The Birchmere, a live music venue in Alexandria whose 56-year history is detailed in a recent book, began as a restaurant in Arlington, Va. Founder Gary Oelze still runs the now-famous performance hall. “They’ll carry me out of here,” he said. Photo courtesy of Gary Oelze

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An estimated three million or more fans have flocked to Alexandria’s Birchmere over the last 56 years to see and hear artists like Ray Charles and Joan Baez, bluegrass stars like Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash, and lesser-known performers like Mousey Thompson and Shovels and Rope.

The 30,000-square-foot club, housed in a former Kodak film developing plant, is featured in a new book, All Roads Lead to the Birchmere, America’s Legendary Music Hall, by the club’s founder Gary Oelze, co-authored with Stephen Moore.

Published in November by Booklocker, All Roads chronicles the club’s evolution and includes an afterward by former CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer: “I’m so glad this book was done to summarize the Birchmere’s remarkable run and to honor the performers who ‘arrived’ by playing the legendary hall…my thanks for including me in the story.”

Bluegrass roots

The soul of the Birchmere is its founder and manager Gary Oelze, who at 79 “feels 45,” he said. A Kentucky native, Oelze was working at a Peoples drug store in Arlington in 1963 when an acquaintance asked him to run a nearby restaurant.

When evening business ebbed, Oelze added bluegrass bands several nights a week. Bluegrass music’s popularity grew, so Oelze moved to a larger space in the city’s Del Ray section in 1981, and in 1997 moved again a few blocks away to its larger, current location.

Oelze eradicated chemical film developing odors and invested in quality sound equipment for the heart of the Birchmere, its Music Hall — a rectangular expanse of communal tables where 500 can sit intimately around a stage.

The club features a different performer almost every night, and is open 300 nights a year. One secret to success, Oelze contends, has been the 7:30 p.m. start time, which makes shows attractive to older audiences, who can get home by 11 p.m.

Oelze got the club’s “Quiet Please” sign from the Cellar Door, a former Georgetown club, and he strictly enforces this rule. “It’s not a honky tonk,” he said.

The staff can feed 500 in an hour and a half. “McDonalds can’t do that,” he boasted.

Because Oelze treats employees as family, turnover is low. Some have been there 25 to 30 years, and many repeat customers choose their seats to get certain servers.

Performers, too, are “family,” Oelze said. He pays premium rates, and when the groups arrive, usually after long bus trips, they find a shower, washer and dryer available.

Big name headliners

The entry hall walls are covered with framed, signed posters from headliner artists like Ray Charles, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Emmy Lou Harris and Patty Loveless.

A Birchmere audience was the first to hear Mary Chapin Carpenter. Dave Matthews, John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, Tom Paxton, Ian Tyson, Tom Rush and k.d. Lang have performed there.

Blues singer and guitarist Gaye Adegbalola said the Birchmere is her “favorite place to play.” She has performed there many times because, she said, she can make eye contact with an audience that is “interactive and not stuffy.”

“A major state of pride comes over me when I say, ‘I played at the Birchmere,’” she said. Adegbalola is a founding member of Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women, who played together from 1984 to 2009. She now records on her own label, Hot Toddy Music.

Alexandrian Louise Potter has seen many performances at the Birchmere. “The acoustics are wonderful, the atmosphere is intimate, and the performers always remark that they love the audience’s attentiveness,” she said.

Wide variety of performers

While the Birchmere specialized in bluegrass bands for many years (The Seldom Scene played there every Thursday night for 20 years), today’s artists play blues, jazz, rock, bluegrass and folk music. The club even has comedians, like Paula Poundstone and John Waters.

In 2020, COVID closed the club for four months, but in July, Oelze opened a few nights a week at half capacity. During that time, he was able to sign up cover bands — groups that play music originally performed by someone else.

USA Today lauded the Birchmere as one of the 10 great places for country music, along with the Grand Olde Opry and Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California.

A 1986 Washington Post article crowed, “With precious little fanfare, the Birchmere has become the finest showcase club for contemporary acoustic music in the country.”

How have things changed over the years?

“It’s all business now,” Oelze said. In the old days, he had many performers’ home telephone numbers in his Rolodex. Today he deals with agents.

The Washington area is what he calls a “seller’s market,” with competitive clubs popping up, like Anthem in D.C.’s Wharf area and MGM at Maryland’s National Harbor.

Oelze’s is married to Suzanne Oelze, a decorator. He has two daughters, a son, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

He relishes managing the Birchmere every day. “I’d die if I didn’t do it. It would kill me. They’ll carry me out of here,” he said.

For current COVID entry requirements and tickets to upcoming shows, visit birchmere.com. The club is located at 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, VA; (703) 549-7500.