The upstairs floor at 25 North St., with its high ceiling, wide-open floor space and full kitchen, never seemed to get the usage for which it was intended. But in the past year Little Saint has turned the room into a frequent and inviting venue for live music as well.
The room itself is now known as Second Story, the “elevated” vegan dining restaurant of the plant-friendly enterprise, but its use as a music hall seemed to break out a year ago. In August 2022, singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers made an unpromoted appearance at the former “Grange” of the former SHED days. Word-of-mouth spread and the show was standing-room-only, based solely on the buzz.
Since then a steady stream of talented singer-songwriters has appeared, often with little notice, sometimes to small audiences and sometimes to a packed house.
Most of the music at Second Story is booked by Jonny Fritz, a singer-songwriter himself who promotes what he calls Dad Country.
“Around 2012, I made a record called ‘Down on the Bikini Line,’ and everybody said, ‘Oh, this is the next Outlaw Country! This guy’s the New Outlaw!’” Fritz said, on the phone from Havre, Mont. “I was like, ‘Oh, man, I’m really not an outlaw. I’m more like somebody’s weird dad.’”
Thus was born his own genre, and brand. Fritz had previously released two earlier CDs under the stage name Jonny Corndog. Dad Country is an upgrade.
Primarily a songwriter and performer himself, several years ago he struck up a friendship with Laurie and Jeff Ubben at the Newport Folk Festival. Now the owners of Little Saint, they encouraged him to line up some of his friends and fellow travelers for gigs at the Healdsburg restaurant and lounge.
For instance, last Thursday Dad Country presented a newcomer, Connor McLaren. The slight singer, his abundant blonde curls partially contained by a stylishly ethnic flat cap, performed his own songs with confidence, telling stories in between to an amused local audience.
The 21-year-old, a glass of water in front of him between sets, stated that although he’s been “playing bar shows for years, I started doing original music about eight months ago. I’ve got a home base in Indiana, but I’m slowly moving farther and farther out.”
Though he is still learning his songwriting and stage chops, he has high aspirations and role models, as indeed he should: Asked which songwriter he’d like to be, he quickly named Bob Dylan, Noel Gallagher and Todd Snider. “I would love to be one of those three guys, those are my favorites,” he said.
As it turned out, it was Fritz who encouraged McLaren to come to California, telling him about Little Saint. McLaren’s aptly named debut release, “Innocence,” caught Fritz’s ear.
“Connor’s a really cool guy,” said Fritz. “He’s young. He’s up and coming, which is really something that gets both Laurie and myself really riled up. And he’s a good friend.”
McLaren’s side of the story is he’s never met Fritz, just dealt with him on the phone, by messenger and email. “He’s been super helpful, I want to give him a big hug,” McLaren said.
He was surprised to hear that Fritz, too, was a singer-songwriter. “I didn’t know that. He’s got a name like he could be a musician, so it makes sense,” he said.
Like McLaren, who is just starting out, Fritz is still doing what he loves to do, what his passion is. “We’re calling this the World Tour of Montana,” he said between stops in Coram and Havre, en route to Bozeman. “Just playing tiny little towns in the middle of nowhere in Montana. This is really my passion, playing these little places.”
Not by coincidence, perhaps, Fritz was born in Montana, 39 years ago, though he grew up in Esmont, Virginia—population 491.
Fritz said the first musician he booked at Little Saint wasn’t a country singer. In fact, they weren’t a singer at all—it was Molly Lewis, a professional whistler. That was in April, 2022.
But most of the musicians who now show up at Little Saint are in the performing songwriter vein, as are the upcoming acts: Liz Cooper, an ex-Nashvillian now living in Brooklyn, plays on July 29, following the July 27 program with the Cordovas, whose new record The Rose of Aces is due out in August. Sam Burton, Jess Williamson and the War and Treaty will appear in coming months.
Is there a genre here? The Cordovas bill themselves as “embracing the sound of classic Americana and country-rock, with the Band, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers as key influences,” which certainly sounds like a Dad Country description. But Fritz is leery.
“I have never felt a connection with the genre Americana,” he said. “It’s an obvious label for an outsider but once you start peeling back the layers of most Americana-labeled artists, I don’t find there’s much to see.”
Instead, he finds new music from a variety of sources—friends, fellow musicians on the road, on NPR’s Friday program “All Songs Considered” and by following the trail created by Spotify. The online music service automatically builds playlists by association, evolving from a requested artist—“Play Jonny Fritz”—to a series of musicians associated by genre, personnel or common elements.
For himself, Fritz traces it all back to the 8-volume “Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music,” which he discovered on cassette when he was young. “Hank Williams was huge,” he said. “And of course, Johnny Cash. I mean, they were the gateway drugs for me.”
Whether or not that exposure led directly to his dropping out of high school is unclear, but he has since spent most of his life on the road. And he is wrapping up his World Tour of Montana and returning home to Pasadena soon. That’s right, California—not Texas—where he’s got a young daughter. That’s Dad Country for you.
But the appeal of the music programs at Little Saint is not their niche, but their breadth. To find out what sounds Fritz may have tuned into on his musical journey, check out Little Saint’s coming programs at Littlesainthealdsburg/lineup, Healdsburg’s own live music Spotify stream.
