A Time to Roost

Passing th e musical bat on

By Jen na Bit er • P hotogr a Phs By John ge ssner

“T hese my mom made, if you have an interest,” says Janet Kenwor thy, motioning to a stack of albums filled with newspaper clippings and concer t fliers. Sitting on the wraparound porch of her histor ic home on Blue Street in Aberdeen, music playing sof tly, her Jack Russell Tootsie lolling about on a cushioned chair, Kenwor thy flips through plastic-sleeved pages, rattling of f the names of musicians and bands with encyclopedic ease.

“L aurelyn Dossett, another Grammy winner, she had a song on L evon Helm’s Dir t Farmer. John Cowan, the Voice of Newg rass. T hat’s Victor ia Vox, she’s huge in the uk ulele world. Here’s John Ellis.” A sleep at the W heel, Scy thian, Paul T hor n, A my thyst K iah, Jef f Scrogg ins and Colorado — the list is almost unending.

A s the one-woman force who is T he Rooster’s Wife — the live music communit y-based organization that called Aberdeen’s Poplar K night Spot home — Janet Kenwor thy has curated about 60 shows a year since the organization’s inception. “See, this was the first outdoor show because we star ted in December 20 06,” she says, pointing to a pict ure of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a well-k now n, old-time str ing band f rom Durham.

T he inspiration for T he Rooster’s Wife sprang f rom Kenwor thy’s exper iences volunteer ing in Hur r icane K atr ina-ravaged New Orleans af ter her daughter, Helen, was evacuated f rom Tulane Universit y. “I went to work for the Red Cross and ran a k itchen at a shelter. It was a 40 0 -bed facilit y, and it was my job to get three hot meals on the table a day,” she says. “You can imag ine losing ever y thing and then sleep ing in a g ymnasium with 40 0 other people. It’s br utal. It’s shock ing, and you’re totally discombobulated.”

One day a woman came through the k itchen’s back door and asked Kenwor thy if her teenage son could play his g uitar for the shelter’s residents. Mother and son were par ishioners f rom a West Mississippi church who wanted to help any way they could. Music was their of fer ing.

It was a time for small generosities. L ocal beaut y and barber school st udents were g iving haircuts, beard tr ims and manicures. K ind gest ures eased the shock of sudden homelessness. W hen the gangly boy — tall in that teenage k ind of way, tr ying not to be tall — star ted playing New Orleans-st yle g uitar and tak ing requests for old standards, people reconnected. He became a reg ular.

“Music spurs memor y,” says Kenwor thy. “People were talk ing. T hey were reminiscing. Some were sing ing. Some were dancing. I’ve always k now n about the redemptive nat ure of music, but this was really about the revitalization of the inner soul of these people. Hear ing this music, their music, was really helpf ul. I wanted to br ing music to this communit y.”

Laurelyn Dossett and Molly McGinn Priscilla Johnson

Jon Parsons, then the executive director of Sustainable Sandhills and one-third of the acoustic tr io the Parsons, and Joe Newber r y, a Nor th Carolina song wr iter and musician k now n for his clawhammer banjo -playing, introduced Kenwor thy to the concept of house concer ts. Within three week s — “Well, maybe it was three week s,” she says — T he Rooster’s Wife took flight. She explains the name with a sing-song question and answer.

“We kept chickens. W ho lays the eggs?”

“T he hen.”

“W ho raises the chick s?”

“T he hen.”

“W ho keeps the henyard straight?”

“T he hen.”

“W ho makes a lot of noise and has a lot of big feathers?”

She raises her eyebrows.

“T he rooster.”

A hhhh.

“I was doing all the work,” she says, “but I didn’t want my name on it, per se. It’s always been about the music, not about me.”

Her first venue was her home, a pict uresque, t ur n- of-the-20thcent ur y residence with a sprawling yard where she raised her brood of four. “We star ted here, r ight in this house. I put up fliers and sent postcards because we didn’t have a mailing list. My address book was my mailing list. We just called and invited people to come, and they did.” One hundred and five people showed up to that first house concer t feat ur ing the Parsons.

“People are listening to g reat music, eating my food, dr ink ing my booze, and g iving me money. Oh, it’s just business as usual, except for the g iving me money par t,” Kenwor thy says with a laugh. “So, that’s how it star ted. We did four years of house concer ts, and I concurrently star ted an outdoor ser ies at the Postmaster’s House.”

It wasn’t until her bathroom door had to be wrenched f rom its hinges that T he Rooster’s Wife renested at the Poplar K night Spot, located at the intersection of Poplar and K night streets, only three block s f rom her house. “T here was one show where a lady got locked in the bathroom. She was calling on her cellphone and beating on the door, but there was a big, rowdy show going on,” Kenwor thy remembers. “At the set break, a couple of g uys had to take the door of f the hinges to get her out. It’s an old house, and it’s like, ‘W ho lock s the damn bathroom door?’”

T he bathroom lockdow n wasn’t the only reason for relocating. “T he house, it was rock in’ in here,” she says, “but it was also moving f ur nit ure. T he dining room table would come out here.” She motions to the porch. “A nd chairs would go in, and enough was enough. My mom and I had the oppor t unit y to buy a building in dow ntow n Aberdeen and renovate it.” A nd so, in 20 09, the Poplar K night Spot became the home of T he Rooster’s Wife.

Sunday evening shows have been Kenwor thy’s stock and trade, stretching back to the early days of the house concer ts. “T here wasn’t any thing on Sundays, so I thought, OK, that’s my night. L ots of musicians were interested in having a night to play rather than a dead night,” she says. A nd it helped that the host and her mother, Pr iscilla Johnson, were hospitable. Johnson, who lives only a mile dow n the street, has been a mainstay of T he Rooster’s Wife, cooking up shar p cheddar, apple and chutney g r illed cheese sandwiches for the musicians, and bak ing cook ies for ever y show. “I could house people, feed people, pay people and so, it just evolved f rom there,” says Kenwor thy.

T he e arly show t ime w it h it s id iosy ncr at ic 6:46 p.m. st ar t wa s a lso k id f r iend ly. “T here c er t a in ly wa sn’t a ny t h ing t hat welc ome d f a m i l ies or sma l l ch i ldren,” Kenwor t hy says ab out l ive music in t he Sa nd h i l ls, “a nd I felt it wa s absolutely essent ia l t hat t hey b e

ex p ose d to go o d music . I fig ure, if you never had t he fl avor, you’re not going to develop t he t a ste.”

Children under 12 were always admitted f ree at T he Rooster’s Wife. A handf ul of families became Sunday night reg ulars. “One family had one child when they star ted coming; now they have three!”

Kenwor thy’s ow n taste for good music developed at a young age. “I g rew up in L exing ton, Kent uck y, and we cer tainly sang,” she says of her family. A relative was of ten on the piano and her Uncle Frank, Pr iscilla’s brother, was a ja zz dr ummer and trombonist. “Music was just par t of life,” Kenwor thy says.

She attended Presby ter ian-based Sayre School f rom elementar y through high school and went to its live music per for mances ever y Fr iday at chapel. “It might be some old biddie f rom the DA R , or it might be your headmaster’s son’s roommate f rom Vanderbilt who is Rodney Crowell, multiple Grammy winner,” she says. “You had no idea, but you would be polite and attentive, regardless of who would be on stage.” She can’t quite remember the punishment for t ur ning around to catch a f r iend ’s eye, but she k nows it wasn’t wor th it.

“Musicians really appreciate an attentive crowd,” Kenwor thy says. “I think it’s cult ural, lear ning how to be a good audience. It was incumbent upon me to br ing compelling enough prog ramming that the audience would be respectf ul.” Precisely what T he Rooster’s Wife has done for the last 15 years.

Dur ing the pandemic, Kenwor thy had plent y of dow ntime to reflect on the f ut ure of T he Rooster’s Wife and the Poplar K night Spot. “Ever y thing has its season, and being able to sit and not just be on the hamster wheel gave me time to think.” she says. “People say they’re leaving their job to spend more time with their family, but I act ually am.” Her four children and si x g randk ids are scattered around the world, as far flung as Costa R ica and New York. Maybe it was time to pass her passion on to someone else who loves music.

T hat person is Der r ick Numbers who, along with his wife, Dr. Malgorzata (Gosia) K aspersk a, bought the Poplar K night Spot f rom Kenwor thy in Apr il. “Der r ick g rew up going to the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, which is well k now n for singer-song wr iters, and it’s always been his dream to have a venue. A nd they have a little boy,” Kenwor thy says, refer r ing to 8 -year- old L ogan.

“Ever y year in Apr il, the Bluebird Cafe did this thing called Tin Pan South where all of the little music venues — a lot of them the size of T he Rooster’s Wife — will br ing in song wr iters, and they’ll do t wo shows a night for the week,” says Numbers. “A nd so, you get these ama zing people who wr ite songs, and then si x months later, you hear them on the radio. T hat star ted for me when I was about 14-years- old. I’d go with my dad.” Numbers developed the ‘taste.’

He ear ned his B.A. in music business f rom Malone College and inter ned in Nashville with Dualtone Music Group, the record label for the L umineers. A f ter his inter nship, he switched course and joined the militar y. “We lived in quite a few places, Hawaii, D.C., but I was always going to shows, always buying g uitars, all that k ind of st uf f,” he says. “We ended up at For t Bragg and found T he Rooster’s Wife and Casino Guitars and made a home here.”

Numbers heads up marketing and videog raphy for Ba xter Clement’s Casino Guitars in Souther n Pines. “A s par t of my video st uf f, I tr y to shoot a lot of ar tists, inter view them, get them on film. I’ve inter viewed g uys f rom K iss to Paul T hor n,” he says. “I act ually inter viewed Paul T hor n when he played in Aberdeen, I think it was maybe four years ago. So, that was one of my first exper iences with T he Rooster’s Wife — seeing an ar tist that I really loved.” W hen the oppor t unit y to buy the Poplar K night Spot came along, the couple jumped at it.

“Hop ef u l ly, we c a n repl ic ate some of t he suc c ess t hat Ja net’s had,” Numb ers says. “A lot of t hat suc c ess der ive d f rom her abi l it y

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to c onne c t w it h t hose ar t ist s, ma ke t hose ar t ist s fe el at home. T hat’s a huge t h ing. Hop ef u l ly, we c a n c ont inue to do t hat.” But w it h t heir ow n fl a ir, of c ourse.

“T he name we’re going with is the Neon Rooster,” says Numbers. “I k ind of wanted to have something cool and f unk y and ours, but with a tr ibute to the old.” T hey’re planning to open in September.

“We’re excited to be embraced by the communit y,” Gosia says. “It’s super impor tant, r ight? We’re br ing ing something to the communit y, but without the communit y, it will not be a success. I’m hoping that we’re able to fill the gap that Janet created.”

A s for t he or ig ina l R o oster’s Wife, Kenwor t hy is in t he reinvent ion business. “Pe ople t hat c a me to shows in t he b eg inn ing k new my dog wel l. His na me wa s B er t.” He wa s a Jack R ussel l l i ke To ot sie a nd Ja net’s show dog. O n Sunday n ig ht s, he’d le ad t he way f rom Blue St re et to t he Poplar K n ig ht Sp ot, t a k ing t he shor tc ut over t he t r a in t r ack s.

“T he next vent ure will be Dog-at-L arge Productions,” says Kenwor thy. “W hat I intend to be is just r unning amok . . . whatever the universe provides.” PS Jenn a Bit er is a w r it er, entrepren eur an d milit ar y w ife in th e San dhills. Sh e c an be re a ch e d at jenn abit er @prot onm ail.com.