John Taylor, an Iraq war veteran and computer programmer, has hosted concerts at his Cambridge home since 2014 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
John Taylor doesn’t have to go far to hear first-class live music. Since 2014, the friendly Iraq war veteran and computer programmer has hosted concerts at his home in tiny Cambridge, Illinois, 31 miles southeast of Moline.
Many artists, however, travel great distances to play on the porch at his Ca d’Zan House Concerts, where grateful patrons bring lawn chairs for the front yard and share a potluck (suggested donation is $20) for dozens of shows each year.
In mid-June, Taylor – a 43-year-old who won the Quad City Arts community engagement award for arts supporter of the year in 2019 – hosted Sina Theil, an award winning singer/songwriter from Dublin, Ireland, the day after he and his family returned from a vacation to Scotland and Ireland. The latter is the homeland of his wife Stephanie, a massage therapist with whom he has three kids.
Theil was on a two-week U.S. tour, and Cambridge was recommended by her tour manager Pat Nee, who represents more than 10 other artists who’ve played Taylor’s place in the past five years.
“I love it,” Theil said of Cambridge, a night after playing for a music series in Williamsburg, Iowa. “I love not performing for people, but with people. I adore the atmosphere – it just feels so homey, and everyone is so friendly. I just love it.”
A traditional night at Ca d’Zan (which means “house of John” in Venetian) begins with an optional potluck dinner and social hour at 6 p.m., giving attendees a chance to connect and share in the village’s unique community spirit. The concert starts at 7 p.m. and is open to all ages, offering a family-friendly evening of live music.
Soon after Taylor started the series, he didn’t have to look hard for artists, who come from around the world.
“I have plenty I have to say no to,” he said. “I have so many acts that contact me, it’s unbelievable. I have more acts asking to come than I ever could have come, and often book a year in advance.”
Connections, he said, come from word of mouth, other artists, and booking agents who see where other artists are playing, and what musicians they’re friends with. “They all share information, keep records, and can also see who’s played where and what the turnout was.”
There are places around the world that have similar house concerts, and Taylor connects with some of them. “It’s neat,” he said, “because everyone has different challenges and you can see what other people are doing.”
Taylor sometimes gets sponsors or grants to help bring artists to Cambridge, but otherwise a tip jar collects all donations that go directly to the artists. He doesn’t earn anything from hosting at his large two-story home built in 1906, where his family moved in 2005.
Taylor is an Army veteran who served in Iraq in 2004-05 and works from home in computer programming, for an Ohio-based company. “That’s part of what makes this possible, being home-based, and I’m able to set up for the shows,” he said, noting his wife also works from home. “I’ve grown to love it all – hearing these folk songs that tell these stories, and sharing it with other people.”
A popular group he saw on his trip to Scotland, the eight-piece band Skerryvore, have done shows here for five years. The Taylors saw them at Kelso, Scotland's Floors Castle, which is more than 300 years old.
“To me, it blows my mind that they want to come here, and they love it,” Taylor said. “When you see the sacrifices people make to go out and entertain someone, it’s really kind of moving.”
Neighbors Are Fans
Corrina Sprung is a next-door neighbor of the Taylors and has been a concert regular for four years.
“I love 'em,” she said of the house shows. “It's awesome. The community comes out. It’s nice to have the potluck and talk to everybody. People travel from the Quad Cities, some people from Peoria.
The musicians Taylor books, adds Sprung, “are amazing artists, and even if you never heard of them, you love 'em by the end.”
Sprung has an eight-year-old daughter (who goes to school with the Taylors’ same-age daughter), and loves that the house concerts are family-friendly and kids can run around the yard. “I feel comfortable bringing my daughter here. I’m not going to see a band at 10 at night in a tavern, but here, I can bring her and she has as great a time with the kids. And a lot of the musicians will come play at the schools. My daughter loves when a musician comes to her school and she’ll see them here that evening.”
Carlin Follis of Galva has been an active volunteer with Taylor’s efforts for about seven years (including being on the board of his nonprofit Crossroads Cultural Connections), and also went to Scotland in June, attending the same castle concert the Taylors did.
“We’re just lucky to have them all,” said Follis of the visiting musicians. “It’s amazing – the people I’ve met, new friends I’ve made.”
Theil’s manager Nee has actually stayed with other musicians at Follis' house, where she hosts most of the artists about 20 minutes from Cambridge.
“I think we have a reputation of being very present and in the moment,” said Follis. “Our potluck is where we get to share a meal and visit with them. We truly enjoy listening and they like sharing that. It’s more intimate than a crowded bar or a big venue.”
Hermitage Green, a very popular Irish group that sells out stadiums, has also performed five times in Cambridge. For their shows, Taylor closes down the street to accommodate the crowds.
“It’s amazing, because they have no business coming here, but they want to – they like the experience,” he said. “We have a lot of regulars. I see some of these people more than my extended family.”
Hermitage Green, who plans to return to the area on August 13, often plays only five cities in the U.S. on their tours: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago … and Cambridge.
“I’m not kidding,” Follis said. “What could be more fun than people sittin’ on the lawn with lightning bugs, crickets, and the moon and stars? It’s magic.”
Grants for Galva Series
Taylor has also led the booking for the Levitt AMP Summer Concert Series at Wiley Park in Galva, Illinois. — a city 48 miles southeast of Moline with a population of 2,539. Galva has earned national acclaim since 2018 for its free weekly series, with this year's running on Sunday evenings through August 3.
With the help of the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, the Galva Arts Council earned $90,000 in matching funds to present the outdoor music series at Wiley Park in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
“I feel very fortunate; it’s changed a lot of things,” Taylor said. “It forced me and people I recruited to get out into the community, and it was a lot of work. It’s been quite the journey.”
Galva is among 31 communities nationwide that host music series under the grant program, and Taylor is working to get another grant to continue the summer series. Many of the artists who come to Galva have played Bishop Hill and/or Cambridge. Galva’s average attendance is 840 per concert, and Cambridge is about 50.
With the Levitt series, and unlike in Cambridge or Bishop Hill, there’s a strict criteria for choosing acts – and having a wide variety – for that 10-week free series.
“We can only have one to two acts of a certain genre, and we also have to balance it male to female,” Taylor said. “The problem is, a lot of them are the same style – a lot of rock groups, or a lot of folk.”
Taylor started hosting concerts at Bishop Hill Creative Commons around 2018, and in early 2022, he formed the nonprofit Crossroads Cultural Connections after hosting some indoor concerts at his home from 2014 to 2018. There’s also an art cooperative at Bishop Hill, with workshops and art for sale, and the site serves as an inclement weather location for his Cambridge concerts.
It's Not Something You Do by Chance
One-third of Taylor’s 90-some Cambridge acts per year are international, and he hosts many artists from the UK, Canada, Africa, and other locations.
“Within that, there’s a lot of diversity,” Taylor said. “It’s everything. For financial reasons, solo/duo acts are more common, because it’s more financially feasible to tour one or two people.” He added that he's hosting more concerts now than before 2019. Through May of this year, Taylor already held 40 shows. He often hosts weeknight gigs, when most theatres and concert halls do not.
Taylor said that being in a rural community (Cambridge has a population of 2,086), it’s important to feature global acts. “A lot of people here have never left the country, have no idea of other cultures,” he said. “A lot of the folk songs are old stories – their history. And I think it’s a good thing to meet people from all over the world. Getting people open to the idea that they’re more to the world than what’s right here in Cambridge, Illinois. It helps with accepting new ideas – culture, people, music, all that stuff.”
Over time, he’s become a fan of all kinds of music, especially when he sees the lengths that artists go to in order to share songs and stories.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Taylor, “especially with artists coming from another country. You have all the visa stuff, which is not cheap or convenient, just to get the permission to come to the country. Then there’s the lodging, the flights, the dates … . It’s not something you do by chance. They’re passionate about what they’re doing – trying to share their songs and stories.”
For his concert events in Cambridge, Taylor sets donations instead of fixed ticket prices, to give people more choice in paying. One time Taylor had a supporter from Minnesota who didn’t come to a show but bought $100 worth of tickets anyway.
“He wanted to contribute to the band,” he recalled. “It’s a weird thing, what they feel like they want to give, sometimes they’ll give more” than the suggested donation.
“It works itself out,” he said, noting some people schedule concerts as part of vacations across the country. “When you give people the option, treat it more like a donation, people are more generous.”
Meanwhile, for the artists, “there’s a chance their lives could change overnight,” Taylor said. “The majority of them have the desire or the talent. It’s a matter of having those opportunities presented. A lot of it is luck. There have been a lot of artists who have come, and I would never be able to afford them again, like Samantha Fish.”
Skerryvore, however, continues to return – they performed at Galesburg’s Orpheum Theatre in April and will be back in the area at Galva’s Wiley Park this September. Magic is likely to strike again.
For more information on Cambridge concerts, visit CadZanMusic.com. For more on the Galva series, visit GalvaMusic.com.
