The Burton family often goes to small venues in Scottsburg, Corydon and Shepherdsville, Kentucky, to hear some good, quality music.
They like traveling to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri, for the same reason.
With a longtime interest in music, the family’s patriarch, Rodney, had talked over the years about opening a venue of his own.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“What finally brought this to fruition is I wanted Trenton to learn an instrument,” Rodney said of his 14-year-old son. “We were joking around, and he jokingly said, ‘I will learn an instrument when you buy a building.’”
In February, Rodney and Amanda Burton closed on a building at 1849 First Ave., Seymour, and began to turn a dream into a reality.
Oh, and Trenton began taking fiddle lessons, too.
“It was kind of a joking trade-off, and then when it came to fruition, here we are,” Rodney said.
On Saturday, Jackson Live and Event Center LLC will open its doors for the first time and have musicians take the stage to entertain the crowd.
The house band will consist of Brad Magness, Tammy Sue Magness and Curt Edwards, and the special guests are Kayce Sexton, Colt Wienhorst and Billy Nett.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for ages 5 to 12 and free for under 5. They can be purchased in advance by calling 812-521-1282 or at the door. Concessions also will be available for purchase.
Rodney said he expects the ticket prices to remain the same unless a bigger act from Nashville, Tennessee, or elsewhere is booked. The cost, however, will never be above $30, which he said is very fair.
“To be this close to them for $30 is pretty cool,” he said of the 500-seat venue. “We plan on bringing a lot of that through here.”
Shows will continue on Saturday nights and be sponsored by the Burtons’ other business, Schneider Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning Inc.
Rodney said the house band will be there pretty much every week along with two or three guests, and the band will play music based on the style of the guests.
“Depending on whether they want to focus on older country, newer country or southern rock or cross over into some of that, that depends what guests you have for the week,” Rodney said. “They send us a song list, and we learn those songs for that week’s show.”
The Magnesses and Edwards used to play at Little Nashville Opry in Brown County and then moved to Ross Country Jamboree in Scottsburg for a while. They now live in Indianapolis.
They will help with booking shows and song lists.
“We’ve had people reach out to us already as far as wanting to audition,” Rodney said. “We will start auditioning probably two or three weeks after we are into this, and if it cuts, everything works good, then we’ll book them and they’ll get to do five or six songs onstage.”
Rotating the guests and having the house band play similar music will keep it fresh, Rodney said.
“It will never be the same show week after week after week,” he said. “A majority of the same musicians will be back week after week, but it’s not going to be the same mundane show week after week.”
At some point, Rodney said they may sprinkle in some Friday night shows.
“We have made some contacts with some bigger-named acts from Nashville that have shown interest in coming, so we’re going to get that going,” he said. “You would probably be surprised how many bigger names will play in a 500-, 600-person venue. They actually enjoy it. If they do a big show in Cincinnati and maybe they are on their way to Chicago, it’s an easy pass-through for them.”
Music roots
The doors opening Saturday is a long time coming for Rodney, as he has had a lifelong interest in music.
“My family has always been musicians. I grew up in a musical family. That’s in my blood, I guess,” he said. “My dad and his brothers always grew up doing that. I started playing in church when I was 12, 13 years old, and that’s where I learned, that’s where I came up in it.”
The Edinburgh native later got married and started a family, and they moved to Seymour, Amanda’s hometown, in 2010.
On May 1, 2018, the Burtons bought Schneider Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning Inc.
Within the last year, Rodney said talk became serious about opening their own music and event center.
“It was always a dream, I guess,” he said. “We considered building a place, and then this building became available, and this building is eerily similar to what I was going to build, so we just decided to build this and remodel.”
Moving forward with the dream was a family decision.
“That’s what we’ve always done,” Rodney said. “(Trenton) is 14. His whole life, he has known Dad to do project, project, project, project, and Mom and Dad always say the next one’s the last one, and now, we’re saying this one’s the last one. We’ll see. Time will tell.”
Remodeling begins
After closing on the 8,700-square-foot building, the family began working on the major remodel. The building previously housed Gymnastics Lane and most recently Service Electric Co.
They built the stage and sound booth and remodeled and enlarged the restrooms and foyer. Some employees of their other business helped with some tasks along with other family friends.
“We did everything in here except for painting the ceiling, and we didn’t lay the carpet,” Rodney said.
“The funnest part of this so far has been the community buy-in,” he said. “There has been a lot of positive feedback, there has been a lot of encouragement, other people in the community that have came out and helped. We’re feeling pretty good about it.”
Rodney made contact with people in Nashville, Tennessee, for the public address system and lights.
“Some high-profile people helped us with this,” he said. “He was Exile’s sound guy, Diamond Rio’s sound guy. The guy that will be here (this) week that helped set this up last week when they were here setting up is Rolling Stones’ monitor guy. … We’ve met some pretty cool people already.”
For the event center side of the business, the Burtons said the facility could host anniversary parties, baby showers, wedding showers and receptions, funeral dinners, quilt shows, craft fairs, corporate events and more.
Rodney said he also would like to host music-related shows or competitions and other special events.
‘Dream come true’
While the family has felt excited, scared and frustrated throughout the process, it’s mostly just excitement now as opening day approaches.
“Just seeing the transformations of it, just seeing how it has all taken place,” Trenton said of everything coming together.
“It’s real now,” Amanda said. “It has been an adventure. It has been neat to see a dream come true. It has been fun to spend our family time in here.”
Rodney joked that his wife sometimes questions his dreams, but that changes the closer it comes to reality.
“When we get to this point of the phase, she sees that maybe I wasn’t so crazy after all or maybe she’s seeing I’m crazier than ever,” he said, smiling.
All of their efforts pay off when they realize they did it all as a family.
“It does take all of us,” Rodney said. “I can’t do it myself. They couldn’t do it by themselves. It takes all of us to make this happen, and it will take all of us to keep this going. One person can’t do this. Two people can’t do this. It takes all of us to make this thing happen.”
Rodney said people in the area need clean, fun, family-friendly entertainment, and that’s what Jackson Live and Event Center will provide.
“People flock to Pigeon Forge and Branson, Missouri, for a reason, and we spend a lot of time as a family going to Pigeon Forge and Branson, Missouri, and different places like that and watching shows,” he said.
“That’s just what we enjoy doing, and I wanted to somehow bring a piece of that back to Seymour,” he said. “Seymour has been good to me, and Schneider’s has been good to me and our customers have been good to me. It’s almost a way to give back, really, almost a thank-you because I think it’s needed.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Jackson Live and Event Center is at 1849 First Ave., Seymour.
For information, call 812-521-1282, visit jacksonliveandevents.com, search for Jackson Live and Event Center LLC on Facebook or email [email protected].
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
What: Premiere of the Saturday night series
When: 7 p.m. Saturday (doors open at 6:15 p.m.)
Where: Jackson Live and Event Center LLC, 1849 First Ave., Seymour
Who: House band will consist of Brad Magness, Tammy Sue Magness and Curt Edwards, and the special guests are Kayce Sexton, Colt Wienhorst and Billy Nett
Cost: Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for ages 5 to 12 and free for under 5; they can be purchased in advance by calling 812-521-1282 or at the door; concessions also will be available for purchase
Note: With ongoing construction on Airport Road and traffic being one way, those planning to attend Saturday night’s show are encouraged to use the Freeman Field entrance off of South Walnut Street to get over to First Avenue
[sc:pullout-text-end]