Tucked into the small, softly lit room of Nightjar Gallery and Studios, instruments sit waiting in every corner. Guitars, banjos and a piano invite every type of musician to take part in Gainesville’s monthly Tiny Desk Club, a space for strangers to share their love for music.
Helena Boehling, a 26-year-old who works various food service and tutoring jobs, started the original Tiny Desk Club while they were in high school. They decided to recreate it as a space for women when she moved to Gainesville from Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2021.
“There's just a lot of women in my life, queer people in my life that weren't feeling super confident in bringing their music out into the community,” Boehling said.
Musicians come to the space to perform original songs and get feedback from others. Boehling, who records music under the name Heldog, played her song “Tides” to get the room's opinions before its release.
Focused on acoustic and indie music, the club provides a place for musicians to come together and find a community different from the other “jam sessions” held in town.
Kay Hoff, a 24-year-old music teacher at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, attended Tiny Desk Club for the first time May 22. Hoff said the club provided a more welcoming atmosphere than other music groups she’s participated in.
“I have spent the last year or so kind of branching out of classical music and going and meeting other people in different genres and going to a lot of jams, and a lot of those jams are very male-dominated spaces,” Hoff said.
The club is a place centered around empowering women’s voices, which sets it apart from much of Gainesville’s male-dominated music scene. It was exciting to hear about a women’s community jam, Hoff said.
Trying new things is a big part of Tiny Desk Club’s mission. Mistakes are welcomed as part of the process, and the “jam” is prioritized over perfection.
The club is designed to be a place to find community, using music as a means to foster connection. Throughout the night, participants spend as much time sharing stories and laughter as playing music.
Angie Strickland, a 30-year-old Gainesville resident, is in her fourth year of COVID recovery. One of her main goals for improving her life was to find ways to be more involved in the community, she said, and Tiny Desk Club has allowed her to do that.
"There are a lot of things I've had to let go in my life due to getting sick, but music was the one thing I chose to really keep around, so it ties in to what I like doing, and then community at the same time,” said Strickland.
The group isn’t always large. Sometimes, it consists of just four to five people, allowing each instrument and voice to be heard in the close-knit circle.
Part of the club’s charm is its changing cast of characters. Each meeting sees fresh faces, introducing new instruments and sounds to the jam each month — like the soprano saxophone Hoff specializes in. Despite everyone focusing on a different instrument, the musicians come together to play the same songs.
People switch between instruments throughout the night, trying out sounds that might not be a part of their regular skillset. Hoff switched between piano, saxophone and ukulele at the club’s May 22 meetup.
The club holds its acoustic group sessions once a month at Nightjar Gallery and Studios and welcomes musicians of all kinds to join in, meet new people and play their own music for the group. The next event is set for June 19.
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior and this summer's music and performance reporter. This is their first semester working at the Alligator. In their free time they enjoy playing guitar, reading and writing.
