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Jammin’ at Twelve Moons Coffee House

Jammin’ at Twelve Moons Coffee House

Peter Calo performed at Twelve Moons March 2.

Patrick L. Sullivan

FALLS VILLAGE — If it’s the first Saturday of the month, then it’s music night at the Center on Main.

The Twelve Moons Coffee House offers live music and poetry. Doors open at 6 p.m., and participants sign up for the open mic segment, which starts at 6:30 p.m.

Open mic musicians get about 10 minutes each — enough time for two or maybe three songs.

A featured performer starts at 8 p.m.

On Saturday, March 2, that was Peter Calo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.

Twelve Moons is run by John and Nancy Nowak of Amenia, who took over from the founders, Ed Thorney and Jill Gibbons of Salisbury, in 2020.

This coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, and things came to a halt in March 2020. Twelve Moons returned in April 2022.

John Nowak said the emphasis is on acoustic music, although that can change for performers such as Wanda Houston and her band.

On Saturday, there were about 30 people on hand when a reporter arrived at 7:30 p.m., in time to catch a couple of the open mic musicians.

Twelve Moons offers coffee, tea and baked goods for sale, and patrons are welcome to bring their own comestibles.

There is no charge; the enterprise is funded entirely by donations. To that end, there was a large jar at the entry, with an encouraging amount of cash within.

The atmosphere was congenial, and the open mic musicians received hearty applause and the occasional whoop.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.

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