Historic venue is on replay

You're among friends here, so it's OK to confess that you, too, have lain awake nights wondering why James Brown, in his 1961 hit song "Night Train," gives a lusty acknowledgment to "Riley, Nawth Ca'lina."

The reason, I discovered, is that Raleigh used to be a big stop for rhythm and blues and gospel musicians trying to hit the big time.

No, really.

Steve Gruber, development director of Passage Home, said, in essence, that Raleigh was to R&B and gospel music what Peoria was to Broadway.

Peoria, Ill., used to be considered the quintessential typical American town, and if a play did well there, it was likely headed for The Great White Way. Thus, the famous question, "Will it play in Peoria?"

If it flopped there, it was often back to the drawing board or the trash can.

Same with Raleigh, which, Gruber said, "was a midsized, conservative city. ... Performers knew that a good response here meant they could go farther south to Columbia, Savannah and bigger cities.

"The Chi-lites got their first big review here. Black groups had a hard time finding big buildings to play in, and they would come here and try out new stuff."

Yep, you read that correctly. Performers actually used to come to Raleigh on purpose. I know that's hard to believe now, when a big night out in Raleigh might mean waiting for the "Hot Now" light to come on at Krispy Kreme and a terrific jazz performer such as Freddie Greene has to blow his sax on a Glenwood Avenue corner for tips.

There were no RBC Center, BTI or Progress Energy performing arts centers. Even if there had been, it's unlikely their doors would have been open to the Godfather of Soul and his fans.

One building that was open to them was the Raleigh Community and Safety Club on Branch Street.

Thirty years after it ceased being a valued venue for groups such as the Staple Singers, the Dixie Hummingbirds and the Chi-lites, its doors are open once again. Hundreds of people came out two weeks ago for its street festival-style grand re-opening.

Passage Home, Gruber's organization, plans to create low-cost housing and upgrade retail businesses in the South Park neighborhood surrounding the once-venerated Safety Club.

Gruber said renovating the 8,000-square-foot building, which he called a "magnificent piece of history," is just the first step in "a rebirth for the community. ... It has blight, it has problems, but it's still a neighborhood."

"The Safety Club was a hub for the community, and I hope it will be again," Gruber said.

Ed Hall, a disc jockey at WSHA-FM, and singer with Ed Hall & The Sensational Evening 5, was one of the club's first performers and promoters.

"I was the first person to bring the Staple Singers to North Carolina," he said. "The club was a lighthouse for the community. People came from as far away as Henderson, Chapel Hill, even out of state."

The building will be rented out for church services, office space and, possibly, future godfathers of soul looking for a place to launch musical careers.

Maybe that will make the original Godfather give another shout-out to Riley, Nawth Ca'lina.