No bar. No phones. Just music at McCabe’s Guitar Shop

Tucked away in the back room of a Santa Monica guitar shop is an unlikely temple to live music.

There's no bar. No cellphone screens glowing in the dark. Just 150 people, sitting shoulder to shoulder in folding chairs, so quiet you can hear every picked note ring out.

For nearly 60 years, McCabe's Guitar Shop has hosted intimate performances by legends of folk, country, jazz and rock, everyone from Joni Mitchell to Elvis Costello to Beck.

Elvis Costello (l.) and John Hiatt (r.) perform together in 1984 at McCabe's Guitar Shop.

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Courtesy McCabe's Guitar Shop

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On a recent Saturday night, the audience is here for alt-country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks, who, flanked on a tiny stage with a violinist and bassist, flashes a smile into the dark.

"I'm glad to be back for my 27th appearance at McCabe's here in Santa Monica," Fulks told the crowd. "That's a guess, but it's pretty close."

In a music industry dominated by streaming and scrolling, McCabe's offers something increasingly rare: the rapt attention of an audience sitting a few feet from the performer.

Singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks chats up the crowd at McCabe's during a recent performance, accompanied by violinist Jenny Scheinman and bassist Max Schwartz.

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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Landing a show at McCabe's carries the kind of prestige reserved for far larger stages, Peter Lesser writes in his new book chronicling the venue's history, Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop.

One artist told Lesser, "Look, there's Carnegie Hall. There's the Grand Ole Opry, and there's McCabe's Guitar Shop."

A flyer for a Jan. 2019 performance by Beck.

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McCabe's Guitar Shop

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Lesser, who used to manage live music venues in upstate New York, has long been struck by the big names who played such a tiny room in Santa Monica.

"How were they able to attract the same artists in a 150-seat venue that I was trying to fill 1,000 seats with?" he said.

After moving to Santa Monica to be closer to family during the pandemic, Lesser started attending shows at McCabe's himself and set out to answer his own question.

Peter Lesser, author of Live at McCabe's, chronicles the venue's nearly 60-year history.

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Josie Huang

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He talked to some 80 people, including artists who performed there like Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal and Loudon Wainwright III.

It turns out McCabe's road to becoming a music landmark began almost by chance.

An accidental venue

Gerald McCabe, a furniture maker by trade who dabbled in guitar repairs, opened the shop in 1958. A place to browse guitars and accessories, it also became a hangout for musicians during the folk boom of the '60s, hosting jam sessions.

And it was where folk singer Mike Seeger turned in 1969 when a planned show with Elizabeth Cotten at UCLA's Royce Hall fell through.

(From l. r.): Walter Camp, former co-owner of McCabe's, stands with folk singers Elizabeth Cotten and Mike Seeger at the venue's first live performance.

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Bob Riskin

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"He came to McCabe's Guitar Shop and said, 'What do you think I should do?'" Lesser said. "And they said, 'Just play here.'"

But there was a problem: The shop didn't have a permit to host concerts.

"They had to put blankets in front of the windows, because they didn't want anybody to see him," Lesser said.

The next month, another folk singer, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, found himself stranded in L.A. after his car broke down. Needing money for a new transmission, he played two shows at McCabe's.

His friend Arlo Guthrie, in town recording an album, joined in on the second night.

By the end of 1969, McCabe's was advertising planned shows.

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McCabe's Guitar Shop

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"That's really when [the shop] got the idea," Lesser said. "'We can do this every week.'"

Music royalty

McCabe's became a coveted stop for both rising artists and major acts, including those who'd come up through the venue themselves.

Before he was a star, Jackson Browne regularly played McCabe's, including five shows in 1970 alone. After his 1972 breakout album with hits like "Doctor My Eyes," he kept returning for occasional shows.

Then there was Ry Cooder, the Santa Monica-born roots virtuoso and producer behind the Buena Vista Social Club album. He used to hang out at McCabe's after school, where he perfected his guitar licks and went onto teach others his picking style.

Jackson Browne, used to regularly perform at McCabe's, and would return occasionally after he broke through on the charts.

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Courtesy McCabe's Guitar Shop

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Both artists were part of a spectacular night in 1984 held to honor outgoing McCabe's concert director Nancy Covey. They joined a constellation of stars including Richard Thompson, T Bone Burnett and John Hiatt.

Warren Zevon brought down the house with "Werewolves of London," and the evening closed with Elvis Costello leading the room through "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star."

As McCabe's renown grew, Hollywood also came calling.

McCabe's had begun offering lessons, and actors preparing to play musicians in movies studied with its instructors.

Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix were coached for roles as June Carter and Johnny Cash in the biopic "Walk the Line." Christian Bale also worked with a McCabe's instructor so he could channel Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."

On top of being a concert venue, McCabe's is a guitar and repair shop that offers lessons.

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Speaking of the music icon, the actual Bob Dylan sought out McCabe's instructor Fran Banish after hearing him perform blues standards at his son's wedding. In a surreal moment for McCabe's staff, Dylan showed up at the shop to work through a Blind Lemon Jefferson tune with Banish in one of the upstairs lesson rooms.

"Great artists are always learning," Lesser said.

Among the pillars

Upstairs by the lesson rooms, the hallway is lined with photos of the giants who've played at McCabe's.

Fulks, waiting in the green room ahead of his performance, marvels at being in the company of heroes like Doc Watson and Norman Blake, even after himself playing at the venue since the early 2000s.

Multiple artists have recorded tracks or whole albums at McCabe's including Peter Case.

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"You look at the pictures on the wall and I don't think I belong in that group of people," Fulks said.

Having moved to L.A. from Chicago during the pandemic, Fulks is now able to attend concerts at McCabe's himself, and being on the other side of the stage, he knows the reverential attention given to performances.

"There's a sort of slightly museum-like respect built into the situation of being in the dark and looking up at somebody like it's a movie screen, and the sound is always wonderful," Fulks said.

But Fulks, whose wry, self-deprecating sense of humor shows up in his darkly comic lyrics, likes to keep things loose. Later, when he takes the stage, he brings the jokes.

By his count, Robbie Fulks has performed at McCabe's 27 times.

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"I don't look like a country singer exactly," he said to the audience. "But I feel like I look like a humanities professor at a small community college."

Still standing

Despite changes over the years — including new owners and different concert directors bringing their own distinct tastes — McCabe's has maintained a fiercely loyal following.

"Even though we say, 'Yes, we're the owners of McCabe's,' we're not really," said Walt McGraw, who now runs the shop with his wife, Nora. "It's the community, it's the musicians, it's the artists."

McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica sits at its third location on Pico.

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The couple took over the business from Nora's father, Bob Riskin, who started working at McCabe's as a teenager in the early 1960s before eventually becoming owner and moving the store to its third and current location at 3101 Pico Blvd.

Walt McGraw and his wife Nora took over operation of McCabe's from her father, Bob Riskin, who retired during the pandemic.

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Josie Huang

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When an L.A. Times story reported during the pandemic that Riskin was retiring, longtime patrons feared the venue itself might disappear.

"We got inundated with cards," McGraw recalled. "People sent flowers to the shop saying, 'You can't close.'"

But for McGraw, that has never been an option.

"It just seemed too important to sell or close up shop," he said.

The room today

On the night of Fulks' performance, patrons file through the shop to get to the backroom, weaving past walls lined with guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and banjos.

While no alcohol is on tap, there is self-serve coffee, water bottles and chocolate bars for sale.

The backroom of McCabe's Guitar Shop holds an audience of about 150 people..

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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Travis Prine wanders the store, pausing to admire the Martins and Collings.

"I can't afford most of the guitars in here, but it's a really cool place," said Prine, who drove from Hesperia in the high desert to see Fulks.

It was his first time at McCabe's, and he can feel the history.

"Almost everybody who's anyone has played here over the years," he said. "Jackson Browne has played here. Townes Van Zandt, I believe — just about everyone."

To see shows, concert-goers must first pass through the guitar shop to get to the backroom.

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And now it was Prine's turn to get the McCabe's experience.

For an hour and a half, Fulks runs through an acoustic set that at one moment was classic country, the next, spiky bluegrass, mixing virtuosic picking and storytelling, with a nod to forebears.

"This is slightly embarrassing about the set list, but there's three mentions of Hank Williams over the course of the set," Fulks said to cheers and clapping. "The third one comes much later in the set, so we'll give you a free jelly bean if you spot that one."

It's the kind of night that keeps them coming back to McCabe's, show after show.