"Kara what kee?"
By Lyn Anderson

After I bought the Charcoal House in 1990, some of my dinner guests suggested that I have some kind of entertainment in the lounge. Sounded good to me -- people who stay longer usually spend more money!

But what kind of entertainment to have? Hmm. Most of my customer base is from East County, an area that most people (wrongly) perceive as being redneck country. Should I try country music? How about jazz? Maybe rock 'n roll to appeal to the younger generation?

Well, I tried all of them.

Country? Dance floor not big enough. Plus, most of the people who came in for the music nursed one, maybe two beers through the evening. Couldn't afford it.

Jazz? We had some really great jazz musicians at The Charcoal House, including Jaime Valle. The music was fabulous, and we had good support from a few loyal afficionados, but there just weren't enough of them.

Rock 'n roll -- forget it! Too loud, too rowdy. Definitely not for The Charcoal House.

We even had an Irish Duo in for a while. Excellent musicians, not enough listeners, but the music and the dancing were fun.

Then we hired Kirk Bates. We were very proud to have had Kirk perform in our lounge for over two years. He had a large, loyal following, but not large enough to support the expense. Also, Kirk's show ended at midnight; so at five after midnight, the lounge was empty -- but I still had employees who were hired to work until 2:00 a.m.

So someone suggest karaoke. Kara -- what -- kee? Karaoke! Okay. Let's check it out. My husband and I started going out to the different Karaoke clubs around San Diego County. Looked like fun, but when Karaoke first got going, the crowds were pretty anemic in most of the clubs/bars we visited.

Checked out equipment. Many of the bars had just one little screen, one mic, one or two small speakers. Sound quality wasn't all that great. Then I tried singing a song -- "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." I broke out in the biggest case of hives I've ever seen. I was a nervous wreck. I was also hooked! Tried out a few more bars, a few more songs. And then we decided to give it a go!

At first, we hired independent Karaoke people who brought their own equipment in. Even though the setups that the KJ's brought in were small, the customers loved it. One by one, people would get up and try their hand at it. I could really relate to how nervous they were, so we were very supportive of their efforts. And slowly the crowds grew -- and grew -- and grew.

Soon we bought our own equipment. State-of-the-art stuff, great sound. Then we got REALLY lucky and hired the incomparable Ms. Gerrie Woo as our KJ Hostess with the Mostest. Karaoke is the best things that ever happened to The Charcoal House. It has kept us alive during some extremely lean years -- like when our freeway off ramps were closed for four years during CalTrans construction. If it hadn't been for Karaoke and the loyal following Woo developed, we never would have made it!

With Woo's help (and the help of her wonderful husband Gary) we purchased more and more equipment and discs. Many of our customers contributed their own discs to our collection! (Thank you!) We wanted to have the best sound quality possible, the best song selection, and the best format. I believe we have succeeded. Now The Charcoal House is rockin' 'n rollin', country wailin', and R&B jammin' Tuesday through Saturday.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you, to all you Karaoke Krazies (you know who you are) who have continued to make The Charcoal House Karaoke a success!