Stone Cottage Studios Opens in Boulder With Intimate Concerts

Jamie and Davis Maynard know how to throw a house show. But what the father-son duo is doing at the new Stone Cottage Studios space along Boulder’s Pearl Street is much more than hosting typical DIY gigs in a room full of well-worn furniture and a keg in the corner.

Instead, the Maynards offer a highly curated listening experience that welcomes local and touring acts alike for an intimate evening of live music, complete with professional audio and videography. While seats are limited to forty people, all the sessions are livestreamed, too. Between the wall of vintage vinyl, the black-and-white photos of legendary musicians and the antique audio equipment throughout the venue, it’s easy to see that Stone Cottage could put on the most polished, cozy concert you’ll ever experience.

“Stone Cottage was birthed out of just the love of music,” says Davis, the younger Maynard. “With this new space on Pearl Street, it’s just allowing so much more community and collaboration to take place.”

The origins of Stone Cottage Studios can be traced back to 2011, when Jamie started the music production company Magic Factor Media. As a musician himself, he saw a need for high-quality services in the Boulder community and began Stone Cottage Studios by inviting artists into his nineteenth-century stone cottage at 3091 Seventh Street in 2018.

However, Jamie recently decided to expand Stone Cottage Studios into another house he owned, at 1928 Pearl Street, after his most recent tenants moved out. The two-story building opened as Stone Cottage’s official recording studio, venue and headquarters at the end of February.

“It’s an eclectic music funhouse, where we record downstairs and have some really fantastic listening spaces upstairs,” says Davis, who is also a singer-songwriter and member of the progressive folk-rock band River Mann.

In celebration of the Pearl Street launch, the inaugural Stone Cottage Studios concert series kicked off this month with Nashville singer-songwriter Liz Longley. The next two performances are Friday, March 21, with indie band Junaco, and Saturday, March 22, with multi-instrumentalist Abby Posner.

The concert series will continue in April, with announcements to come soon, and there will be the fifth-annual outdoor summer concert series at the Seventh Street location, as well. But there are plenty of other opportunities to check out the fresh digs.

The local-songwriter open mic, held every other Thursday night at the new Pearl Street digs, is a great way for up-and-coming musicians to play in front of an audience while also compiling a cache of photo and video content, courtesy of Stone Cottage Studios. Tickets are $40 at the door; the cover goes toward production costs and keeps the content services free for performers.

“There are fifteen slots, and each performer gets to play two of their songs, and I record and film each one of them,” Davis explains. “The next day, I get to send them their recorded performance. We have so many songwriters and musicians here who want to involve themselves in community, but they also get to walk away from that event with content to be able to promote themselves and their music with.”

He also created a podcast, Echoes from the Stone, a development and support series that includes a live recording session that people can attend at the Pearl Street location. “We platform eight artists at a time to create a web across platforming and marketing, just trying to have the tide rise for all boats here in the music community,” he adds. “It’s just such an amazing vehicle for people to connect and come together and share their humanity and stories.”

Of course, musicians can book studio time at Pearl Street, too, but anyone is welcome to come in and enjoy the spot.

“We’re open during the days, and it really is a community space, a hangout space, for people to be able to come and play music,” Davis says.

And that’s already proved to be the case, his father affirms. “Yeah, people come in, they’ll sit down, they’ll take a guitar from the wall and play. We’ll talk about Stone Cottage, or they may be interested in a unique vinyl record we have,” Jamie adds.

While it’s mainly a family affair for now, Stone Cottage Studios works with a diverse team of freelancers, encompassing everything from music production to marketing expertise, and is exploring opportunities to partner with CU music programs and area radio stations.

Whatever is next, Davis Maynard has an unofficial tagline to sum up what Stone Cottage Studios is all about: “It’s really for the love of music, because music is such a great way for people to express themselves and brings everyone together.”

Junaco, 6 p.m. Friday, March 21, and Abby Posner, 6 p.m. Saturday, March 22, Stone Cottage Studios, 1928 Pearl Street, Boulder. Tickets are $45-$70.