THE PARLOR ROOM STORY

The Parlor Room is Northampton's artist-and-audience-friendly listening room/performance space/school of music. The beloved venue celebrates its 10th anniversary this fall and has presented over a thousand shows since its inception, including the Parlor Room Home Sessions (presented by Signature Sounds) which raised over $100,000 for artists unable to tour during the height of the COVID pandemic. Past performers include Lake Street Dive, Black Francis, Anais Mitchell, Rhiannon Giddens, Sean Watkins, Lady Lamb, Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief), Chris Smither, Juliana Hatfield, Brown Bird, The Suitcase Junket, and many more.

In January 2023, ten full years into its existence, the Parlor Room became a 501(c)(3) non-profit venue/community space/music school, and more.

The Parlor Room is closely connected to the folks at Signature Sounds Recordings, one of the world's premiere record labels for folk/roots/americana/indie/rock, home to such artists as Chris Smither, Willi Carlisle, Eilen Jewell, Brennen Leigh, Birds of Chicago, Parsonsfield, Rachel Baiman, Matthew Fowler, And The Kids, Winterpills and Twisted Pine among others. Alumni artists include Lake Street Dive, Josh Ritter, Mary Gauthier, and Lori McKenna. The label was formed by Jim Olsen and Mark Thayer in 1995 to promote the burgeoning acoustic music scene in and around Northampton, MA. Since the label's inception, Signature Sounds has released over 180 albums. Signature Sounds Recordings is distributed exclusively worldwide by Redeye Worldwide.

The Parlor Room was founded in autumn of 2012 when Signature Sounds Recordings moved to a new location at 32 Masonic St. in downtown Northampton. The record label's original vision for the venue was to host occasional performances by label affiliated artists. The new venue proved quite popular and the bookings quickly expanded to several shows per week. The Parlor Room hosted over 1,000 performances in the following decade. Moving forward the Signature Sounds label offices will share the Masonic St. building with The Parlor Room Foundation.