Me & Thee Coffeehouse Hoping To Perk Up Local Crowds

The Me & Thee Coffeehouse, one of the region's few acoustic performance series, begins its 41st season next month at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead.

The Cambridge folk band Session Americana kicks off the series September 17, returning to town after playing the coffeehouse last year and at the Marblehead Festival of the Arts earlier this summer.

Other performers coming to the coffeehouse this fall include Garnet Rogers, Tim O'Brien, and Jim Lauderdale.

Kathy Sands Boehmer has been booking acts for Me & Thee for the last four years. She said the top-notch talent playing the series is "rare to find in the suburbs."

"These are the kind of acts who perform at Club Passim and the performance spaces in Cambridge," she said.

Although the acoustics of the sanctuary at the Unitarian church make it an ideal setting for performances, with 275 seats, the shows rarely sell out, Sands Boehmer said.

This year, she has been working to lure bands and performers who might draw in a younger crowd.

"I'm trying to bring in the younger people who can keep this going," Sands Boehmer said.

Still, the long history of the Me & Thee Coffeehouse makes it an in-demand gig for performers.

"There's a waiting list of people who want to play at our venue, especially the up-and-comers," Sands Boehmer said.

The coffeehouse is run as a nonprofit by a group of dedicated volunteers. The group could always use more help, Sands Boehmer said. The perk is free music.

"The regulars are a tight-knit bunch who just enjoy what we do," she said. "We are the insane music lovers."