In the past few years, some Greater Binghamton bars and restaurants have cut back on their live music offerings; a few venues have closed altogether. For that, blame the economy as well as competition from people's own couches and big-screen TVs.

One place bucking that trend is Binghamton's Tranquil Bar & Bistro. What started as an idea to attract more business on Thursday nights has blossomed into The Acoustic Sessions, a roots/Americana series that frequently draws a packed house. The lineup includes local musicians such as Claire Byrne of Driftwood and Pete Ruttle of Lutheran Skirts, and also visitors from Scranton, Oneonta and elsewhere in the region. Best of all, admission is free.

Sean Massey, a city councilman and co-owner of Tranquil with partner Loren Couch, said the shows and the reaction they're receiving remind of his time living in Austin, Texas — a hotbed of singer/songwriters.

"In Austin, almost every popular restaurant is also a music venue. There's so much available and so many good musicians that you'd always have some really excellent performer there," Massey said last week.

Music has been part of Tranquil since the eatery was founded three years ago, mostly on Tuesday nights with blues singer Gerard Burke and French-pop project FrancoFeeling. However, the suggestion to expand the offerings and present them after the dinner crowd came from Tranquil chef Brian Lovesky.

"We were trying to figure out ways to bring in some new faces," Lovesky said. "I kept seeing hundreds of people leaving the (Binghamton Mets) baseball games and walking by, and I kept thinking, 'How do we get these people in the restaurant?'"

He turned to help from Parlor City Productions, run by Ted Hissin (his brother-in-law) and Kenny Derr. The promoters have had success at other venues in the area booking musical acts, particularly country/bluegrass bands The Hickory Project and Cabinet.

Derr remembers getting into the local music scene in the late 1980s, attending Groove Socket shows at the now-closed Bourbon Street Café in Binghamton and other concerts. He hopes that audiences find a similar groove with, say, the Hickory Project's Anthony Hannigan and Cabinet's Pappy Biondo (who performed his first-ever solo show at Tranquil for the release of his CD "Pappy Time").

"Music is the only true universal language, and they speak it well," Derr said. "I can't imagine anyone walking by those guys playing and not stopping to listen. They just grab you."

Parlor City Productions' long-range plan, Derr said, is to build the Thursday night Acoustic Sessions, expand into other nights at Tranquil, and also continue to book acts at larger venues in the area, such as Cyber Café West.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to set up something where we can run straight from Florida to Maine and be a stop in the road," he said. "Everything comes through Binghamton — or used to, at one point. Now everybody sidesteps Binghamton on their way to Syracuse or Rochester or Albany. It would be nice to make this a stop on people's tours on a regular basis."