NORWICH – The Norwich music scene, like anything else, is an ever changing landscape and one of downtown's most notable music locales is changing with the times, too. Big changes are coming to the way Blarney Stone Pub owner Sarah Woods promotes and books music shows.

“We've always been known as being one of the few places in town that has live music, and that's something that we're very proud of. We want to expand our musical offerings and the art of live music, so we've brought our good friend Nate Gross on board,” said Woods.

Gross is a well respected member of the local music community who has built his life around music. For a number of years, Gross has lent his talents to performing in an array of bands, teaching music lessons and now, expanding the musical horizons of the Blarney Stone Pub.

Said Woods, “Having a lead booking agent for the Blarney Stone is a new thing that we're trying out in an effort to spawn a new interest in live music at the local level.”

“In the past,” Woods explained, “I have worn multiple hats and handled booking duties along with the daily operation of the business.” Woods and Gross both agree that having one person who is well established in the music business will prove to have the most beneficial impact.

The vision of Woods and Gross is to boost an interest in music at the Blarney Stone Pub, and bill its downtown location into more of a music venue rather than “just another bar with music,” said Woods. The team will accomplish this by “broadening its circle of musicians and acts,” ushering in more regionally and nationally known groups that may be traveling through the area from points afar.

“I think the idea is to make music more of the focal point at the Blarney Stone and transform it into more of a venue,” Said Gross. “What you'll see starting to change in the next four months or so are a lot of bands that are from out of town. Many of the upcoming acts to play our stage are on tour out of Brooklyn, Philadelphia and all over the place,” he said.

According to Gross and Woods, Friday nights will be reserved primarily for the traveling shows and the venue's more locally based staple bands will be booked on Saturdays.

Gross said, “Since Fridays are typically the busiest nights for nightlife in Norwich, we would like to use that to our advantage, and give patrons the opportunity to hear a variety of new musicians.”

Woods added, “We've always been very good about supporting the local music scene and our goal is to continue to offer the stage to them ... We still are very much behind area bands that want to play at the Blarney Stone Pub.