Name: ACMA Songwriters Showcase at The Collaboratory
Start: 2026-01-06T06:30:00-05:00
Location: The Collaboratory

🎶 ACMA Songwriters Showcase at The Collaboratory 🎶
The Collaboratory has partnered with the ACMA (Americana Community Music Association) to bring you 3 FREE outdoor concerts featuring all-original music by talented local singer-songwriters. 🌟
✨ Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy an evening under the stars! (Shows will be outdoors, weather permitting.)
The ACMA, a Fort Myers–based nonprofit, is dedicated to supporting original music. Each showcase features three artists sharing their songs, the stories behind them, and the experiences that inspired them—much like the Island Hopper Festival or Nashville’s Bluebird Café.
Expect an evening of professional-quality Americana music blending blues, roots, folk, bluegrass, and country.
📍 Free Parking. ⏰ 6:30–8:00 PM
📅 January 6 • February 3 • March 3. Come support local music and enjoy a night you won’t forget!
Jan 6th Kick Off Show. Kevin John Allen, Bruce Gallent, and Bob Patetta
Kevin John Allen, ,A well-traveled songwriter writing in the veins of Americana and country music.�With over 40 years of writing, playing, and traveling around the world, Kevin John Allen touches hearts with songs about life’s most intimate and heartfelt moments — a carny ride through love, loss, laughter, and hope.
Music to make you laugh, love, think, and dance. Winner of Best Country Artist — Jersey Acoustic Music Awards (2012)
Releases: Dark Songs Written on Black Guitars, Life’s Lonely Rodeo, The Long Road of Life, Colours, Stories I Left Behind Me�
Bruce Gallent. For over 40 years, Bruce has been writing songs, using them as a journal to reflect the different times in his life. “I started writing songs in my late 20s and have never stopped. Anything of importance in my life is in one of my songs. Writing is essential for my survival.”
Bob Patetta is a singer-songwriter specializing in blues, rock and folk, and has been performing and recording on guitar, harmonica and vocals for over 50 years. Born and raised in New Jersey where he started out singing and playing in rock bands, he has also worked extensively along the Gulf Coast of Florida, playing harmonica and washboard with Rosie O'Grady's Dixieland Band in Pensacola, guitar and blues harp in the greater Tampa area and Lee County, and in Ohio since 1990. He is currently performing with the Hot Potatoes band in Ohio, and with Wildlife Drive in Florida, as well as making many solo appearances. He is also known for making a joyful noise on Sunday mornings at many Unity and UCC churches.