words by Hayden Seder
The live music scene in the Wood River Valley is hardly lacking. From free music events like Ketch’em Alive and Sun Valley Music Festival to local bands performing at small venues to big-name shows at venues like the Sun Valley Pavilion and the Argyros, there’s live music being performed every week, year-round.
But no matter how well curated the local music scene, there’s always room for something fresh, which is exactly what Our House is. Founded by two locals, Our House transforms different corners of the Wood River Valley into “our house” for the night to accommodate one or more musical artists and create the vibe of the best house party you’ve been to: dancing, connection with your friends and neighbors, and a chance to discover something new.
Behind Our House
Our House is the brainchild of locals Kailyn Avery and Brett Ashley McCoubrey, both of whom share a passion for music in all its forms. As a live music and events professional with a background in international touring, festival production, venue and event space management, and artist management, Kailyn brings years of experience in the music industry to the table.
Brett Ashley incorporates her love of music into several areas of her life, as an event producer and DJ, a cohost of community radio station KDPI’s “Menagerie Radio Hour,” and an experienced concert photographer.
The idea for Our House came from Kailyn, who recognized that, while the Wood River Valley has lots of music and does a certain “sound” well, there was so much opportunity for more. Along with the idea to simply bring in a new sound was a mission focused on booking women, BIPOC, and queer artists.
Brett describes herself as “first and foremost a fan of music,” so she and Kailyn naturally settled into bouncing ideas off each other about what Our House could look like. When Kailyn first started ideating on Our House, she was still living in the Valley and intending to stay, continuing her schedule of tour managing and leaving for a month or two at a time before returning home. But when she was offered a job to manage an artist she loves—which would require a move to Austin—she couldn’t turn it down. Obviously putting on local shows in Idaho couldn’t be done solo from Austin, and Kailyn realized that Brett had already been so much a part of solidifying the idea of Our House, it just made sense to bring her on as a partner.
Welcome to Our House
The Our House shows themselves are always at a new venue, whether that be a business, someone’s house, an existing venue, or even the great outdoors. The branding behind Our House emphasizes that these shows are meant to feel like walking into the home of a friend—a home where a band just happens to be playing. On the Our House website are listed a series of “House Rules”: Everyone is welcome at Our House, treat each space like your home, keep Our House safe, stay in the moment, enjoy responsibly.
Doing pop-up shows rather than committing to any local venue was more a matter of practicality originally, given that there are a finite number of venues in town, all of which are fairly consistently booked out. But Kailyn and Brett have embraced this ethos, relishing in that any spot in the Valley can become Our House for the night, while also being able to highlight local businesses or unique spots and create a curated environment out of whatever they’ve been given.
While the intention for the shows is for everyone to feel welcome, Brett Ashley and Kailyn want people to feel like Our House is something special for locals. Their locals-only email list, called “The Neighborhood,” offers early access tickets, exclusive pricing, and special perks for locals.
The Shows
Our House launched in January of this year at Salted Sprig with main artist Mascolo, along with DJ sets by Izze Azalea and Chloe. Picking every element of the launch event was crucial to setting the tone for Our House. Logistics-wise, Kailyn and Brett Ashley knew they wanted a blank canvas space they could curate, a bar, and artists that showed that Our House wasn’t a single-genre promoter. They decided to book Mascolo, a French-American vocalist, guitar, and producer, whose mix of DJing and playing live originals felt like the right fit for the opening event.
The event was a major success, with tickets selling out before the show. “I don’t think I had heard the phrase ‘We needed this so bad’ so many times, which really made me feel like we were doing something that was important and we were delivering this vision to the community,” says Brett Ashley.
For the second show, headliner McKenna Esteb, a Boise-based artist, reached out to Our House and said she’d love to play a show in Ketchum. After giving her music a listen, Brett Ashley and Kailyn felt Esteb was a good fit, and her, along with openers DJ Dad Jeans and Maci Mattravers, performed a sold-out show in July this year in the backyard of a cabin on Warm Springs Road owned by the Liberty Theater’s Logan Frederickson. The vibe of this show was almost polar opposite to the previous one in terms of genre, setting, and overall feel, which only further cemented Our House as a purveyor of events for all manner of audience. “We really wanted to showcase some range for what we want to do,” says Brett Ashley.
Our House has only put on two shows so far, but they have plenty of ideas in mind for future shows, and have already been in talks with the Liberty, the Argyros, and Sun Valley about the possibility of future collaborations.
