They met at Live Oak. Now they host concerts at their home once a month

Music brought Fred and Sharon Munroe together.

They met at Live Oak Music Festival and for years served together as site coordinators of the annual KCBX fundraiser, held Father’s Day weekend in northern Santa Barbara County. So it seemed only appropriate when, a decade ago, the couple decided to put their event-organizing expertise to the test and start hosting concerts at their Atascadero home.

“We can’t afford to book a $1,000 (a night) group in our living room to keep us amused every month. So we find 50 of our friends and get them to chip in,” Fred Munroe, a self-employed travel agent and former Grover Beach mayor, explained.

The monthly Música del Río house concert series, which the Munroes host on a volunteer basis, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Performing on Friday is Hollywood actor-turned-folk singer-songwriter Ronny Cox, who’s best known for his roles in “Deliverance,” “Robocop” and “Total Recall.”

According to Sharon Munroe, who teaches math at Flamson Middle School in Paso Robles, inspiration for Música del Río struck on a business trip to Los Angeles in the fall of 2005.

Faced with a free evening, the couple, not yet wed, went searching for something to do — and discovered that singer-songwriter Jim Messina was playing a house concert in Thousand Oaks.

They weren’t able to make the show, but, Sharon Munroe recalled, “It sparked this thought, ‘What the heck is a house concert? And how do you get Jim Messina to play in your living room?’ ”

Curiosity blossomed into conviction after the couple attended their first house concert in May 2006 in Pacific Grove.

“We said, ‘Yeah … We could definitely do this,’ ” Sharon Munroe said. “Neither of us had any problem with inviting a bunch of strangers into the house.”

That August, the Munroes married. Then, in December 2006, they welcomed Americana artist Corinne West and her band — plus a few dozen friends — into their living room for an evening of music.

“People were highly enamored of the idea (of house concerts) at that point. It was just such a unique experience for everyone,” Sharon Munroe said, noting that she and her husband quickly amassed an email list of 110 or so people, twice as many as they had room for. They dubbed their concert series “Música del Río ” — “Music of the River” in Spanish — after the nearby Salinas River.

Although the Munroes originally planned to host concerts every other month, friends talked them into bringing in pop/soft rock singer-songwriter Jim Photoglo and bluesey bassist Freebo the following month.

“We had a full house and nobody left early, even though it was a Thursday night,” Fred Munroe marveled.

Ten years later, the tradition has continued.

Every month, the Munroes clear the furniture out of their long, rectangular living room and install rows of folding chairs in front of a makeshift stage area. (They can cram 62 concertgoers into the space, which measures 17 by 36 feet, but 45 to 50 people attend Música del Río shows on average.) The couple keeps everything they need to host a concert — including a soundboard, speakers and lights — in a single closet.

“We can set up the entire venue in under an hour and a half,” boasted Fred Munroe, and tear it down in two.

Cleaning the house, however, takes a bit longer.

“I tell people, ‘Thank you for coming because otherwise I’d never clean the floor,’ ” Sharon Munroe said with a laugh.

Although the Munroes used to do everything themselves, they now enlist the help of another couple to run the kitchen and coordinate parking in the off-street lot they installed on their 2-acre property. It has room for up to 40 cars.

Sharon Munroe, meanwhile, runs the entrance.

Doors open 45 minutes before each show so eventgoers have time to mingle, snack and sip potluck provisions, plus water, coffee and soft drinks provided by the Munroes. (The couple also provides visiting musicians with meals and a place to stay.)

“Fred and I say hello to everyone who walks in the door, and we do our best to be at the door when they leave and thank them for coming,” Sharon Munroe said, emphasizing the importance of the personal relationship she tries to foster with all attendees. “Our audience is tightly connected to us, which, in a lot of ways, is why they keep showing up.”

“Very often, they’ve never heard of who’s coming” to perform, she continued. “People trust us because we have built that into our audience. We do our best not to let them down.”

Added her husband, “Our musical judgment tells them it’s not going to get too weird.”

In addition to the Munroes’ impeccable taste in singer-songwriters who fall into the folk and Americana categories, concertgoers are also drawn to Música del Río’s intimate vibe — so cozy that it makes coffeehouses and cocktail bars look rowdy in comparison.

“No one’s talking. No one’s clanging dishes. No one’s delivering pastries,” Fred Munroe said.

“There are no bartenders whirring drinks in a blender,” his wife interjected.

The size of the stage — 8 by 12 feet — keeps things comfy, too. As past shows have proven, it barely fits six performers.

Asked how they book acts for the Música del Río season, which runs from September to May each year, the Munroes said they look for skilled performers who are adept at engaging a small-scale audience through songs, stories and stage banter.

In addition to sifting through email submissions and consulting with other house concert hosts, the couple scouts talent at the annual FAR-West Music Conference organized by the regional branch of Folk Alliance International.

“We generally will not book an artist we haven’t seen live,” Sharon Munroe explained.

Some of the pair’s favorite performers over the years have included folk rock quartet Blame Sally, guitarist Randall Williams and pianist Krista Detor. They also had high praise for folk duo Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan.

To keep things fresh, artists can’t play Música del Río shows more often than every two years. Still, returning acts are common.

This season’s lineup features a number of Música del Río veterans, including Cox. Blues duo Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, who perform Dec. 3, and folk guitarist Keith Greeninger, who plays Jan. 20, are also audience favorites.

Música del Río concerts are technically free, but the Munroes collect donations at each show.

That way, Fred Munroe said, “100 percent of the door goes to the artist, (and) 100 percent of their CD sales goes in their pocket. We don’t sell tickets in advance, and we really like it that way.”

“It makes it our hobby, not our business,” he explained.

As Sharon Munroe put it, “People snow ski. People water ski. People own boats. People play golf.

“We don’t do those things. … We put on house concerts.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2016 at 12:37 PM with the headline "They met at Live Oak. Now they host concerts at their home once a month."