Venues

So we went into Tulla's. There was this conga player beating in one corner and someone else in another corner. The whole room was a stage. People were drinking coffee and moving their heads up and down. I couldn't believe it.  — Peter Rowan

The coffeehouses that popped up during the revival were sparsely decorated, minus paintings, plants, and pretty dishware. Tom Rush says Club 47 in Cambridge "was pretty funky...people fixing motorcycles in the basement." Atmosphere was secondary to the music and the camaraderie; everyone participated, blurring the line between performer and audience.

The maps on the right show the approximate locations of the coffehouses that got the most press – clubs like the Golden Vanity, Club 47, and Cafe Yana, but four walls weren’t a requirement for a hootenanny. Listening to people talk about their experiences of the revival lends the impression that folk music happened wherever there were two or more people with at least one guitar or banjo.

Doing a sound check at the Golden Vanity

Click number on map for club name and location.

Kenmore Square, Back Bay, and Beacon Hill neighborhoods, Boston

Harvard Square and vicinity, Cambridge

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