Local Band Enjoying Burgeoning Live Music Scene

The was packed on Saturday, as it often is on the weekend, but this time with fans of the band Juke Joint.

Owner Chris Maceyak was busy greeting folks, setting up the speakers and lights, moving tables to clear the small area at the rear of the restaurant where the band would reside.

Live music is important to Maceyak personally, he said, and an essential new addition to his venue that keeps the place hopping long after the dinner crowd departs. 

"I've always felt that the music that is played in an establishment establishes the vibe and sets the tone for the experience," Maceyak said. "Live music performances give us an opportunity to showcase some of the area's most talented performers in a small, intimate space for free."

Juke Joint is a Rivertown-based group, with two members hailing from Tarrytown (singer Mary Kohrherr and keyboardist Jeff Schoen), and one from Irvington (guitarist Ray Ovetsky), Dobbs Ferry (drummer Eddie Bettinelli), and Connecticut (bassist Gene Eames). The group grew organically, through friends of friends. While it’s solely a cover band and the members are all over fifty with full lives in mostly other fields, the band seems to be finding its niche.

"We're not in it to be stars, just to have fun and play music," said Kohrherr, a mother of two teens and one pre-teen, wife of a professional classical musician, and medical social worker by day. Once a singer in her 20s, Kohrherr always vowed she would be in a band again when she hit 50.

"Sure enough," she said, "here I am."

The timing couldn't be better for Juke Joint's debut as there seems to be a new crop of live-music venues in town. now features live music; Bridge View started booking gigs at the beginning of the year; then there's and -- all of which Juke Joint has played recently or will be playing very soon. 

Consider this the band's Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow launch tour, with four gigs at four venues in town in as many weeks. Upcoming dates are Friday, June 3 at 9 p.m. at the Set Back Inn and Friday, June 17 at Striped Bass at 10 p.m.

Of course the is a historic draw for music lovers, but only lately are more venues tapping into the local abundance of lesser known musical talent. 

"It's so nice to be able to walk out of the Music Hall after a Bonnie Rait show and walk down road and see another show from a local musician," Kohrherr said. 

On Saturday night, patrons of the Bridge View sampled draft beer from the new four-flight option and snacked on a late-night menu including comfort-essentials like fried calamari, while nodding their heads to songs by Bonnie Rait and Joe Cocker and other soulful classics. The band clearly has musical expertise, with flawless instrumentation to back up Kohrherr's rich vocals. 

Pablo Mayor, a local musician himself, was in the audience.

"They are good seasoned musicians," he said. "It fits the crowd."

He considered pursuing playing a gig here himself, bringing in an entirely different kind of music (his particular brand of Colombian jazz/folk) and the crowd to go with it.