“You Don’t Come Here to See a Show.”
JJ Johnston, owner
“The Station isn’t a smaller version of a big concert venue. It’s a completely different way to experience live music. You don’t come here simply to see a show. You come here to be part of one.”
Owner John “JJ” Johnston’s description of The Station, an intimate venue in Louisville, Tennessee, sums up the appeal that has drawn a loyal following for the past 12 years — and helps explain why shows often sell out as soon as they’re announced.
With the recently announced fall season, running September 10 through November 7 — plus the annual Christmas show on December 11 — that trend ought to continue. The lineup features a number of Station favorites, several well-known touring acts and the ongoing Songs & Stories series hosted by Blount County Live podcast partners Scott Shankland and yours truly, Lee Zimmerman.
“Twelve seasons in, what keeps us going is the crowd that shows up night after night,” Johnston said. “We’ve got more than 2,000 people on our email list who trust us to book something worth their evening.”
A Nashville honky-tonk singer and songwriter with eight solo records behind him, a stack of European chart placings, and an Academy of Western Artists trophy for Pure Country Album of the Year. Traditional country played straight, with no apologies offered.
The 1960s pop group behind “Red Rubber Ball,” a Paul Simon co-write that climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966, and the follow-up “Turn-Down Day.” They went quiet at the end of the decade and started playing again in 2016.
For three decades Cowan was the publicist behind Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark and Michael Martin Murphey — the man who got other people’s songs written about, after starting out as a reporter at the Nashville Banner. He finally released a debut album of his own in 2024, on his 65th birthday.
Knoxville’s self-described party band, playing what they call rhythm boogie blues — Buffett to Cash to Marshall Tucker, and reportedly no rehearsals. The lineup has included a sitting judge who played football at Tennessee, a bassist who has backed Ronnie Milsap and Delbert McClinton, and a former FBI agent who played horns for Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Knoxville jazz vocalist Brent Thompson has spent close to four decades singing in Knoxville, Chattanooga and San Francisco, building a style out of Tony Bennett, Harry Connick Jr. and Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. This one is the Sinatra songbook, straight down the middle.
Knoxville’s own: he co-founded Robinella and the CCstringband, then spent a decade fronting The Black Lillies, who played the Grand Ole Opry 40 times before winding down in 2019. He tours now behind his solo record “Cosmico.”
Maryville’s own, and fixtures in the Blount County scene for two decades — they hosted the “Behind the Barn” radio show live from Barley’s downtown for years. Their album “The Barb Hollow Sessions” cracked the national bluegrass airplay chart, and Pirkle is in the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame.
Whaley grew up in Pigeon Forge and writes about it — “The Legend of Jack Huff,” “The Kings of Orebank.” He co-founded Pine Mountain Railroad in 1998 and rode it to back-to-back IBMA Emerging Artist nominations before putting Greenbrier together.
Knoxville’s traditional Irish band, built on jigs, reels and hornpipes out of Ireland with East Tennessee bleeding through at the edges. Most weeks you can find them at Boyd’s Jig & Reel in the Old City.
They call him the Voice of Newgrass: lead singer and bassist for New Grass Revival, inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2020, and the Doobie Brothers’ bassist for years after that. The trio puts him alongside Luke Bulla and Ethan Ballinger.
A Nashville multi-instrumentalist who picked up a fiddle at three and turned up on Season 20 of “American Idol.” He fronts Cole Ritter & The Night Owls and has opened for Sierra Ferrell at a sold-out Ryman.
All shows begin at 7:30 p.m., with doors at 6 p.m., with the exception of The Cyrkle, a matinee performance at 2:30 p.m. with doors at 1 p.m.
“We look for songwriters and performers who fit an intimate listening room like The Station,” Johnston said. “After 12 years of shows, a lot of it comes from relationships built over years in the Americana and singer-songwriter world.”
He was also effusive in his praise for the Songs & Stories series, which returned earlier this year, calling it “a standout addition to the season.”
“The Station has found a real winner in its Songs & Stories series,” he added. “It is a companion event to the regular ticketed lineup and has quickly become a favorite on the schedule. Unlike the venue’s typical weekend concerts, Songs & Stories is always held on a weekday, giving the community a different kind of evening out. Rather than a straight performance, the format lets the audience hear the songs alongside the stories behind them — where a tune came from, what it took to write, and the road that got an artist to that stage. It’s an up-close, conversational side of the music that a regular concert doesn’t always make room for. It gives people a completely different way to experience the music, because you’re not just hearing the song, you’re hearing where it came from.”
Johnston also praised The Station’s relationship with Let’s Be Blount. “Having Let’s Be Blount behind us this year has been a great addition,” he said. “It’s helped us reach folks in the community who might not have found their way out to our venue otherwise.”
There are several reasons The Station has become such a popular gathering place for live music.
For starters, it offers an intimate listening environment. “The experience at The Station is unique,” Johnston said. “It’s a true Americana listening room.” That’s one reason it’s billed as “The Soul of Americana in the heart of Miser Station.”
Artists are happy to engage with the audience before and after the show, at no extra charge.
The listening space is entirely reserved seating, and every seat is in the first six rows. “They’re all VIP seats,” Johnston said.
The acoustics are outstanding for an all-wood, 120-year-old structure, and the sound mix is especially impressive.
Management encourages guests to bring their own beverages. Parking is free and within a few yards of the entrance, and the venue sits less than 10 minutes from McGhee Tyson Airport — one reason enthusiasts from across the country, and sometimes from overseas, turn up for Station shows.
Johnston added one more reason The Station keeps its hold on the crowd.
“The owner and staff!” he said with a grin.
Its devotees couldn’t agree more.
The Station is at 4206 Miser Station Road in Louisville. For tickets, visit their Facebook events page: https://www.facebook.com/miserstation/events or search for them on Eventbrite.com.
