Still singing after all these years: The Troubadour turns 50

Over the last half century, it’s gone by various names and hopped to several venues.

Through it all, one thing has defined the Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series:
A passion for quality music and the community that creates and supports it.

That passion will be celebrated this Friday, July 25, 2025, with a golden anniversary show in Morris Township featuring members of the Folk Project, the nonprofit that has been presenting Troubadour concerts all these years with an unsung band of volunteers.

True to its roots, the birthday bash will showcase an eclectic mix of musicians. Some have appeared on the world’s great stages. Others mostly sing in the shower.

Fifty is a milestone marked by reflection, of course. And Team Troubadour has done plenty of that, post-pandemic, as it tries to chart a course for the next 50 years.

The Friday night series survived disco, punk and rap, and it scraped through COVID — which permanently shuttered many small- and mid-sized music venues — thanks to online concerts and tutorials. (The Folk Project proudly points to $140,000 it raised to keep performers afloat.)

Now, attendance is surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Paid Folk Project memberships have soared to 500, a 66 percent jump in just a few years. The Troubadour has a new logo, and a new plan, one that aims to balance traditional “folk” tastes with fresh voices.

Video: The Folk Project’s Mike Agranoff joins the Kingston Trio at the Troubadour, July 18, 2025:

Gone is the fishing creel for donations to augment a modest cover charge. Admission prices have been boosted to $20 for non-members, with occasional $55 tickets for big names. Actor/songwriter Jeff Daniels and the reconfigured Kingston Trio recently sold out the new 300-seat hall at the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the Troubadour’s home base.

The big-ticket shows help support everything else in the Folk Project tent — from Swingin’ Tern contra dances and Acoustic Getaway weekends to workshops and festivals for songwriters, guitarists and ukulele fanatics.

“Twenty percent of the big shows pay to support the lower tickets,” says Mark Schaffer, a longtime Folk Project planner and fiddler. “So these occasional more expensive shows are helping to underwrite the other shows.”

Schaffer says the rethinking of pricing was long overdue.

“The quality of show we’re on now is different than we did two years ago and 48 years ago,” he says. Bigger numbers are enabling him to better compensate performers, he says, and attract headline-caliber openers — who may return as headliners.

The Folk Project also has ramped up promotion. What used to be word-of-mouth among the cognoscenti has shifted to aggressive marketing via social media. A re-energized monthly open mic night also opens the door to newcomers.

It’s a delicate balancing act. While courting better-known acts to the Troubadour, the Folk Project also is striving to stay mindful of its grass-roots following. Valentine’s and Halloween shows, Campfire sing-along nights and other member-flavored fare remain in the mix.

“The thing about the Folk Project, I’m talking about the Troubadour, is that it really is a musical community of music makers and music listeners,” says Schaffer, a retired business owner.

THE FIRST CHORD

That spirit took root exactly 50 years before this Friday’s show — in the basement of a French restaurant in Chester.

“The first show of what was to become the Troubadour was run by an informal group called Project 21,” says Mike Agranoff, a singer-songwriter and Folk Project elder statesman. “The fledgling concert series was called ‘Good, Though,’ which was an obscure reference to the punchline of a story told by Utah Phillips, a popular folk performer of the time.”

Admission was $1.

“That first show took place on Friday, July 25, 1975, my 30th birthday. I paid my dollar, and watched the show,” Agranoff recalls. “My memories of that show are somewhat hazy, but I believe the performers were some of the Project 21 heavy hitters…”

The venue was humble: Maybe 25 seats, no stage, no sound system. Cable reels served as tables, chairs were scavenged curbside, and the house was packed — mostly with fellow folkies and family. “And I was hooked,” Agranoff says

‘PRETTY AMAZING, PRETTY AMAZING’

For the Kingston Trio, which played the new Troubadour space last week, a folk series lasting 50 years — especially one run entirely by volunteers — is a rare gem.

“It’s pretty amazing, pretty amazing, pretty amazing,” said Mike Marvin, interviewed backstage during intermission.

“Wonderful job here, and it’s all volunteers — really admirable… to sustain this all this time,” added bandmate Tim Gorelangton.

The Troubadour’s post-pandemic revival stands in contrast to what the trio has witnessed across the country.

“A lot of them are gone,” Marvin said. “One in particular… in Austin, Texas… called the World Cafe… when COVID struck, the owner’s mom and dad died of COVID within about a week of each other… He closed it down… and now it’s a punk club or something.”

The loss of venues like that one, they said, marked a turning point for folk music’s ecosystem.

Yet at the Troubadour, something deeper seems to sustain it — the sense that almost every audience member is a musician, too.

“We really are amongst our people here,” said Buddy Woodward. “And again, I’ll bet most of them are musicians themselves, you know, and that that makes a huge difference.”

A HOME FOR HOMEMADE MUSIC

Over the decades, the Troubadour has been a proving ground for new voices and a haven for old souls. Someone once proposed on stage. Someone else died on stage. While no babies have been born there, many have grown up there — like Jean Rohe, Sharlys and Connor Dugan of Dugan’s Hooligans, and Noah and Dan Rauchwerk of the Lords of Liechtenstein.

“It’s not just a concert series. It’s a home for homemade music,” according to Schaffer.

Rohe, who first took the Troubadour stage as an 8-year-old, has credited the Folk Project with nurturing her craft and her calling.

“If it weren’t for their open mics and late-night jams at the festivals, we would not be the musicians that we are today,” echoed Dan Rauchwerk of the Lords of Liechtenstein, back in 2015.

Video: Teddy Parker, who opens at The Troubadour on Sept. 26, 2025:

Past headliners include legends like Tom Paxton, Tom Chapin, and Susan Werner. But the series increasingly is embracing lesser-known artists and contemporary stylists like The Mammals, Tara O’Grady & The Black Velvet Band, and Teddy Parker. You still might hear a dulcimer or balalaika, but the vibe is more inclusive than ever.

Team Troubadour hopes that may be a key to its longevity.

“We basically were word of mouth for the first 50 years,” says Schaffer. “So it has to do with letting the larger world know about us, and then putting on a damn good show, so that anybody who came in once… comes back.”

The Troubadour’s 50th Birthday Show, this Friday, July 25, 2025, at 7:30 p.m., will celebrate its debut a half-century ago with randomly paired duos and trios of Folk Project members — each delivering one special song. Admission: $15, includes birthday cake. At the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road, Morris Township.