How sweet the sound: The history of Evanston folk coffeehouse Amazingrace

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Folk music surged in popularity across America in the late 1950s through the ‘70s, including here in the Chicago area. Last episode, we looked at how a few area coffeehouses catered to many patrons in their teens and early twenties. These were alcohol-free spaces where people could listen to live music and hangout for hours. Curious City host Erin Allen looks at one of those beloved coffeeshops of the 1970s: Amazingrace, which was born out of Vietnam War protests on the campus of Northwestern University and later moved to the heart of downtown Evanston. She was joined by a panel of Amazingrace founders, performers and patrons at last year’s Evanston Folk Festival. WBEZ is a programming partner of the Evanston Folk Festival, which is taking place this year Sept. 6-7, 2025. A pre-sale is happening now through April 22. Enter the code EFFWBEZ to access the sale.

Transcript

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0:32.1	What's up, Chicago? I'm Erin Allen, and this is Curia City.
0:37.4	I love a good third space.
0:39.3	You know, a place you can visit that's not your home, that's not your job or school,
0:44.3	but a place where you can connect with your community, your people.
0:48.3	And depending on your age or your lifestyle, it's a plus if it doesn't revolve around drinking alcohol.
0:57.0	These kinds of places were the go-to in and around Chicago back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
1:05.0	Last episode, we heard about a couple of them. Coffee houses like, It's here and no exit. These were places where
1:12.0	Chicagoans could listen to music and connect with each other, and because they weren't
1:16.4	centered around drinking, young people could join them too. Today we're bringing
1:22.8	you a conversation I had last year at the Evanston Folk Festival about another beloved third space that has also sadly come and gone.
1:31.4	Hello, everybody. My name is Erin Allen. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We're here to talk about Amazing Grace.
1:42.0	Amazing Grace was a music venue and artist community.
1:46.0	Throughout the 1970s, this place was so special because it was both countercultural and popular.
1:52.0	For those two, two and a half years at the main, this was the best music venue of any kind in the Midwest, possibly the country.
2:02.6	That's the voice of Neil Tesser, a Grammy award-winning journalist who covered performances at Amazing Grace.
2:09.6	Also joining me on stage was Corkie Siegel, a pioneer in chamber blues, and a member of the Siegel Schwall band.
	...

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