The evolution of Eddie’s Attic

Some upcoming shows:

7 p.m. Saturday: Caroline Herring

8 p.m. Oct. 23: Mike Farris

8 p.m. Oct. 26: Leon Redbone

7 p.m. Nov. 15: John Cowan Band

7 and 9:30 p.m. Nov. 18: Tony Lucca and Brendan James

7 p.m. Nov. 25: Emily Kinney

In his four decades as an internationally known concert promoter, Alex Cooley worked with nearly every behemoth of rock and pop. Michael Jackson. The Rolling Stones. The Police. U2. Springsteen. Dylan. Madonna.

The list is literally pages long.

Then about two years ago, Cooley embarked on his own new tour, one that replaced the baseball stadiums and echo-y hockey arenas with a dimly lit 165-capacity listening room in the heart of Decatur.

“I’ve learned an incredible lesson late in life,” Cooley said in his measured, soft-spoken tone during a recent lunch. “This talent that is out there … I didn’t know it was out there. It’s a whole new world (to me). I used to think that I developed talent with the Electric Ballroom and the Roxy, but those were still in the vein of what I was already working on — the artists might have already had a couple of hits. This is totally different.”

Cooley is ruminating about his tenure as co-owner of Eddie’s Attic, the beloved music club that he and business partner Dave Mattingly, a former airline pilot, purchased in December 2011.

“At the closing, I almost got up and walked away, but I didn’t. Most of the time, I’m happy I didn’t. Some of the times, I’m not,” Cooley said with a quiet laugh.

Cooley’s involvement and industry ties, coupled with the assertive approach taken by the club’s talent buyer, Andrew Hingley, have assured that Eddie’s Attic is booked every night, sometimes with two acts per evening.

A green room has been installed — a first for the club — to make the establishment more attractive to artists (it was also a proviso for getting Lisa Marie Presley to play there — she’s down for a pair of sold-out shows Nov. 10). A grand piano has been hoisted up the stairs for a couple of performers, a feat that previous management insisted was impossible.

Sometimes the acts lean more mainstream — Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles charmed the room last fall, while some upcoming names include HLN morning show host Robin Meade making her Atlanta concert debut on Friday and former Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk on Nov. 12.

But most of the time, the artists booked are the result of what Cooley calls Hingley’s “encyclopedic knowledge of singer-songwriters” — acts such as blues singer-guitarist Marshall Ruffin (Nov. 3); mandolin ace Sierra Hull (Nov. 8); and Australian singer-guitarist Joe Robinson (Nov. 20).

Hingley, a former professional soccer player from Manchester, England, sheepishly ducks his head at Cooley’s praise, but it is apparent that he approaches his job with unfettered ambition and tirelessness.

He jokes about being “in a silly boy band” during the Britpop boom of the ’90s, but quickly steers the story to the first time he heard Ray LaMontagne (mid-2000s, locker room of the Colorado Rapids, the soccer club he was playing for at the time).

“I was like, holy hell, who is this guy?” Hingley said. “From there I found out about (folk-pop singer) Griffin House and that just morphed into, now, hundreds of acts. I’ve got 170 gigabytes of singer-songwriters on my iTunes.”

Hingley also points out the continued success of the Monday open mic nights, hosted by Grocery on Home founder Matt Arnett.

“He’s a face of the Attic right now and well-respected by local musicians,” Hingley said.

Hingley first crossed paths with Cooley during Cooley’s stint as a consultant for the Buckhead Theatre in 2010. While working for real estate developer Novare Group, whose event arm manages the Buckhead Theatre, Hingley was beefing up social media for the theater about the same time Cooley shed his consultancy job to invest in Eddie’s Attic.

The working relationship between Cooley and Hingley exudes a vibe of mutual respect, yet Cooley is sensitive about the May 2012 dismissal of the club’s founder and namesake, Eddie Owen, who hadn’t owned the venue since 2002 but remained as talent booker until, said Cooley, Owen began dedicating more resources to his then-new venture Red Clay Theatre in Duluth.

“Eddie had different plans,” Cooley said. “To his credit, he wanted to do more things, like start a school (for master classes). But he started draining the Attic (to book Red Clay), so I fired him. It didn’t happen the way I’d like it, but I wish Eddie very, very well.”

Cooley said he never gave a thought to changing the name or location of the venue. “It’s known nationally and internationally — I’d be foolish to do that. And part of the charm of the place is being in Decatur.”

While he’s made a few personal changes — the home he and his wife built in Lookout Mountain turned out to suit her lifestyle more than the one he had immersed himself in for most of his life so she lives there with the family cats while Cooley has returned to the city — he doesn’t envision the evolution of Eddie’s Attic including any major upheavals.

“We’re doing things, but we’re not fooling with the basic vibe of the place,” he said.

Cooley said he enjoys spending time at the venue — a place he had never visited during his days as a major concert promoter. But he was immediately smitten after heading there with friends one night to catch cellist Ben Sollee.

“They said, ‘Let’s go to Eddie’s,’ so I said OK. And then this guy (Sollee) blew me away,” Cooley said.

Now, you might catch him there three or four nights a week — or maybe once every two weeks.

“Believe it or not, I’ll go see the acts I want to see,” Cooley said, and then smiled. “But I never take a seat. That’s for paying customers.”