By Don Bradley
On Sunday afternoon, rain poured, and inside a building not far from Ranch Mart Ace Hardware, the lights dimmed and Bruce Springsteen took the stage.
The crowd quieted and smiled at the opening riffs of Thunder Road, the opening cut on the “Born to Run” album. This was why they came.
Clearly, the Boss does not do bank buildings across from hardware stores in Overland Park. But, think spiritual. And welcome to the Listyning Room.
Simple concept: People who love an artist, or just love music, come together and listen to a featured album on a nearly $200,000 sound system.
No talking, just the music and the listening. Everybody’s welcome and so far, 7,500 people have come through the door.
Katheryn Douglas, who came for Sunday’s Springsteen show, said the Listyning Room events evoke a live performance.
“Even if they’re dead,” she said.
There is that.
That’s part of the thinking of Kelsyn Rooks, founder of the Center for Recorded Music which opened the Listyning Room last year inside the NBKC bank building at 3510 W. 95th St. in Overland Park.
“You can’t see the Beatles, Coltrane or Muddy Waters anymore,” Rooks said. “We want to give recorded music the same status as live.”
He says that is how the art was intended. Back in the 1940s, people would get together and listen to the new Sinatra album.
Music was designed for communal listening. Not while jogging with headphones,” Rooks said.
Rooks grew up in his parents’ record store. The Music Exchange in Westport.
At the time, he wished they’d been in any other kind of business because it was the same thing every day. People coming in looking for music, talking about music, buying music.
The song got old.
He grew up and went into software development. Time passed. His father died. The record store closed.
He speaks now about his father with an almost Joe DiMaggio pride. “My dad knew everything about recorded music,” Rooks said. “He knew who influenced who, who wrote what, who played guitar on what album.”
Rooks knew what all that sounded like. “Maybe this is me reconnecting with my dad,” he said.
He started the listening gig at Waldo Pizza. First night, May 3, 2015: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”
The events drew some good crowds, but the experience was always marred somewhat by the inherent clatter of a pizza joint.
After the Covid shutdown, he looked for another venue and the NBKC bank in Overland Park gave it to him.
The 4,000-square feet has enough space for the shows and storage for 10,000 albums, CDs, cassettes and, yes, 8-tracks. Another 50,000 pieces are stored elsewhere. Many are donated. Each item is cleaned, resleeved and curated.
The turntables and amps are handmade by Audio Note in England. The speakers are handmade by a manufacturer in Hope, Ark.
The center has several volunteer hosts for the listening sessions that mostly lean toward rock and blues. The artists are across the board. Earl Scruggs and Fats Domino, Joni Mitchell and Dylan, R.E.M. and the Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash and Prince.
One session featured the soundtrack to “Straight Outta Compton.”
Most recordings are pre-1980.
One host does nothing but Grateful Dead.
“Anything with the Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel fills up immediately,” Rooks said.
He wants three or four events a week. Saturday afternoons are “Open Spin’’ where anyone can bring in their own piece of music and have it played on the center’s sound system.
The place has a full bar and room for visiting.
Until the lights go dim.
Rooks hosted Sunday’s Springsteen session.
He likes to tie something to an anniversary and just so happens, “Born to Run” came out in 1975 a half-century ago.
The album hit big, landing Springsteen — “the future of rock and roll” — on the covers of Time and Newsweek the same week, the first artist to ever do so.
Many in the crowd appeared old enough to remember those days, but not all.
Jeanne, Ann and Toni, friends forever and 1988 grads of Bishop Ward, played “Born to Run” on cassette all night during sleep overs. They had never been to the Listyning Room, but one of their brothers told them they had to go.
Rooks worked up to the album by playing some artists Springsteen has said influenced his work: Elvis, Roy Orbison, the Stones and Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind.” Not bad openers.
During intermission before the actual album, John Pickett said he was loving the day. “Had no idea this place was here,” he said. “I love old rock, CCR, that kind of stuff, and this place was here and I didn’t know it. This is my neighborhood. I can walk here.”
Then he went back inside and took his seat for the main show.
Rooks pulled “Born to Run” from its sleeve. The lights dimmed and the place hushed.
Because at the Listyning Room, there is no talking when the band is on the stage.
Learn more at www.centerforrecordedmusic.org/listyningroom
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