an outdoor patio.
For the 2027 Bix Jazz Festival, which will be based at the nearby Hotel Blackhawk Gold Room, Danner hopes to program more Redstone concerts. This year, on Sunday, Aug. 2, the second-floor venue hosted a post-festival Bi concert. Common Chord has merged with the Bix Jazz Society.
“There's the Last Picture House that we were working with this year. We have this space, which is perfect as a jazz club, and a couple others we're looking at for all the special events,” he said. “So we have three days of festival technically, but 4 or 5 days worth of special events, still including the Putnam. That would be the only one that's not downtown.”
“We've had a lot of good feedback about bringing it back downtown,” Danner said of the jazz fest. “Some trepidation because the Gold Room is smaller than the huge event center at Rhythm City. So we'll see. I imagine we'll outgrow it pretty quickly and need to go to a larger space, but keeping it downtown.
“Because that's where it was born, that's what it celebrates. And I think especially for getting a local audience back involved in it, it's got to be downtown,” he added. “We might never see the 8,000 people that used to fill LeClaire Park, but it can grow some in the coming years.”
Upcoming Redstone Room shows include the Fleetwood Mac tribute band The Seven Wonders on Sept. 24, Davina & The Vagabonds on Sept. 27, and return of the QC Flavor Fest on Oct. 1.
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