Java Joe’s One-Shot Showcase

Java Joe’s in 2015.

Hello, I can’t believe it’s already November! The holidays are upon us, and fall has crept in. There are little storms and wind and weather and color in the trees. Pretty great!

That’s not at all what I am here to talk about today, though!

I wanted to just reminisce a bit. There was a time in San Diego that lasted about seven or eight years. An amazingly short time for an incredible scene. This guy named Joe Flamini opened a little coffee house in Poway.

Joe had been working at UPS. He had saved up enough money to open a little place. It was tiny. It had a bar at one end for coffee and snacks and a little area with a grand piano and room for about 40 people. It was right next-door to the Chicken Pie Diner in Poway. You know that big shopping center where Home Depot is? But I digress.

Java Joe’s became such an amazing place, but in the beginning it was humble and sweet. A guy named Doug Milward ran an open mic and a few retired folks sat around playing some folk songs.

One day, a guy named John Katchur, a singer-songwriter who was living in Escondido, decided to pop in into Java Joe’s to see what was going on with the open mic. He had a blast and asked Joe if he could do a show there. After a couple shows, John was getting some attention and he was inviting friends to the open mic. I was one of those friends. Frank Drennen and I went out to the open mic, and I played in front of people for the very first time. Frank played a few already but was just as nervous as I was.

We fell in love with the people there and with Joe. He had named his place Java Joe’s so all of us just called him Java. Everyone listened intently and was hanging on every word! It was the first “listening room” I’ve ever experienced and maybe the best.

Java Joe had a knack for setting the stage and creating a free space for musicians to play. For better or worse, he kept the place and stage sacred. It was like church for us.

Eventually, John came up with the idea of having a show there called the One-Shot Showcase.

There was a scene already happening and John had met tons of people at the open mic and started inviting them to come up and do one song each. I was the only percussionist around and JOHN was and is a great lead guitar player, so we would just stand on stage as songwriters would come up and do one song each while we accompanied them.

Those shows were unbelievably magical. Jewel, Steve Poltz, Gregory Page, Robin Henkel, Lisa Sanders, Calman Hart, Joel Rafael, and dozens more would show up to do a song each. 20 or 30 at a time. It was incredible. Everyone would try and keep up with the person before them, so the audience got quite a show! Those nights are incredible memories for me and something I will always cherish.

Over the last few months, I’ve reconnected with John Katchur, and we’ve been reminiscing about all this stuff.

I figured what the heck, I called Java Joe and John and asked them if they wanted to try and do a one-shot showcase on my series at the jazz lounge. They were both unbelievably excited and can’t wait to do it! We decided on next April and just can’t wait!!!

Tickets will go on sale on my website (jeffberkley.com) as well as the Jazz Lounge website (https://www.thejazzlounge.live/) as we get close. In the meantime, you can buy tickets for the monthly songwriter showcase. It’s just that the April show tickets won’t be up for another few months.

We’ve all have and have had incredible lives full of family and music and travel and records and heartbreak and loss and triumph. Bringing all that back around to a Java Joe’s one shot showcase seems cyclical and correct.

“This is the way.” — The Mandalorian

I hope I don’t see you throwin’ away your shot!

Love, JB

Jeff Berkley is a San Diego songwriter, musician, and producer, whose soulful writing, guitar mastery, and visionary production have shaped the Southern California music scene. He has collaborated with icons like Jackson Browne, David Crosby, the Indigo Girls, and Ben Harper; in 1999 won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Award. With his bands Berkley Hart and Jeff Berkley & the Banned, he has earned multiple San Diego Music Awards, including Artist of the Year in 2023, and was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame. Berkley has released numerous acclaimed albums and continues to perform, produce, and create music rooted in heart and storytelling.