Gorge Community Music Closing their doors Jan. 25

From Caleb Prescott at Gorge Community Music :

Caleb Prescott with a familiar friend. Photos by Gorge Community Music

I’m writing this as 2021 is coming to a close, to announce that Gorge Community Music will be closing Jan. 25.

Since we fulfilled our lease in Nov. 2020, we have operated “month to month”, and ultimately our landlord sold our building to a new owner who needs the space for their own pursuits. We love the space we inhabited, with the student spaces upstairs, and the Upstairs Stage venue. We had wanted for years to purchase the building ourselves, but our profit trajectory just wasn’t fast enough.

And then Covid came.

We know you love music and appreciate Gorge Community Music, so we encourage you to remain on the newsletter list, as our employee Alan Swartz has been interested in taking over the store, and we’ve been encouraging him.

If he does continue Gorge Community Music, it will be in a new place, and I’m sure Alan will notify everyone on the newsletter list of where and when he’ll be open. Expect a smaller space with fewer services, but a new store working to fulfill the Mission of Gorge Community Music to “be the gathering place for musicians in the Columbia River Gorge and the mid-Columbia regions.”

Come by the store, open in Jan. Tues.-Sat. 12 to 6. Storewide clearance prices! The sooner it goes, the easier it will be for us. We have a lot to move, and our last day in the space is Jan. 31. Three pianos free to good homes. Books, accessories, electronics, used band instruments, new and used guitars and ukuleles. Ho’okipa inventory is for sale, but not on-sale.

We learned SO much, and had so many good times in pursuit of our dream along the way! If you haven’t already, please “Like” Gorge Community Music on Facebook to see the retrospective slide show we’ll post there in January, reliving many highlights of our time together. Over five years, we forged a real community of musicians! At Christmas season of 2019, with no inkling of a pandemic about to wash over us, we gathered for a potluck meal and homegrown musical entertainment upstairs at the store, in recognition of this community we had assembled. Impulsively, I got up and strummed my ukulele and sang Joan Baez’ lyrics to “May God Bless and Keep You Always.” I’m so glad I did that. Remember it?

“May God bless and keep you always, may your wishes all come true
May you always do for others, and let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars, and climb on every rung
and may you stay forever young!”

“When one door closes, another opens” a friend told me. The fate of Gorge Community Music has weighed heavily on all of our shoulders as the pandemic settled in for an extended stay. We believe wholeheartedly that music is for everyone, and that our region needs to have a local music business, even though we were unable to ultimately be successful. Like any exciting sporting contest, the clock ultimately runs out for one team. It ran out for our team. Please continue to practice your art and support music wherever you find it by attending the concerts local groups provide for your entertainment, and the new Gorge Community Music, if indeed it rises like the Phoenix, from the ashes of our efforts.

Aloha to all, Caleb Prescott, Psalm Prescott, and Ursula, Wendy and Steve Schaefer