When music lover and guitar player Mike Rolfe wants to go to a blues club, he doesn’t drive Downtown. He goes to the lower level of his home in Corazon Tartan Fields to “Studio B” – his handmade version of old-style music clubs often found in larger cities.
In the intimate, dimly lit room, he plays one of his guitars, and perhaps composes a song. Often he is joined by a couple of neighbors – one a drummer, one a guitar player – to spend some time enjoying their own music.
Friends and neighbors gather to spend an evening listening to musical offerings from other musicians who enjoy the throwback, club-like atmosphere Rolfe created in what was an unfinished room off a large, well-appointed lower-level recreation area.
The studio resulted from Rolfe’s avid interest in guitar playing, which began about five years ago. “I’m a huge music fan. Always have been. I never played a musical instrument,” Rolfe says, calling himself a jock. He played three sports in high school in Dayton and did karate while he was a student at Ohio University.
By the time Rolfe turned 50, he was working for the owner of the American Popcorn Co., Sioux City, Iowa-based marketer of Jolly Time microwavable popcorn. “I had a lot of time on my hands,” Rolfe says.
He decided he would like to play a guitar, so he bought one – a $4,000 electric model used by the tops in the business, such as Carlos Santana – before he began taking lessons from an instructor in Powell.
Rolfe and his wife, Maureen, had for 18 years lived in a home on the 7th fairway at Muirfield Village Golf Club, but at 3,400 square feet, it wasn’t large enough as his guitar playing and buying interest exploded.
They moved three years later to a home almost twice the size. “We use all the space,” Rolfe says.
In the new abode, he converted the formal dining room that adjoins the large great room into an “acoustic room.” In the simply furnished space, he leisurely plays one of the five acoustic instruments that are displayed on the wall.
Rolfe admittedly has a case of G.A.S. – guitar acquisition syndrome – that has resulted in his collection of eight, including three electric models. “If I wasn’t married, I’d have more,” Rolfe says. More might not go over well with Maureen, whom Rolfe says accepts his musical indulgence.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t play the guitar,” says Rolfe.
His passion for guitar resulted in the lower level studio that he created in a barren room the previous owner had used as a workshop.
“I knew what I wanted from the get-go,” Rolfe says, as he tells of the personal handiwork he applied.
Some walls were covered by pegboard panels that were used by the previous owner to hang tools. The holes deaden echoes, Rolfe learned, so he added more and painted all of them black. Now they hold some guitars from Rolfe’s collection.
The poured concrete foundation had faux brick texture. Rolfe found that he could paint the raised surfaces a deep red, creating a brick wall appearance to enhance the ambience of a blues club.
Rolfe wanted to use crushed velvet, too. After inquiring with some designers, he decided to go it alone and bought the material at JoAnn Fabrics and stapled some to joists in the ceiling to cover sound-deadening insulation. He also made fabric wall coverings at both ends of the room. The wall panels and fabrics allow “a crisp sound without bouncing off the walls,” he says.
Clubs often have VIP areas, so Rolfe made his own at the end of the room, patterned after one he saw in New York City. It has comfortable couches and chairs on a pl
atform several inches above the floor and is set off by a red velvet rope between two chrome posts. There is seating in the room for 17, and folding chairs are sometimes added.
“We’ve had upwards of 40 in here,” Rolfe says.
One wall displays several black-and-white photographs of blues musicians Rolfe obtained from a collector and mounted. Another wall holds large, colorful prints of Elvis Presley and of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.
In the stage area, which is at floor level, there’s a drum set that an acquaintance provided, a sound system that includes a “loop,” which creates various musical backing sounds, and two microphones. Instruments include a keyboard, bongos and Rolfe’s three electric guitars.
He personally uses the studio about once a week. It’s a few steps from his home office in a comfortable window-surrounded offset at the far end of the recreation area. Periodically, Rolfe and Maureen enjoy massages nearby in a former bedroom they converted just for that purpose.
Rolfe finds himself hosting a gathering of musicians and a small audience about every six weeks. He sometimes sings, typically some of the 20 or so songs he has written.
“I never sang in my life. Never. But I’m comfortable singing to people here. I wouldn’t do it anyplace else,” he says.
His songs – such as “Walking in Paris,” “Life Goes By So Quickly” and “Stack Deck” – are about “Americana. Life in general. Stuff I have experienced in life. Some I just made up,” Rolfe says.
Old-style blues clubs were often smoke-filled. Rolfe took care of that, too. Exit via the short hallway that has a small bar area, and cross the great room to a cigar and wine retreat where musicians and visitors might linger. It has a small wine cellar and an exhaust system to accommodate smoking.
Besides friends, the Rolfes’ families visit often from Cincinnati and Dayton. Rolfe, who doesn’t have any children of his own, says nieces, nephews and neighbors have a good time singing into the studio microphones.
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
