First off, Jupiter is a real place - Jupiter Drive in Allison Park where we started out holding pot-luck, bring-an-instrument parties that we called (so creatively) Music Nights On Jupiter. Hand-in-hand with our practice of providing free room and board to traveling musicians from all over the US and Canada, those little parties morphed over time into house concerts in our living room (which quick
ly outgrew our space), to building a rustic stage in our back yard (which still exists only because we have friends and saints for neighbors), to the unexpected opportunity to help Tim and Syma at Pittsburgh Winery kick-start their entertainment programming, to helping book and manage an honest-to-goodness music festival this coming summer. Jupiter is also a philosophy, based on a few simple premises: First, music improves the human condition. Second, traveling musicians by-and-large are not paid enough to do what they do. Third, experiencing live music in a close, intimate environment is just better, especially when you have the opportunity to actually interact with the performers as people. By supporting musicians that we love and presenting them in unique spaces, we have expanded our collection of friends on both sides of the stage beyond what we ever imagined possible. For example, bands now regularly “pay forward” the hospitality they have been shown while In Pittsburgh by hosting other traveling "Friends of Jupiter" bands. Folks that meet at our shows are socializing and doing business outside the context of MNOJ events. Fans and musicians are meeting in far-flung places and sharing drinks and meals. Come join for a us show; we bet you will also become a Friend of Jupiter.