Live from The Gilded Palace

Musical charm and enthusiasm livestreaming from beautiful Southeast Dallas County

Since taking the leap to actively share my music in early 2024, a constant conveyer of colorful and compassionate characters has entered my life. Sean Sullivan, the mastermind of Live from The Gilded Palace and an accomplished mandola and mandolin player, is one of these cheerful characters.

I first met Sean when our mutual friend, Ben Hopkins of In Good Company, suggested I share my songs on Sean’s show, Live from the Gilded Palace, which we did on April 11, 2024. Sean and Ben are terrific advocates of the local live music scene as both performers and fans.

Sean’s livestream concept is simple and effective: introduce more people to the meaningful music being created and played in the state of Iowa. Acts are invited out to “The Palace” (as it is affectionately referred by many) for a Facebook livestream event. Sean meticulously dials in the acoustics, leveraging a core competency of his from years in the audio business, with a genuine love for music in an enthusiastically inviting atmosphere for all involved, both online and onsite.

Music is made. Friends are found. Spirits shared. The whole experience is quite charming and special.

Since meeting Sean less than a year ago, I’ve enjoyed quite a bit of quality time with him—onstage and off— as he often performs with us, his bright strings and intricate harmonies adding new dimensions to our sound. Sean has a robust musical background and is an integral member of the Black Dirt Ramblers, an impressive act specializing in traditional bluegrass.

After our most recent performance on Live from The Gilded Palace on January 29, 2025 (when we debuted Mahomes on the Range for Kansas Day), I spent some time asking Sean about the origin of his venue (which has quite the view on a clear night in Southeast Dallas County).

Chip: What is the origin story of The Palace? How did this all come together?

Sean: “As a musician, it was always my dream to have a live studio, with top notch equipment, where my musical compatriots could come and experience the best in a live studio experience, displaying our voice and instrumental harmony to the songs we love. When the original owner built the new detached garage in the mid 1970s, he had a country band and he wired the place with plenty of AC outlets for just the reason of a rehearsal and party spot, so when I bought the place in 1991, it seemed a natural that I should take it to the next level; maybe it was fate.

Twenty years ago, I began cleaning up my workshop and detached garage, building a good sound system, and deemed it The Gilded Palace. I named it after the Flying Burrito Brothers album from 1969, The Gilded Palace of Sin. My goal was to celebrate Gram Parsons, the father of Cosmic Americana Alt-Country. At the time, I had no idea what livestreaming was, but slowly The Gilded Palace became a destination for rehearsals, partying, musical listening for local musicians and neighbors, right here in Southeast Dallas County, Iowa.

Pre-Covid and beginning my retirement years five years ago, I pulled everything out of The Palace, cleaned up years and years of dirt, painted the walls, built a really nice wrap-around countertop for equipment, CDs and albums, and worked hard to convert a workshop into a PALACE.

The passing of many of our most revered singer-songwriters was the impetus that drove the initial Live from the Gilded Palace page on Facebook. That April of 2020, in the midst of the beginnings of Covid, many of my friends came out for the first livestream show. The bandwidth was poor, our initial audio and video quality were pretty bad, but we had a hell of a fun time, and I learned so much doing it.

Now five years later, having gone through upgrades galore in video equipment and burying a structured cabling system with cat underground data cable from the fiber router in my house, out to The Palace, we have had over 50 livestream shows. The audio and video quality are really pretty good for a generally low budget operation.

With the retirement and downsizing of my first cousin Steve in Kansas City, he has passed some very high-end audio equipment on to me including SAE and Harmon Kardon preamps and amps. This new equipment matched with three pair of ADS speakers has moved us into a whole new arena of livestreaming in HiFi (not commercial audio). The sound in The Palace is top notch.

Most importantly, The Palace is a place where my musical compatriots and friends can all come out, have a cocktail and listen to vinyl just like it was in the early 1970s. I have so many musicians and others who have rolled up their sleeves, worked hard to help me build this place up. Just hoping that I get another good ten years to enjoy The Palace and offer livestreams at Live from The Gilded Palace.”

So many Iowans like Sean share a love for music and it radiates across the state from listening rooms to revamped garages.

To follow Live from The Gilded Palace please click here and hit like. You can find archived shows as well as participate in upcoming livestream chats. Next up is Matt Terronez with highly acclaimed saxophonist Dave Bohl at 8pm on Thursday, February 13. It will be a terrific show. I know Sean is pumped to have them, so please consider joining the joy and experiencing the enthusiasm for local and live music in Iowa.

Also of note, fellow Iowa Writer’s Collaborative writer

Jason Walsmith

Storyteller is on the show March 27 and several other performers in the coming weeks.

Thank you for reading Chip Happens. To find more stories and insights across the state of Iowa, please consider following and supporting the many talented journalists and storytellers of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative.

Sean and Milojko Dobrijevich jamming after a show this fall.

Sean and Mike Irwin bringing the pre-show vibes that same night.