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Club Helsinki will close
By David Scribner
Special to the Register-Star
After 15 years of offering an eclectic, dynamic mix of jazz, folk and ethnic music performed by some of the world’s best musicians, Club Helsinki will be closing its doors Aug. 31.
“We are heart-broken,” owners Marc Shaffler and Deborah McDowell, declared in a press release.
They did not give a reason for the club’s closing, but observers say that the club has become another victim of the severe recession.
For its numerous fans here in the Berkshires and beyond, Aug. 31, 2009 will be the day the music died.
“This is really a big letdown,” commented Shayna Bronstein, a fan of the club tucked into a corner of the Barrington House facing the Taconic parking lot, whose dormered entrance possessed the look of an elf’s front door, as if inside you would enter a world of a different scale. “Club Helsinki is essential to the culture of Great Barrington. Music always makes people happy, and in the winter especially, it lifts people’s spirits. Helsinki has been the one place where I’ve been able to go to hear some really good music.”
"For 30 years, people had been talking about creating in the Berkshires the equivalent of the Iron House Music Hall in Northampton,” commented Berkshire Living editor-in-chief Seth Rogovoy. “Marc did it. With the Helsinki, the Berkshires had that equivalent.”
“We would like to say thank you to all our friends and supporters, all the artists and musicians who ever walked through our doors, to everyone who appreciated something singular and homemade from our kitchen,” Shaffler and McDowell wrote.
The club has drawn top musical talent from New York, Boston and abroad, including The Tin Hat Trio, Golem, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Room Full of Blues, Leo Kottke, Maceo Parker, Buckwheat Zydeco and Grupo Fantasma.
As a final tribute to the musicians and community members who have supported the funky music venue, Club Helsinki will host what it calls “The Last Waltz,” a farewell that will include music from special invited guests who have appeared over the years.
On the final day, members of the community are invited to stop by and say goodbye and share memories of the venue.
The announcement doesn’t come as a complete shock. For the past few years, Shaffler has been developing a parallel site, Helsinki on the Hudson, in Hudson.
Sources familiar with the future of Club Helsinki say that the Hudson venue at the corner of Fourth and Columbia streets, an 8,500-square-foot space that includes a state-of-the-art recording studio, would be not be ready for at least four to five months.
“We are heart-broken,” owners Marc Shaffler and Deborah McDowell, declared in a press release.
They did not give a reason for the club’s closing, but observers say that the club has become another victim of the severe recession.
For its numerous fans here in the Berkshires and beyond, Aug. 31, 2009 will be the day the music died.
“This is really a big letdown,” commented Shayna Bronstein, a fan of the club tucked into a corner of the Barrington House facing the Taconic parking lot, whose dormered entrance possessed the look of an elf’s front door, as if inside you would enter a world of a different scale. “Club Helsinki is essential to the culture of Great Barrington. Music always makes people happy, and in the winter especially, it lifts people’s spirits. Helsinki has been the one place where I’ve been able to go to hear some really good music.”
"For 30 years, people had been talking about creating in the Berkshires the equivalent of the Iron House Music Hall in Northampton,” commented Berkshire Living editor-in-chief Seth Rogovoy. “Marc did it. With the Helsinki, the Berkshires had that equivalent.”
“We would like to say thank you to all our friends and supporters, all the artists and musicians who ever walked through our doors, to everyone who appreciated something singular and homemade from our kitchen,” Shaffler and McDowell wrote.
The club has drawn top musical talent from New York, Boston and abroad, including The Tin Hat Trio, Golem, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Room Full of Blues, Leo Kottke, Maceo Parker, Buckwheat Zydeco and Grupo Fantasma.
As a final tribute to the musicians and community members who have supported the funky music venue, Club Helsinki will host what it calls “The Last Waltz,” a farewell that will include music from special invited guests who have appeared over the years.
On the final day, members of the community are invited to stop by and say goodbye and share memories of the venue.
The announcement doesn’t come as a complete shock. For the past few years, Shaffler has been developing a parallel site, Helsinki on the Hudson, in Hudson.
Sources familiar with the future of Club Helsinki say that the Hudson venue at the corner of Fourth and Columbia streets, an 8,500-square-foot space that includes a state-of-the-art recording studio, would be not be ready for at least four to five months.
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