Amazingrace Coffeehouse (later known as Amazingrace) was an influential counterculture music and performance venue in Evanston, Illinois, during the 1970s. Run by a collective called the Amazingrace Family, it was known for its welcoming atmosphere, eclectic menu, excellent sound system, and respectful audiences. Amazingrace was the top music club in the Chicago Reader poll 1973-1975, plus Number 3 in the 1975 wrap-up of "Who's Who in Chicago's Alternative Culture". Performers from a wide variety of genres (including blues, bluegrass, folk, funk, rock, jazz, comedy, spoken word, and theater) played at Amazingrace from its beginning on the campus of Northwestern University until its final incarnation at The Main on Chicago Avenue in Evanston.
History
Beginnings at Scott Hall
Amazingrace's beginning tracks with the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam movement, and was closely associated with the cultural and political ferment of the 1960s and 1970s. Even before there was a coffeehouse, independent students were protesting the inadequacy of the gathering and food space available in Scott Hall at Northwestern University. In May 1970, participants in the Campus Strike ran a spontaneous food service to student protesters from Scott Hall, in addition to holding organizing meetings and providing music. The Strike protested the killing of four college students at Kent State and two students at Jackson State on May 4, 1970. The idea for a permanent student coffeehouse coalesced when, post-Strike, university officials finally closed the Scott Hall Grill. Students formed the Scott Hall Grill Committee, which then successfully requested permission from the Associated Student Government to run a food service, gathering, and entertainment space in the basement of 601 University Place. At the same time, these students formed a communal living situation in an empty University housing apartment on Sherman Avenue.
The coffeehouse in the basement was a hit, often selling out of lunch and packing the room for evening music. Student volunteers made daily runs to Chicago's South Water Market for fresh produce. Patrons sat on the floor at cable spool tables to eat granola, chicken soup and soy loaf. Anyone with a good recipe that could cheaply serve 400 was invited to take a turn at cooking.
Performers such as Bill Quateman and Fred Anderson came in to play, and patrons passed the hat to pay them. The as-yet unnamed venue also presented outdoor concerts, sponsored art shows, and hosted an alternative free school, whose offerings included "Street Medicine", "Alternative Structures: From Plastic Bag to Geodesic Dome", "Meher Baba", and "Computer Programming for Freaks".
The venue received its name when folk duo Norman Schwartz and Carla Reiter started ending their set with an a cappella rendition of the well-known song, "Amazing Grace". The strong audience response led Schwartz and other performers to close subsequent sets the same way, and soon the whole audience was singing what had now become the club's nightly finale. The song christened both the coffeehouse and the collective.
Shanley Hall
In the Fall of 1972 the University re-appropriated the Scott Hall basement for office space. Amazingrace moved to the larger Shanley Hall, which doubled the coffeehouse’s seating capacity to 200. Shanley Hall, a Quonset hut, was built after World War II to make classrooms for increased students due to the G.I. Bill. Amazingrace began to book touring national acts such as Phil Ochs, David Bromberg, Mimi Fariña, Jaime Brockett, John Hartford, Norman Blake, Ry Cooder, Mike Seeger, and Vassar Clements. These touring acts were then complemented by local opening acts and headliners such as Luther Allison, Claudia Schmidt, Tom Dundee, Bonnie Koloc and Redwood Landing.
In addition to Shanley Hall, Amazingrace also had access to larger campus venues such as the 1200+-seat Cahn Auditorium and the 8000-seat McGaw Hall (now Welsh-Ryan Arena). Here it presented shows by Taj Mahal, Leo Kottke, John Fahey, John Prine, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Steve Goodman, and The Grateful Dead.