Bucktown

By Michael Romkey

Bucktown has been celebrating live folk music for two fun-filled decades.

Bucktown started back in 2006, when I was looking for a way to perform live music that didn’t involve carrying PA systems out of bars at 2 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

Teaming up with area music friends from the Barley House Band, the Bucktown Revue was born. With Scott Tunnicliff serving as emcee, the first show was staged at the Moline Club in a room holding about 40 people.

The first shows were relatively unrehearsed and spontaneous, but something between the musicians and the audiences clicked.

“I came to the first show expecting an unmitigated train wreck,” one local TV personality and sometimes-performer told me. “Much to my surprise, it was perfectly enjoyable.”

* * *

The next season, Bucktown moved to a larger space in the former River Music Experience (now Common Chord) in downtown Davenport. The RME was home for the next six years, when it became time to find more space.

People kept telling me to check out Davenport Junior Theater. I’d driven by it hundreds of times and was convinced there was no way the place would work. But I finally got so desperate to find a bigger venue that I arranged to see the theater. The moment I walked in, I realized it was, of course, perfect for Bucktown.

We moved to Davenport Junior Theater for the 2012-13 season and have been there ever since.

It’s been a match made in heaven. We have completely enjoyed working with the Junior Theater and Park Board staff. They are real pros and have been incredibly supportive.

* * *

As a branding footnote, a few years ago we changed the show’s name from “The Bucktown Revue” to “The Bucktown Americana Music Show.”

Why?

Some people were confused about what the word “revue” meant. Would attending require you to participate in some sort of evaluation? Did the show involve exotic dancers? Trading “Revue” for “Americana Music Show” seemed to paint a clearer picture. Is it OK to still call it “The Bucktown Revue”? Sure! We’re agreeable people.

* * *

In 2024, we learned the city was selling the Annie Wittenmeyer complex, where the theater is located, to a developer, in May 2025. Though it sounded as if we might be good to continue for a bit longer at the theater, it also seemed possible complications could ensue once ownership transferred and construction started.

With the theater staff’s blessings, we went looking for a new home.

Small theaters are few and far between, but we were fortunate to locate one at the Rock Island Library Midtown Branch, 2715 30th St., Rock Island. It’s a modern facility the library shares with the, Y south of Augusta College and north of Black Hawk Road.

The theater is comfy. There is tons of parking. And the library folks are our kind of people — friendly and interested in the arts.

* * *

It is only natural that, in two decades of putting on 10 shows per year, people have come and gone from the crew and audience. Sadly, a few have passed away, foremost among them my late wife, Carol, who was the smiling face at the ticket desk for so many years. And Steve Flatt, the show’s second emcee.

It has been good to have had the opportunity to work creatively with so many friends, and good to have made so many new friends, both on stage and in the audience. God has truly blessed us.

* * *

Over the years it’s been fun to host many of the area’s best singer/songwriters and musicians and well as a variety of new talents. People like Richard Roberts, John Phillips, Comfort Food, the Quarter Moon Tinsnips, the Miracle Bluegrass Band from Geneseo, the Carefree Highwaymen, just to name a few. I hate to leave anybody out, but it’s a really long list of folks!

It’s also been rewarding to host national touring artists once or twice a year. We’ve shared the stage with Matt Flinner, Mike Compton, Joe Newberry, the Price Sisters, Fiddlin’ Banjo Billy Mathews, the Wildwoods and Liam Purcell at Bucktown. It’s been wonderful having an excuse to bring that kind of bluegrass and roots music talent to the area.

Other highlights related to the show would certainly be the tours we went on with the cast and a bunch of our Bucktown friends to places like Ireland and Scotland. The show’s season sponsor, Dick Fislar and Picture Perfect Travel in Rock Island, put those tours together. (If you’re planning a trip, call Dick!)

* * *

We’ve had the best time in the world working out of Davenport Junior Theater. It really has been our home in every sense of the word. We will miss the facility and staff, especially Valerie Moore, the theater manager. She is smart, friendly and with it.

We’re sorry we need to say goodbye to Davenport Junior Theater, but we’re excited about the future in Rock Island.

Onward!