Katie Knipp believes in serendipity.

When not playing festivals and theaters across the West, the veteran of blues and Americana sound often takes the stage at Sacramento concert venues such as The Sofia theater and Harlow’s nightclub. But on a recent winter night, the local songstress wasn’t leading her bandmates into one of their usual haunts, but through the doors of a large house on a suburban cul-de-sac.

Dubbed Theater 5150 for its Carmichael address, this private residence is where Knipp chose to record her new live album. Her reasons were threefold: She had already performed at Theater 5150 enough to know that it has pristine acoustics and draws an audience laser-focused on her set list. But more importantly, the house is where, in July 2023, Knipp had a chance encounter that altered the trajectory of her songwriting and stage presentation.

So, as Knipp and her group fired up their amplifiers at Theater 5150 on January 10, they thought there couldn’t be a more thematically appropriate spot for laying down tracks that captured how they’d evolved since adding the funky, punchy prowess of Tomaselli’s bass.

And Knipp was convinced audience members showing up to the Carmichael abode would understand that.

“This is the one kind of venue where every single person in the room is there for the music,” Knipp says. “As someone who plays a lot of venues, that’s unfortunately hard to come by these days.”

Her band kicked off the night by launching into “Lava Pot.” The crowd leaned in, listening to the sultry, low-down swing of the song’s gutbucket intensity pulsate between high ceilings and hardwood floors. Two people who were enjoying every note were Emily and Mark Kassenbrock, the owners of Theater 5150. The couple has been hosting house concerts for 10 years. Though they’d already seen the Katie Knipp Band perform everywhere from the Torch Club in downtown Sacramento to the Nevada Theater in Nevada City, Mark was convinced that her group was finding a special kind of power in his living room.

“That was probably the best I’ve ever heard Katie play,” he says after the show. “Emily and I have been out to watch her probably 15 or 20 times now. But on this particular night, she was just on fire.”

Mark added that his home has had that effect on other musicians.

“The place has a great, big sound inside,” he says. “You can hear a pin drop when the artists are performing. Nobody in the audience is talking because they’ve truly come to hear the music. And as a result, the artists are almost always at the top of their game.”

Homeowners stumble into house shows

A decade ago, the Kassenbrocks hadn’t even heard of a house concert. That changed when Sacramento folk singer Sandra Dolores Swanfeldt invited them to one at her own place in 2016. Arriving to watch Swanfeldt test new songs for the road, Mark and Emily were struck by how naturally laidback and friendly the atmosphere felt. They also noticed that Swanfeldt’s satin voice and sterling guitar notes weren’t competing with any background chatter. The Kassenbrocks sensed they were part of something like a shared, sacred meditation on Swanfeldt’s visions.

About 10 days later, Swanfeldt emailed Mark and Emily to ask if they would ever consider hosting a concert at their own house.

“Literally, I thought, ‘Hell no,’” Mark remembers with a laugh. “That sounded like a lot of work.”

But then the retired attorney who’s played guitar for 50 years began contemplating the unusual layout of his house. It was originally designed for the Dariotis family, who founded The Old Spaghetti Factory in Sacramento in 1978. They had it built with a wide sunken living room — similar to a ship’s hull — that can act as a de facto auditorium. It also has a spacious kitchen and a library tailored for entertaining.

“I just thought, ‘You know, this house is really kind of made for it,’” Mark admits. “So, I ran the idea by Emily, who had none of my initial reluctance. She just said, ‘It sounds like fun.’”

Swanfeldt was the first artist to perform at Theater 5150. As the Kassenbrocks evolved into hosting full bands, they were simultaneously doing outreach with their neighbors about possible concerns. Most of those living close by just wanted to be invited to the shows.

The way house concerts generally work in Sacramento — and the way they go down at Theater 5150 — is that they’re conducted as party events on private property. There is no commercial aspect to attending, though the hosts ask guests to donate a certain amount of money that’s entirely for the performers and sound engineer. From an artist’s perspective, one obvious advantage to playing house concerts is that there’s no split at the door — 100 percent of the money goes to the talent.

Unlike some house concert hosts, the owners of Theater 5150 advertise all their shows on an official website, and anyone can attend.

In Carmichael and other parts of unincorporated Sacramento County, an ordinance dictates that sound levels in residential neighborhoods — including from music — have a noise allowance that can’t exceed 55 decibels between 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 50 decibels between 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Anyone throwing a house concert must follow these guidelines.

Just how soundproof Theater 5051 is became apparent five years ago, when the Gold Souls performed at the house. It was Mark who urged the Sacramento group to play his favorite number by them, “The Coffee Song,” which is a sizzling groove with fat bass and relentless drums.

Lead singer Juniper Waller asked Mark if that was a good idea. He remembers barking, “Yes!” Then, guitarist Darius Upshaw made direct eye contact with Mark, stressing, “Are you sure?”

Mark says that he bellowed, “Yes!”

The Gold Souls hit the crowd with the song’s full, fun-loving power. “Everyone left happy and amped,” Mark recalls. “The next morning, I went to my neighbors and told them the story. And it turned out that nobody heard anything.”

That development led the Kassenbrocks to start hosting louder acts like Boot Juice, the Lab Rats and the Katie Knipp Band.

On the night Knipp and her group recently recorded the live album, two people participating in the audience were Larry Riddle and his wife, Gloria Lawson-Riddle. They have been hosting music shows in their own backyard in Carmichael for nearly 10 years. They call it the R Yard house concert series.

For Gloria, facilitating these performances has allowed her to bond with music fans from across Sacramento and enjoy a real collaborative relationship with some of the most talented roots-Americana performers in the nation.

“I really love the proximity to the artist or band who’s performing,” Gloria says. “That, and how everyone there pays so much attention to what they’re doing. We have regular attendees who can’t wait to see which performer is coming next, and we’ve become friends with a lot of them.”

Lasting memories from music

Gloria and Larry were introduced to the house concert concept while touring the Caribbean. They were on a Cayamo cruise in 2017, a sea-touring company that hosts live music as part of the experience. Gloria and some friends were on the boat enjoying an up-close, intimate performance from singer Sarah Potenza. She had recently grabbed the nation’s attention while being a contestant on The Voice.

“I was just mesmerized by the power in her vocals, and she was different from most people I’d ever heard singing,” Gloria recalls. “When she was done, I got up said, ‘Hey, this was a really great show — do you tour?’”

In response, Potenza asked Gloria if she’d ever consider hosting a house concert for her. Gloria says that, before she could fully formulate an answer, her pair of friends had already volunteered her. Looking back, Gloria knows this exchange put her and Larry on the road to finding years of rewarding moments.

In October of 2018, Potenza — who hails from Rhode Island — gave a concert in a garden-chic yard in Carmichael for 52 strangers who were clinging to her every note. Gloria had even made special napkins with Potenza’s face on them.

Since then, R Yard has hosted indie performers from around the country. These appearances have included Gabe Lee, Crys Mathews, Heather Mae and Susan Werner. Gloria and Larry say they usually have about 60 people attending their shows. Similar to Theater 5150, the neighbors who live on R Yard’s street are often part of the audience.

For Gloria, the most memorable scene so far involved Susan Werner’s performance. The award-winning contemporary folk singer was playing a driving acoustic piece she wrote called “Recumbent Bike.” At one point, Werner dropped onto the ground, laid on her back and pedaled her legs up in the air as she kept the guitar chords chiming.

Larry’s favorite show was a recent appearance by bluegrass maven A.J. Lee, whose duet cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” with The Brothers Comatose currently has more than 10 million views on YouTube.

“A.J. Lee played here with her band, Blue Summit, and everyone loved it,” Larry says. “People were dancing and having a good time. These concerts are multidimensional. People can just relax and be themselves, and it’s a wide variety of different people who are coming. It’s wonderful to see everyone get along.”

Someone who’s been to a number of the R Yard shows is Jenny Stanionis, who decided last summer to host her own very first house concert in Auburn. Stanionis and her late husband, Michael, had been attending house concerts for 30 years. They were both huge fans of cowboy and Western songs. Michael was a radio broadcaster who always dreamed of throwing that kind of musical soiree where they lived.

Unfortunately, it was only after he was gone that the stars lined up for Stanionis to make that happen in the wide, terraced backyard with flowers and redwood trees behind her house. The artist she hosted was Nashville singer-songwriter Robby Hecht. Ultimately, 30 people showed up, most of whom had heard about it through word of mouth.

“Some of my non-music friends thought I was a little crazy to let people I didn’t know come over to my house,” Stanionis says. “If I hadn’t been a house concert-goer for so long, would I have been so gung ho? I don’t know. I just know that the people I’ve met who love music have never given me a concern. … It’s kind of like that garden party that you’ve always wanted.”

Stanionis plans to host more shows.

No regrets 

David Hill and Shirley Nemke have been bringing memorable home performances to their Carmichael neighborhood for nearly 14 years, though they’ve focused mainly on the classical genre. Hill, a retired building maintenance engineer, has played piano for decades. He never felt his own skills were on a performance level, though wondered if a large, auditorium-like room in his house with vaulted ceilings and acoustic treatment could be an ideal spot for others to share their musical gifts.

In 2013, Hill and Nemke hosted their first concert, which featured Yana Reznik, Russian-born pianist from Los Angeles. There was so much appreciation from their circles of friends they’d invited that Hill and Nemke decided to continue on, deeming their new house concert venue Harrison Oaks Studio. The room holds about 80 attendees, with its guest list being invite-only. 

Hill notes word got out fast about what he and Nemke were doing. In less than a year, performers from as far away as Israel and Africa were dropping by to enliven Harrison Oaks while on their broader tours of the U.S.  

“This world is so small, that everyone hears about everything,” David muses. “What I like about the classical music scene is what a community it is, and how everyone seems willing to help each other out.”

It’s hard for Hill to pick a favorite memory around Harrison Oaks Studio so far. However, one that really stands out is when Bay Area vocalists Richard Sims and Hope Briggs, and pianist/vocalist Othello Jefferson, performed together, all while doing a fair amount of storytelling with the crowd about how the compositions were connected to the African diaspora. Hill says it was a special night.

“You know, I didn’t have to retire when I did,” he reflected. “But I wanted to make sure that I did something with music and not just spend my whole life working, and then wake up one day and wonder what happened.”

The next performance at Harrison Oaks Studio will be with cellist Dylan Jowell and pianist John Kiunke on June 6.

Meanwhile, Knipp is starting to get tracks back from the sound engineer who recorded her band at Theater 5150.

“The sound quality is so good that the hair is standing up on my arm,” she says. “It’s great that there are people like Mark and Emily who are so selfless when it comes to supporting artists. If there were more people like them, the world would be a better place.”

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