LOCAL EVENTS
There is nothing better for a musician than a comfortable setting from which to perform amongst peers. Shelter Studio’s Open Mic Night occurs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Cigar Vault, located at 122 North LBJ Drive, and offers a plethora of cozy couches and chairs to snuggle up with friends while listening to incredible live music and tugging on a nice cigar, if one pleases. The open mic is named after the recording studio in the back of the building that is owned by Jeff Beal, who also owns the Cigar Vault itself. The regulars at the open mic all speak very highly of the event and the welcoming community that’s built one song at a time.
Though he didn’t start the open mic night, Bill Lee Ritsch has run it since 2022 and cares deeply about making sure it’s a welcoming environment for all musicians and music lovers alike.
“From the time I took it over, my idea of [how I’d like to be] running the open mic was to create a space where musicians felt comfortable coming to hang out or where anybody really felt comfortable coming to get up on stage,” Ritsch said. “I was trying to create a place where somebody who wants to get up and do open mics that has never done it before feels comfortable doing it, getting up for the first time.
And [I] really try to focus on encouraging people and supporting people and giving people just the comfort level to get up on stage and try something different for the first time or try something different that they’ve always wanted to do but never really had the guts or could find the right place to do it.”
And Ritsch has been successful in his mission to create a warm, welcoming environment for the artists. Cookie Lone Star often co-hosts the event with Sam Garcia and Ritsch, in addition to performing, and he boasted about the inclusivity and support found at the open mic night.
“I’ve never been part of any kind of music community or culture that is just so inclusive and really treats artists of all levels with the utmost support, love and respect,” Lone Star said. “The people that are first timers there, or the people that are new to music, they get the most amount of support and love. And what that does is it builds people’s confidence.”
This bolstered confidence can lead to boundless creative expression, and in turn, great music.
“I’ve seen it just in myself over the past year. It gives people a lot more drive to write more and share more,” Lone Star said. “You really watch people grow as musicians, as artists and just as performers in general.”
The open mics typically average around 15 artists weekly.
“Which is awesome; it’s fantastic,” Ritsch said. “It’s kind of become a place where the musicians hang out on Wednesday night.”
Ritsch said there are musicians from all different genres that have graced the Cigar Vault stage, but the majority of the musicians are singer/songwriters. Occasionally, there are special performances as well.
“We have some guys that are in other bands; They’ll come in and work on new material, and then they’ll take the new material out to their bands, which is really awesome,” Ritsch said.
“It’s becoming a place where musicians come and work out stuff. It’s kind of like a gym.”
The open mic night has been the seed that started many local musicians careers.
“Several of the young musicians in San Marcos like Audrey Canter and Sam Garcia and EZ Maldonado kind of got their roots growing at the cigar vault and then branched out. Now they’re all doing shows outside of the Cigar Vault. And Cookie, or Tal, he did music like eight or nine years ago, and he kind of got out of it. And the Shelter Studio’s open mic brought him back into it, which is really cool,” Ritsch said. “We’ve tried to cultivate an atmosphere of support and encouragement.”
Ritsch found the best way to encourage creativity was to throw the rule book out.
“A lot of open mics have a lot of rules … like we don’t want you doing covers, or we don’t want anybody in the crowd talking while the artist is up playing and things like that. And we don’t have those rules. We try to keep the atmosphere as loose as possible because … it lends itself to more creativity,” Ritsch said, adding that they don’t even mind if another musician plays an instrument along with someone else on stage. “We try to keep it really loose and light-hearted and fun. It’s more of a social event than a listening room.”
It’s important to Ritsch to promote the artists.
“I try to record all of the performances, and then I put as many new performances out on a YouTube channel as I can,” Ritsch said. “I try to be kind of picky about it because I want to make sure that it puts the artist in the best light and it represents the Shelter Studio in the best light.”
According to Ritsch, one shouldn’t let their negative opinion of smoking deter them from going to the Cigar Vault because cigars are very different from cigarettes or vape pens.
“Cigars don’t have chemicals and things like that, but a lot of people don’t like the smell, which I get,” Ritsch said. “I encourage people to at least come in and try to understand the cigar culture because cigar culture is a completely different thing from cigarette culture or vaping culture. It’s a very inviting, open atmosphere.”
The Cigar Vault sets itself apart from other cigar lounges.
“When people think about a cigar lounge, they usually think of a bunch of old men sitting around b**ching about politics and religion, and it’s really not that at all. Well, our cigar lounge isn’t,” Ritsch said. “We actually have a rule where you’re not allowed to talk about politics or religion, so we talk about anything and everything else. And we understand that not everybody agrees on things all the time. It’s okay to have different opinions.”
Lone Star pointed to the environment as the reason the Cigar Vault open mic is so unique.
“I think that’s kind of what makes not only this open mic really special but also this cigar store specifically,” Lone Star said. “There’s no other cigar place that is tailored to such a diverse demographic, as far as age, as far as [having both] guys and girls and just as far as just [having] different human beings from different walks of life.”
Check out the Shelter Studio’s Open Mic Night facebook page at facebook. com/groups/1271279770 512325 and the Youtube channel at youtube.com/@ ShelterStudiosOpenMic.
