Along Those Lines

Green Line Café celebrates five years with a CD and a music festival to benefit the fair-trade co-op that supplies it.

by A.D. Amorosi

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When West Philly's Green Line Café (GLC) celebrates its fifth year a month earlier than its January anniversary, everyone wins.

And it's not just because they're releasing a 13-song compilation, Songs on the Green Line, that features some of Philly's softest noisemakers, including Birdie Busch, Devin Greenwood, Circles and Denison Witmer (GLC co-owner Douglas Witmer's bro).

They're also hosting a three-day fest featuring the comp's crooners, which, like the album, will benefit Cooperativa San Fernando, a fair-trade, farmer-owned co-op in Peru that provides the cafés some of their beans. Proceeds will go toward building a solar-powered drying facility for the co-op.

Witmer, who co-founded the Independents Coffee Cooperative in 2003 with other area fair-trade coffeehouses, currently runs three West Philly Green Line locations. He and co-owner Daniel Thut are in the process of moving the Other Green Line (4305 Locust St.) to the corner of 45th and Locust, where it'll be renamed Green Line Locust. An opening is set for March 2008. "It's going to be a better set-up space for live events," says Witmer. "Bigger and more comfortable."

"To be able to be a quiet, viable venue that's nonsmoking, where folks go for the music, has been great," says Sherman Arts' Rich Wexler, who books and promotes shows for GLC. In the past, he's landed the likes of Greg Weeks, Fern Knight and Jana Hunter.

The sheer number and quality of the acts helped Witmer develop the idea for the benefit album. "[We wanted to make] a mini document of the musical energy happening here in the form of the compilation," he says.

In fact, many musicians who've played GLC in the past have become part of its extended family. Members of Circles were the first people to ever perform there; now, vocalist/guitarist Nick Millevoi is an employee. Bands like Soltero and Red Heart the Ticker include former baristas.

The new location will be more than three times the size of the current Locust Street shop, allowing room for a performance space that'll double as a kids' play area. "The building is pretty beat right now — kind of how 43rd and Baltimore was back in 2003," says Witmer, referring to his first location, the current venue for GLC's music program. "We're looking forward to bringing some more positive energy to that corner."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Songs on the Green Line release shows, Thu., Dec. 13, 7 p.m., with Corndawg, Soltero, Amy Pickard; Fri., Dec. 14, 7 p.m., with Birdie Busch, Jack Ohly, Circles; Sat., Dec. 15, 7 p.m., with Fan of Friends, the Weeds, Little Ocean. Green Line Café, 4239 Baltimore Ave. 215-222-3431, greenlinecafe.com.