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The indoor/outdoor Oyster Shoals Music Hall venue offers pre-show food, drink, and then... showtime! © Corey Miller Photo
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Oyster Shoals Music Hall in Warsaw, Virginia. © Corey Miller Photo
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October brings the Oyster and Blues Festival featuring Jonathan Brown and Atlanta’s up-and-coming Eddie 9V Band. On tap for November is a six-piece Elvis tribute band. © Corey Miller Photo
Oyster Shoals Music Hall—yes, the name is a play on Muscle Shoals, the infamous Alabama recording studio where everyone from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones to Wilson Pickett recorded—is very much a collaborative effort between Tayloe Emery, Richard Taylor and Andy Beale.
For years, Emery has staged bluegrass shows at his historic home, Mount Airy, and it was he whom town officials approached last year about putting on a music show for Warsaw’s annual Christmas on Main Street celebration. Impressed by the old garage’s potential, Emery decided to lease the building from the town when they offered an attractive package. To partner in the endeavor, he brought in master carpenter Taylor, while Old Rapp Taphouse owner Beale came on board to handle food and beverage sales. The venue keeps the menu simple with items like wings and barbecue.
After knocking down a wall, Taylor used the reclaimed wood to craft a bar in one corner and a stage in another. For shows, part of the parking lot is roped off and filled with tables and chairs, so patrons have the option of listening to music indoors or out. Oyster Shoals can hold a couple hundred people by using the indoor/outdoor space creatively. “We open the old bay doors and turn on the big fans for shows,” Emery says of the all-ages, family-oriented venue situated next to a public park. “People bounce back and forth between the music hall and nearby restaurants. Parents can drop off the kids in the park and pop in for music.”
The partners are passionately music-oriented, so a lot of effort went into designing and tweaking the sound system. Walls are wood-shingled, allowing for the sound to dissipate rather than bounce around the room. “Bands have already told us how clean our sound is,” Taylor says proudly of the superior acoustics. “They say we have something special here.” With shows scheduled every month except January and February, bands are primarily booked from Virginia Beach, Richmond, Charlottesville, D.C. and southwest Virginia and Tennessee, where, Emery says, “The music is pure as a brook trout stream.”
Part of the appeal for bands could also be the grill-out preshow dinner—fish, crabcakes, sausage—the partners provide ahead of their shows. And while the venue is nicely cooled by large fans and open doors, the backstage artist area is air-conditioned and private. “We make them feel like they’re welcome because we want them to be happy,” Emery explains with a smile. “We extend that Northern Neck hospitality.”
The gregarious Taylor is the venue’s official greeter, ostensibly because he knows everyone. “There’s no problem so small I can’t fix it, whether it’s getting chairs or beers,” he laughs. “Every single person here is a VIP and if we can’t make them happy, we can’t keep this going. We don’t take ourselves too seriously… until the hour before the show.”
Emery and Taylor see themselves as curators, bringing in bands three or four times a month so music lovers don’t have to drive far to hear great music. But more than that, they seek to create an experience. Their first show in June attracted 250 people for Cash Unchained, a Johnny Cash tribute band that quickly sold out. To create a honky-tonk feel, patrons could shell peanuts and toss the remains on the floor. For a July 9 show, they had a Chesapeake Bay seafood boil with Richmond band The Embalmers, known for their unique blend of surf rock, surf punk and a stage show indebted to B-grade horror movies. It sold out by July first, but then almost all the Oyster Shoals’ shows sell out, no surprise given the ultra-affordable $10-12 ticket prices.
October brings the Oyster and Blues Festival featuring Jonathan Brown and Atlanta’s up-and-coming Eddie 9V Band, with food by Denson’s Chesapeake Bay Farm to Table food truck and Old Rapp Taphouse, as well as vendors offering oyster-themed art and crafts. On tap for November is a six-piece Elvis tribute band booked after the success of Cash Unchained. In anticipation of “Elvis: Aloha from Warsaw,” ticket sales took off and Taylor built an additional runway for the stage.
The private/public venture is a boon for local tourism. Besides putting up the bands, hotels and Airbnb properties benefit because many of the shows pull people from out of the area. The same is true for Warsaw’s eateries. Beale says his busiest nights ever have been when Oyster Shoals has music.
“People are hungry for entertainment here, but the biggest benefit is outsiders’ seeing Warsaw as this new, revitalized town,” Emery insists. “It inspires others to consider opening a business here.”
Oyster Shoals Music Hall I 187 Main Street, Warsaw 22572 I oystershoals.com I 804-313-0815
Part of the appeal for bands could also be the grill-out preshow dinner—fish, crabcakes, sausage—the partners provide ahead of their shows. And while the venue is nicely cooled by large fans and
