OUR STORY
How did you get the idea for this place? That's what most folks want to know. It's long... it's complicated... but here are the highlights...
The Georgia Heritage Music Hall is the brainchild of two Atlantans: Allen Judd and Rocky Ball.
Allen Judd is a retired banker with a knack for numbers and a special interest and love for music. Rocky Ball is a professional musician with a wide creative streak and a history of entertaining audiences of all ages. Together they're a pretty good team and both are sold on this Music Hall idea...
THE MUSIC HALL
"Why can't we have a place where all of these great musicians can play? Where anybody could come hear them any night? Where young kids could come and see what kind of music transpired before them? And what would it look like?"
Those questions were asked in an excited call from Judd to Ball one night about 10:00 after Judd had an "epiphany" at the Village Corner german restaurant in the Village of Stone Mountain.
"I was listening to Don Erdman's Hotlanta Trio and the place was full of not only people my age, but a group of young swing dancers, a honeymooning couple from Japan and a giant pig from Stone Mountain Park that 'oinked' in the right place to Old MacDonald! Everyone there, including the pig, had a blast, and it made me wonder why I couldn't have this kind of experience any night?" Judd elaborates.
Judd drove around the Village for about a half hour looking at attractive granite architecture and shuttered buildings while thinking about how great it would be to have a place right in the middle of this quaint little town. He ignored the lateness of the hour and called his friend, Rocky Ball.
"I had already spent 4 years as the co-owner of a club in Underground Atlanta... I knew the headaches with creating a place like Allen envisioned. In fact, I knew a lot more about HOW NOT to do it than HOW to do it!" Ball remembers.
Allen said, "What would you do, then, to prevent those headaches right from the beginning?"
That was a challenge and Ball had already spent several years working those things out in his mind:
1. Seperate the VENUE from the RESTAURANT. Because the business model for each is so different, having them depend on each other financially would lead to bad decisions about both.
2. Keep the seating limited. A large venue looks great when it's FULL... but anything short of FULL looks bad to the customers on a slower night. Find a way to make it look FULL all the time.
3. Make it intimate. Have a way for some of the audience to be so close they can hear the musicians breathe.
4. Keep the history alive and right up front. "Make it look like a small 1930 Georgia town but work like CNN." Have a state of the art sound, lighting and video system just out of sight.
