The gift of song as a group effort

It’s Monday night at 9, and singer-songwriter Jay Nash is running around the La Brea Avenue lounge Room 5 like a madman, spreading time between the mixing board at the back of the room, the cluttered stage at the front and well-wishing patrons throughout. The problem is, he’s got to push his way through that audience -- packed to leaning-room-only capacity -- to get to the stage, try a mike, then back to the back to make sure levels are OK.

By the time he’s got it done, he’s already wiped out. But his night’s only just beginning. In what has become a Monday night routine, Nash will take the stage at Room 5 with Garrison Starr, Adrienne and Joe Purdy (who’s sitting in while one of the lounge’s regulars, Gabriel Mann, takes a paternity leave) and engage a crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings with mostly original material.

These are singer-songwriters in the classic sense -- all acoustic guitars and bruised hearts -- but there’s something in the performance that suggests a brutal authenticity that’s made them word-of-mouth favorites in the L.A. music scene. These performers are also regulars at the Hotel Cafe, a venue that’s become the go-to singer-songwriter hub in L.A., as other cozy Hollywood clubs -- including Highland Grounds and Largo -- also harbor similar, equally vibrant scenes.

At Room 5, a clean, warm space above the Amalfi restaurant, the songwriters take turns with their songs, exchanging banter with the audience and one another throughout.

Nash, while onstage, of his first meeting with one of the other songwriters: “I thought, ‘Maybe one day she’ll talk to me like a real human being.’ ”

Audience response: “She still doesn’t!”

But this isn’t heckling. It’s a rapport Nash and a revolving cast of performers have built with Room 5 devotees over the last 3 1/2 years. “They know each other so well, and they like to push each other’s buttons,” says Laurie Carty, a fan who’s been a regular Room 5 Monday fan since the night’s inception. “When you come over and over again, you kind of feel like you’re part of it.”

That relationship is clearly something special -- which is why Brady Lahr, president of the independent label Kufala Recordings, is also here tonight. He met Nash at South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in March, and he was so taken by him and his loose songwriter crew that he decided to make them a deal. He’s recording this (along with four other Room 5 Monday night shows) to release through his label, which has also released live records from bands such as Soul Coughing and the Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra. “Our philosophy is let the artist do what they do and don’t try to change it,” Lahr says. “There’s a concept for you: Let the artist create their art.”

Tonight that art is loose, gorgeous, melodic songs, full of confidence without swagger. Each songwriter’s style is supplemented by contributions from the rest of the group (which includes two percussionists), and the camaraderie brings a shine to whatever they do. There’s no push for perfection -- rather, the band strives for improvisational authenticity.

“When you’re playing on someone else’s song, you have to be very careful of what you’re going to play,” says Nash. “But it’s an amazing feeling when you come into the chorus the second time and you realize that everybody on stage totally gets where you were coming from when you wrote the song. That’s been par for the course for these Monday nights.”

Lahr and Nash talk hopefully about putting together a best-of compilation from the Room 5 Mondays to distribute nationally, and Kufala plans to offer digital downloads on both iTunes and their own website. It’s not big business, but that’s not what either party’s looking for.

Lahr’s business works on a per-order basis; he says he’s just happy to give artists he believes in more to sell when they’re on the road. And, as far as Nash is concerned, he’s already met his goal.

“We get each other’s songs, and we love each other’s songs,” he says of his fellow songwriters. “It’ll happen sometimes when everybody locks in a certain way. Everybody’s on the same page with that one song. The egos go away, and it’s just magic.”

Jeff Miller can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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Room 5 Lounge

Where: 143 N. La Brea, second floor

When: 9 p.m. Mondays (get there before 8 for a table)

Price: $5

Info: (323) 938-2504 or www.room5lounge.com