Room for One More
There is room, Sam McAteer believes, for more music in the Old City.
Specifically, on the far end of Jackson Avenue, before the brick cobblestones carry traffic and pedestrians up the hill toward downtown. There, the Jackson Terminal — and its accompanying Green Room, a smaller-capacity space therein — are on tap to become the latest live music venue in the Old City, McAteer told BLANK Newspaper recently.
That it has the backing of both an established West Knoxville live music establishment and one of the city’s catered events powerhouses gives it a solid foundation as the two collaborators start filling in dates on their 2020 calendar, McAteer said.
“Whenever you’re in a talent-buying position or have a venue, especially in West Knoxville, you’re always looking bigger and looking toward downtown,” said McAteer, the marketing manager for Open Chord/All Things Music on Kingston Pike between Walker Springs and Gallaher View. “It’s always been in our minds to see how much we can grow this thing and how far we can take it, and we’re always looking at bigger acts here at the Open Chord.
“But someone like, for example, Junior Brown — our capacity just wouldn’t allow it to work. We could sell it out here, but it would be uncomfortable, so expanding has just kind of always been the plan. And the more respect you get and the more connections you make within the music business, it’s inevitable you’re going to grow. We’ve always wanted to go toward downtown, and now that we’ve teamed up with All Occasions Catering, we’re able to do that.”
The concerts, loosely billed as the Open Chord stage at Jackson Terminal or some variation thereof, was born out of both a need and a fortuitous turn of events, McAteer said. The Open Chord first opened in 2014 as The Open Chord Stage and Brewhouse, located in a former Rik’s Music building and capitalizing on the nostalgia it brought to that particular stretch of Kingston Pike. Although Rik’s was primarily a place to buy instruments and lessons, it also included The Whammy Bar, a coffee, beer and live music nook nestled within.
Eventually, current owner Randy Holmes took over Open Chord, and with a team that includes folks like McAteer, the focus became consistency.
“The big thing is, when you stick with your brand and treat artists well and stick to your guns with the agreements you make, you get respect from the agents and the artists,” McAteer said. “The music industry is surprisingly small, and everybody knows everybody. In the music business, everybody talks, and word travels fast, so for us, one of our big things was respecting the artists and the musical experiences, so that fans and artists walk away from the Open Chord totally happy.”
As the venue’s reputation grew, so too did the caliber of artists booked there. John Paul White, half of the folk powerhouse The Civil Wars, was one of the first marquee names to raise the venue’s profile, but others followed: Parker Millsap; Christone “Kingfish” Ingram; Denny Laine; Vetiver with the Fruit Bats — each one succeeded in inching Open Chord a little closer to its maximum capacity of 150 to 200 guests. How, then, could they make bigger names work?
The path to Jackson Terminal began with the sale of Bradford Catered Events, established in 2013 by Rex B. Jones. Rex and his son, Bradford, had acquired The Lunchbox market and café in 2016 from Karen and the late Don Sproles, and when Bradford (the company) went on the market, it was absorbed by All Occasion Catering, owned by Neal and Susan Green. Holmes bought The Lunchbox franchise, and during those business dealings, the Greens — who also own Jackson Terminal and The Green Room, a smaller addition to the original historic structure — made a proposal to Holmes.
“They had this big, beautiful building with wonderful weddings there, but they were locked in mostly on Saturdays, and had an open calendar wide open,” McAteer said. “They basically said, ‘You guys have this booking success and professionalism, we have an open calendar and a gorgeous room.’ It made for an ideal scenario.”
The potential partnership got its first trial run last June, when Andy Black — the solo project nom de plume of Andy Biersack, founder and frontman of Black Veil Brides — came through town. An outside promoter, Filthy Nasty Productions, approached McAteer and his Open Chord team about putting on the show, and Jackson Terminal seemed to be an ideal location. It went smoothly, and other shows followed: A double bill of tribute bands to The Beatles and Three Dog Night; ’80s cover band extraordinaire Skankbanger; and a triple-bill of guitar greats featuring Ingram, Knoxville’ Andy Wood and Andy Timmons.
“The best thing about this, is that this is a totally open market, and the agents I’ve talked to are giddy,” McAteer said. “They’ve needed a venue downtown in the 200 to 700 capacity range forever. The Open Chord is maxed out at 150 to 200, and then there’s really nothing until you get up to the Bijou, which is about 800, so that’s a big gap for mildly successful bands.”
And while the Old City certainly isn’t lacking in live music establishments — Barley’s Knoxville, The Pilot Light and Boyd’s Jig and Reel feature performances multiple times a week, and others, like Pretentious Beer Co., routinely book live music — McAteer feels like there’s room for one more. After all, he said, a rising tide lifts all boats, and a dedicated live music venue of the Jackson Terminal’s size, partnered with the Open Chord’s successful approach, should make for a unique Old City experience.
“There are lots of bars that have music, but we’re going to be a concert venue presenting a truly musical experience,” he said. “People pay money to go to a concert because they truly love the experience, and I would say this endeavor is more like a mini Mill and Mine. Even though we’re a smaller capacity venue, we treat the experience with just as much respect as the Tennessee Theatre would.”
While a couple of Green Room shows will bring fans out to Jackson Terminal before year’s end — a Halloween show featuring Fliptum and Stampede of Strangers, and an album release party by local folk singer-songwriter Eli Fox on Nov. 2 — it’ll likely be January before bigger names start funneling through, McAteer added. By that point, the kinks will be worked out, and he expects to start turning around four to five shows monthly as 2020 goes on.
“Obviously, we don’t have a brand yet, but I think if you look at a venue down there like The Pilot Light, which is booking avant garde and punk rock stuff, we’re going to be on the other side of the spectrum,” McAteer said. “We’ll probably be doing more folk and indie folk and singer-songwriter stuff. We want to create a listening room kind of environment, and to have a downtown listening room that really respects the listening experience, we think it’s going to be a really fun time.”
