Allison Young is re-launching Alley Cat Karaoke at The Skylark Lounge on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. The ongoing night runs from 9pm to 1am on Wednesdays at the Skylark and Young has all the appropriate gear for the event and a generous song library from which participants might choose for their time on stage. Young grew up in small town Perryville, Missouri where she got started singing in choir and making art as a kid and youth before going to college and connecting with underground culture and art more widely in and around Saint Louis. She studied theater before dropping out of college working various jobs and making trips around the country to see where she might like to make her life long term. As fate would have it on a month-long excursion the last stop on the way home was in Denver and it felt like a good fit for Young for its then unpretentious local art and music community and affordability. In 2000 she relocated to the Mile High City and early on got to know a number of like-minded people in her neighborhood who were into creative endeavors in music and art. By around the middle of the decade Young had the opportunity to take over the karaoke night at the now defunct bar Bender’s Tavern and within a couple of years or so she got a hold of her own gear for doing such nights and over the course of her time doing Alley Cat Karaoke she learned a good deal about running sound and curating the nights to make it a positive experience for everyone involved.
For several years Young ran Alley Cat Karaoke at Hamburger Mary’s on Seventeenth Avenue for both locations until the pandemic ended it in March 2020 like it did many in person events and dining and activities for over a year. It was then that Young took a break from that endeavor and focused more on her vintage retail business (Alleycat Kitsch) which she’d been running and growing in parallel with the karaoke night and working other jobs and in moments presenting her visual art and performing in bands. Young’s approach to the karaoke night is supportive and community-oriented and it’s definitely not American Idol.
Listen to our interview with Allison Young on Bandcamp and follow her goings on and event announcements on Instagram linked below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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