About the Book

La Cave: Cleveland's Legendary Music Club and the '60s Folk-to-Rock Revolution

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Long before the days of arena and stadium concerts, before the Eagles and mega-tours, even before (and during and after) The Beatles redefined pop culture, live music was consumed in small venues in front of oftentimes smaller crowds. At the Café Wha? in Greenwich Village and Coral Gables' Flick Coffeehouse back east, or at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and the hungry i in San Francisco out west, folk (and later, rock) music fans could sit mere feet from an unknown David Crosby or an equally anonymous Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell or Judy Collins, unconcerned that they were living through historic times in likewise historic places.

They were there for the music.

But of those countless clubs, only a couple handfuls survived and prospered long enough to become iconic venues. One such club was Cleveland’s “House of Folk Music,” La Cave.

In the mid-Sixties, Billboard Magazine – the bible of the music biz – called nine such clubs “trend-setters.” Of the nine, seven were on an east or a west coast, and only two were marooned inland. One of those two clubs was La Cave. What Billboard noticed in real time was the prescience and persistence of these clubs to recognize, sign, nurture and promote the temporarily unknown superstars-to-be of modern popular music – often before the unwashed masses had even heard of them.

There was no template for success, no “how-to” business model to be followed. What was needed for success couldn’t be taught or learned. It took luck, timing, a few bucks, and most of all, an innate sense of where musical tastes would be in the near future. These clubs, and the men of vision who guided them, became the vanguard that alchemically turned musical lead into gold records. And along the way, an entire generation grew up with new values, wisdom, and an abiding love for the music that was chosen for them by these visionaries to serve as the soundtrack for the explosive societal change of the Sixties and beyond.

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Highlights from La Cave

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Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground

Lou Reed gave credit where credit was due. In 1989, Lou said, “When we were in The Velvet Underground, we practically lived out in Ohio because, you know, La Cave. Like, between La Cave and the Boston Tea Party, those two clubs supported us for about three years, so I feel a real nice thing about out here in Ohio.”

Later that same evening, from the stage of the Palace Theater on Euclid Avenue in front of an SRO crowd, Lou followed that interview with this remark: “Maybe you remember a group I was in called The Velvet Underground (thunderous applause ensues). We used to play out here at a place called La Cave (the decibel level increases). They supported us for about three years, lemme tell ya, so I have a real love for this [city].”

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Tom Shipley, Brewer & Shipley

The story of La Cave is as important to the history of popular music as is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. La Cave was one of the clubs that invented folk-rock in the '60s. I and my partner Mike Brewer played there several times, separately and together as Brewer & Shipley, and it was La Cave’s manager Stan Kain who gave us our big break in “show biz.” We started as “folkies” and morphed into folk-rock artists as the times changed. Without Stan and La Cave, we may not have had the career we were fortunate to have. And our story is not unique: La Cave began the careers of at least a dozen or more members of the Rock Hall before anyone ever heard of them. The story simply must be told, and Steve is the only person with the information to tell it accurately.
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David Budin, former Editor of Cleveland Magazine

I started attending shows at La Cave when I was 15 years old, in 1964. I started playing there, as an opening act (a few times) when I was 18. In 1967, I hung out there once or twice a week, or more, for the entire year. I was friends with most of the local musicians who played there. I knew the legendary club operator Stan Kain from 1964 till he died in 2005; I’ve known Larry Bruner from the time he started managing the club till now; and I was friends with many others who worked there and whom I still know. HOWEVER … I learned a ton about La Cave from Steve Traina’s book La Cave: Cleveland's Legendary Music Club and the '60s Folk-to-Rock Revolution. So, if you think you know everything about La Cave, well … you don’t. And if you don’t know much, or anything about La Cave, you’re in for a treat. The book is crammed with stories about not just all of the musical luminaries who played there (and some who didn’t), but, also, about what was going on in the real world through all of La Cave’s illustrious history in those wild times.
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