"Tuesday Night Music Club" Comes To Chapters

Reported by Mollisande Williams

Photographed by Satoshi Seth

Newberg’s popular bookstore and coffee shop, Chapters, is hosting an event so that musicians of all ranges can perform and talk about their music writing process. “Tuesday Night Music Club” is a night full of acoustic guitars, insight and coffee.

“This event is about creating a community of sharing and belonging among music creators in the Newberg area,” said a post on Chapters’ website.

George Fox University (GFU) students have assisted in orchestrating this event. Troy Welstad, a musician who moved from Portland to Newberg, had the desire to create an event where musicians of various songwriting backgrounds could share their work and process. GFU students Natty Burmeister and Devin Olson are interns for his studio, Green T Music Productions, and are helping Troy bring this idea to life.

A musician himself, Burmeister says this night is for musicians to share their music and creative processes with other listeners and fellow musicians.

“I’ve found when you’re stuck and you’re trying to create new music, it helps so much to hear from other people because you could just try something new and get unstuck. That’s kind of the thesis for why we’re doing this,” Burmeister said.

Formatted somewhat like a talk show, musicians are asked to play a few of their songs and are followed up with some questions to learn more about their inspiration and process behind the creation. Anyone is encouraged to participate, ranging from seasoned songwriters to nervous newbies.

Being a new event, the first few weeks, local musicians were contacted in order to get the ball rolling. However, Burmeister said moving forward they “are hoping that it’s going to start being less curated on our end” when people begin to come, get excited and reach out to get involved.

For now, he suggests those who want to participate to get on the mailing list, so they can be notified when the club is looking for performers.

Chapters is obliged to host and stays open until 9 p.m., an extra two hours past its usual closing time, for this event. As of now, every other Tuesday is the goal for this club, but it is very dependent upon the schedules of not only Chapters but the musicians, as well. “Tuesday Night Music Club” begins at 7 p.m. on various Tuesdays. Check out their event on Facebook to get more information.