Music remains a vital part of Harvest Moon

ALBANY — If Harvest Moon had had to rely on the votes of co-owner Bo Henry to edge the Oglethorpe Lounge in The Albany Herald’s Friday Jam Music Poll as favorite venue, the Moon would not have stood a chance.

“I saw the poll in The Herald, but I didn’t even vote,” said Henry, who with partner Stewart Campbell is principal owner of the Stewbo’s Restaurant Group — which includes Harvest Moon — and with his eponymous band is one of the best-known musical acts in Southwest Georgia. “I didn’t vote because I didn’t know how.”

As it turned out, Henry’s votes weren’t needed in the poll that gave Herald readers an opportunity to select their favorite musicians and venue. The Moon, which was outpolled 1,007-400 in the opening round of The Herald’s poll — which determined four finalists in each of 11 categories — rebounded to collect 2,029 votes to edge the Oglethorpe Lounge, which received 2,007 votes.

The other two finalists were Charley B’s and Coach’s Lounge.

While Henry may not have been tech-savvy enough to support his restaurant in the Herald poll, plenty of his loyal employees and regulars were.

“We really do appreciate the people who took the time to vote for us,” Stewbo’s President Billy Mann said. “I think the reason so many did is that they feel like they’re a part of us. We just work here; our customers are the real Harvest Moon.”

Henry opened Harvest Moon in Albany’s then-all-but-deserted downtown district 15 years ago, and while he admits he had no restaurant experience at the time, it was music that led him into the business.

“Originally, I opened this place to have somewhere to play music,” he said. “I was playing on the road seven days a week, and I got to the point where I didn’t want to travel all the time. I wanted a place in my hometown where, if I wanted to play a set, I could. I knew nothing about the restaurant business, but I decided to give it a shot.

“Harvest Moon opened because of music. And, still today, music is a big part of Harvest Moon.”

Henry moved the Moon from downtown to its current 2347 Dawson Road location in 2008. And even though the makeshift stage area in the restaurant is cramped, it’s still a vital part of the Moon’s atmosphere.

“Look, the only true music-only venue in Albany is the State Theatre,” Henry said. “I’m proud of Lane (Rosen) for keeping that going, because I know it’s been hard. The first night we had a show there (Henry and Rosen partnered with Sandy Farkas to open the long-defunct theater), we had the Dave Matthews Cover Band, us and one more act. There were between 700 and 800 people at the show.

“Now we poured a lot of time and money into the opening, getting things just right, paying for a top-quality sound system. But at the end of the night, after we paid everyone off, we had $75 to split between us. That shows you how slim a profit margin there is in a music-only venue. That really is a labor of love.”

Local musicians who play regularly in the area give Harvest Moon high marks.

“Very simply, I like the convenience of playing at Harvest Moon,” Rod Holt and the Fractured Souls drummer Bill Denson said. “It’s an easy set-up; they have the PA system in place. Out of all the places I’ve played in Albany — and, I’ll admit, there aren’t a lot of them now — it’s the best one going.

“If someone asked me a good place to go hear music, I’d tell them to go to Harvest Moon.”

Henry built “The Lot” in the space behind Harvest Moon before moving the restaurant to Dawson Road, and the outdoor venue was the site of dozens of live performances, by such noted artists as the Lost Trailers, Bad Company, David Allan Coe, Brian Howe, Molly Hatchett, Moonshine Still and Monroe Brown.

“We had some really well-known artists and some memorable shows at The Lot,” Henry said. “But as far as making money off them, we didn’t make a penny. Yes, we sold more food when we had crowds at the shows. But we didn’t make any money off the shows themselves.”

Like Mann, Henry said he’s appreciative of the continued support given Harvest Moon and the votes that propelled the venue to the top of The Herald’s favorites poll.

“We are, first, a restaurant,” he said. “But we’re a good place to hang out. We have people who will come here to hear certain bands play, but we have regulars who are going to come no matter who’s playing. It’s a place to get some good food, but there’s music for entertainment.

“And musicians like to play here because we pay them a flat rate, and if we make anything beyond that, we give it to them. Ask any musician that hasn’t had 10 Top 40 songs but wants to play original music how much they make playing in Athens or some of the clubs in Atlanta. Evan Barber (who fronts the local Dead Gamblers) said the last time he played at a club in Athens, he lost $75. We love music, and we’re going to support musicians. They know if they play here, we’ll feed them and they’ll make a guaranteed amount of money.”

Henry is asked if he can imagine Harvest Moon without music.

“You see the space where we set up for music?” he says. “Imagine how much more business we could do if we took the equipment out of there and put in three more tables. That’s three tables, 300 days a year times 11 hours. I guarantee you, we’d make more money with those three tables than we do having musicians play.

“But Harvest Moon without music? No way. Never.”