Back Door Coffee House

1. Overview

By the late 1960s, Montreal had a particularly active folk scene. Alongside traditional concert halls, a network of coffee houses had developed where singers, guitarists, singer-songwriters and blues musicians performed before relatively small audiences. The Back Door Coffee House belonged fully to this culture.

Its existence was brief — approximately two years — but its programming provides a clear indication of its importance. The Back Door welcomed local and Canadian performers, as well as several American musicians who were already established figures on the North American folk circuit.

In November 1969, the Canadian music magazine RPM Weekly went so far as to describe the Back Door as one of Montreal’s principal folk venues, on the occasion of a week-long engagement by Dave Van Ronk.

2. Montreal and the Folk Revival

The Back Door appeared at the end of a decade during which Montreal had seen the emergence of a succession of small venues devoted to folk, blues and singer-songwriters. The Finjan, the Fifth Amendment, the Penelope, the New Penelope, the Montreal Folk Workshop and the Yellow Door all belonged, to varying degrees, to this environment.

These establishments did not form an institutional succession: each had its own owners, operating model and history. Taken together, however, they formed a network of venues that allowed local musicians to perform regularly while providing touring artists with Montreal rooms particularly suited to the intimacy of folk and acoustic blues.

This culture was especially visible around McGill and the western downtown area, where students, musicians, artists and folk enthusiasts regularly crossed paths.

3. Opening in 1969

The Back Door appeared on Montreal’s musical landscape in the spring of 1969. The Canadian music press reported on the new venue at the beginning of the summer and announced programming centred on established folk and blues performers.

From its earliest months, the venue therefore positioned itself less as a simple open stage intended exclusively for amateurs than as a genuine folk club capable of presenting professional touring artists.

This programming policy distinguished the Back Door while placing it in the same ecosystem as the Yellow Door, whose program likewise combined local performers, emerging talent and visiting artists.

4. 985 Sherbrooke Street West

The Back Door was located at 985 Sherbrooke Street West, near McTavish Street and McGill University.

The address formed part of the historic complex known as Prince of Wales Terrace, a row of nineteenth-century residences that once lined this section of Sherbrooke Street.

This location placed the Back Door in an area particularly well suited to this type of establishment: only a short distance from the McGill campus and amid a large population of students and young adults.

5. The Connection with the Yellow Door

The history of the Back Door is closely connected with that of the Yellow Door Coffee House, another essential institution in Montreal’s folk scene.

Mike Regenstreif, who began frequenting these establishments as a teenager in 1969, explicitly described the Back Door as a “sister club” of the Yellow Door. He also recalled first learning about the Yellow Door while attending a concert at the Back Door, before visiting it the following week.

The two venues therefore participated in the same musical network, allowing audiences to move from one club to another and providing performers with several stages in downtown Montreal.

6. A Remarkable Folk Program

Despite its brief existence, the Back Door presented a program that illustrates the exceptional vitality of Montreal’s folk scene at the turn of the 1970s.

In the fall of 1969, Dave Van Ronk, a major figure in the Greenwich Village folk scene and a mentor to several younger New York performers, appeared there for a week-long engagement from October 27 to November 2, 1969.

On February 6, 1970, the young Bruce Cockburn also performed at the Back Door. His appearance at the venue came shortly before the release of his first solo album and illustrates the role these small clubs played in the circulation and development of emerging Canadian singer-songwriters.

Recollections by people who frequented the Back Door also mention Doc & Merle Watson, David Bromberg, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Paul Siebel, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Jerry Jeff Walker.

7. Documented Performers

Contemporary sources, touring archives and eyewitness accounts associate the following performers, among others, with the Back Door:

Dave Van Ronk · Bruce Cockburn · Rosalie Sorrels · Bruce Murdoch · Doc Watson · Merle Watson · David Bromberg · Ramblin’ Jack Elliott · Paul Siebel · Sonny Terry · Brownie McGhee · Jerry Jeff Walker.

This necessarily partial list demonstrates that the Back Door was directly connected to the North American circuit of coffee houses and folk clubs of the period.

8. Rosalie Sorrels and Travelin’ Lady

One particularly evocative episode in the history of the Back Door concerns American singer-songwriter Rosalie Sorrels.

Mike Regenstreif recalled first meeting her when she performed a four- or five-night engagement at the Back Door around 1970. According to his account, it was during this stay in Montreal that Sorrels wrote Travelin’ Lady, a song that would become one of her signature works.

The anecdote illustrates the role coffee houses could play: not merely as performance venues, but also as spaces for encounters, creativity and exchanges between artists and audiences.

9. Legacy

The Back Door Coffee House existed only briefly, but it belonged to a decisive period in Montreal’s musical history. By the late 1960s, coffee houses had become one of the principal infrastructures of the folk scene: small rooms, relatively modest operating costs and an exceptional degree of intimacy between musicians and audiences.

The Back Door occupied a distinctive place within this network because it combined that intimacy with a program featuring several leading figures of North American folk and blues.

Its disappearance around 1971 did not mark the end of this culture. The Yellow Door continued its activities, while other venues gradually took up the mantle. Beginning in 1973, notably, the Golem Coffee House would in turn become a central venue in Montreal’s folk scene.

For only a few years, the Back Door connected Montreal to the wider North American coffee-house circuit, bringing together local performers, Canadian singer-songwriters and major figures of folk and blues.

10. Timeline

Spring 1969 — The Back Door Coffee House appears on Montreal’s folk scene.

1969 — The Back Door operates at 985 Sherbrooke Street West, near McGill University.

October 27 – November 2, 1969 — Dave Van Ronk performs a week-long engagement at the venue.

November 7, 1969 — The Back Door appears among the venues visited during Montreal activities documented in federal archival records.

February 6, 1970 — Bruce Cockburn performs at the Back Door.

Circa 1970 — Rosalie Sorrels performs a multi-night engagement at the venue and writes Travelin’ Lady during her stay in Montreal.

1971 — End of the Back Door’s period of activity as documented in this profile.