Danny Davis

Tangled String Studios has cheated extinction more times than many musical entities this side of Keith Richards.

Rolling Stones guitarist Richards famously survived decades of colossal smack, blow and booze intake. At age 82, he’s still releasing new music with the Stones.

Meanwhile, Tangled String, a beloved listening-room style music venue and guitar-making business founded in 2012 in Huntsville, Alabama, survived the pandemic and 2020’s economic challenges.

Until they didn’t. Tangled String closed permanently on New Year’s Day, after a decade-plus run that included shows by notable artists like Black Crowes guitarist Rich Robinson, singer/songwriter Amanda Shires and Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley.

Now, six months after the final live show at Tangled String’s Lowe Mill arts center location, a sold-out New Year’s Eve set by indie rock/R&B group Billy Allen + The Pollies, Davis will return to the live music game. Albeit in a new, fluid form.

Davis has launched a curation venture called Tangled String Syndicate. Their debut show is set for June 4 at the Speakeasy at Straight to Ale brewery.

John Paul White -- an acclaimed songwriter best known for his time with Grammy-winning pop-folk duo Civil Wars -- is the headliner. Nationally touring Huntsville duo Common Man is the opener.

The show’s tickets, around $40, have already sold out. Future shows have yet to be announced, but check tangledstringsyndicate.com for updates.

With Tangled String Syndicate, Davis’ partners include Fret Shop owner Mark Torstenson, Artemis Music Productions’ Alli Johnson, and Wendy Cruitt. All three previously collaborated with Davis for shows at Tangled String Studios’ former digs.

“It was kind of traumatic getting out of Tangled String,” Davis says, referring to the Lowe Mill physical location. “It was just hard to close the books on it financially after the guitar business went away.

“But in reality [as a live music venue] we were hitting our stride pretty well. We had a great team together with Alli and Mark and Wendy and some others, but it was difficult to make that much overhead of a room work.”

As Tangled String Studios shuttered, Davis sold the entire remaining stock of his exquisitely crafted acoustic guitars. He kept three of his favorites though. But he never lost his passion for live music. Or for putting on shows.

Not long ago, Straight to Ale’s management reached out and asked Davis what it would take to do “a Tangled String type thing” at Straight to Ale. “I said, ‘Well, it takes a good room,’” Davis says with an easy smile.

Straight to Ale was committed to making their Speakeasy a better place for live music. It’s a cozy space, with a hidden entrance behind a row of vintage school lockers, at Campus No. 805, a popular nightlife, dining and retail development in the repurposed former Stone Middle School building on Governors Drive.

“That kind of sparked it,” Davis says. “We had such good times and good results at Tangled String. I just started thinking, the only thing we don’t have is a venue. We’ve got all the other things that we need.”

From 12 or so years of doing shows back at Tangled String, Davis was already connected with well-known booking agents like High Road Touring. They had the sound system know-how of Torstenson, who’d helped get Tangled String Studios’ P.A. together. They had Cruitt’s energy.

And importantly, the creativity of Johnson, who’s previously brought live music to unexpected places like south Huntsville marina Ditto Landing.

Davis started writing up plans. He pitched Johnson first. “And she was like, ‘I’ve been waiting on you three months to write this,’” Davis says.

They then started writing specifications and doing drawings for how they’d tweak Straight to Ale’s Speakeasy room. “So we get the room that matches our ambitions.”

One of Johnson’s primary roles with Tangled String Syndicate is that of promoter. Doing what she does with her own Artemis Productions, which has worked with local talents like Luna Koi, Lana White, Burney Sisters and the aforementioned Common Man.

As Johnson puts it, “Bringing musicians to different places and new places to get them exposure and then introduce other people to music that they’ve never heard of.”

She also coordinates the national anthem, halftime music and other music performances for minor league soccer team Huntsville City Football Club.

“Working with Danny for the past several years at Tangled String Studios,” Johnson says, “this helped elevate my learning and be able to help produce some of these bigger shows and be a promoter for them. So that’s what I’m really excited to take on,” with Tangled String Syndicate now.

“Just help building it up and bringing the standard of and quality of music that Tangled String brought to Huntsville. To be a big part of that is so special.”

Straight to Ale’s Speakeasy has been retrofitted. They’ve installed a P.A. system identical to Tangled String Studios’, expanded stage, new backdrop, cozy lighting. Davis says the vibe there now “is very similar to Tangled String [Studios].”

Tangled String Syndicate’s business plan is, as Davis puts it, “great artists, great rooms, great shows.”

Notice that’s “rooms.” Plural. He’s stoked they’re starting out at STA’s Speakeasy, and they also aim do shows at other venues with larger capacity.

Johnson says the loss of Tangled String Studios created a void for intimate-sized live music in Huntsville. “That hurt our ecosystem,” she says. Tangled String began with an initial capacity of just 70 for live shows. They eventually doubled that.

Since the 2022 closing of SideTracks Music Hall -- which during its five-year run brought in acts like Greta Van Fleet, Shovels + Rope and Skid Row legend Sebastian Bach -- Huntsville’s been without a full-time club-sized venue for touring-level bands of a certain level.

Lumberyard’s Meridian Arts Club, helmed by Orion Amphitheater managers The Venue Group, was designed to fill that hole. But after an initially planned summer 2022 opening, it’s yet to come to fruition.

A nine-year gestating reboot of iconic Huntsville music dive bar Tip Top Café, with a capacity of around 100, finally achieved liftoff on New Year’s Eve. They’ve hosted the likes of local rock standouts Camacho and veteran cult-fave Webb Wilder.

Mad Malts Brewing has emerged as a hotspot to see underground punk, metal and alternative, by acts like Huntsville band Camping in Alaska. Recently opened hipster bar Goodbye Horses is doing indie bills. Bands like excellent locals Silver Fern and Nashville rockers Thelma and the Sleaze play there.

For Huntsville-area fans who want live music in smaller settings at lower costs than big concerts than come to Orion, Von Braun Center and Mars Music Hall, these venues are manna.

Still, good additions as they are, they occupy different lanes than what Tangled String Studios brought. Something akin to a Huntsville version of “MTV Unplugged.”

Tangled String also put on music festivals at Huntsville’s Yellowhammer Brewing and Big Spring Park, featuring artists like bluesman Cedric Burnside and Southern alt-rockers Drivin N Cryin.

Davis credits one of Tangled String Studios’ cofounders, Todd Haller, with getting touring artists to come there initially. Haller was Jason Isbell’s roadie during the van-traveling early days of Isbell’s solo career, which has since mushroomed into folk-rock stardom.

“That gave us a doorway to go and find great artists,” Davis says. “And then we fumbled about and worked on that room constantly, for it to sound good and feel good.”

Tangled String Studios couldn’t serve alcohol at their Lowe Mill location. But guests could BYOB. “And then over time we just learned how to throw a good party,” Davis says.

The venue was a specific and wonderful place. Reclaimed barnwood behind the stage, brick walls, vintage furniture. And most importantly, an open floor plan with Davis’ guitar workshop and shadowboxed displays of finished guitars for sale in plain view.

Davis’ wife Susan Davis was an integral part, too. She’d make homecooked meals for artists to enjoy in Tangled String Studios’ tiny greenroom.

OK, so the story behind the new name. Davis wanted to keep the initials TSS. He liked the word “syndicate” because, although it’s often used in terms of organized crime, the actual meaning, as he understands it, is “a group of independent businesses working for a common goal.”

Davis says, “Basically what we want to do is we act as a board and we will curate shows. We’ll look for a good artist and then we’ll either find a venue or in the case of Straight To Ale, help them modify a venue to match our standards and what fits the artist that we’re looking at.”

Then, Davis says, “We do soup to nuts on contracting, advancing, day-of-show, all the things that are required to make that show successful in coordination with whatever needs the venues have. So it’s our business to curate experiences.”

Tangled String Syndicate also wants to work with young or new local promoters. Help seed the next generation of Huntsville’s live music architects.

“After we approve the show,” Davis says, “you go build it, but we’re going to help you every step of the way. And that’ll put somebody that really wants to get in the business a leg up, and will take the mystery out of it and a lot of risk off their shoulders.”

Davis says, “This is a chance where I can pass the torch on. Because Alli’s really good at this, and other people are going to be really good at this.” Then he adds, “I don’t want to walk away not having finished the job.”