The Corner Lounge

The late afternoon sun streams through the slatted blinds of the front windows, bathing tables and chairs in lines of light and illuminating dozens of flyers advertising numerous musical acts of various genres. It's blazing hot on the street, but inside the Corner Lounge, the air conditioner is cranked and blowing cold, and the sweat clinging to the beer bottles on the bar belie the icy liquid refreshment within.

It's the middle of the week, and Corner owner Ed Corts is relaxing on a barstool with a glass of hard cider in his hand. His place has been re-opened just a week, following a month of realignment, but the future is as bright as the sun that bakes the sidewalks on this part of Central Avenue, just a few blocks north of the Old City.

For the past two-and-a-half years, Corts and his family have operated the venerable north Knoxville institution, pulling the tavern up by its bootstraps and turning it into a thriving live music venue along the way.

These could be the new salad days for the Corner, which has beginnings that date back to the 1930s when it opened as the Dutch Diner, catering to mill workers and car salesmen who worked in the neighborhood. After a few name changes, by the early 1940s, the squat building at the corner of Central Avenue and Fulton Street was dubbed the Corner Grill. The business changed ownership over the years, eventually losing the breakfast crowd and concentrating more on a late-night clientele.

The heyday of the Corner Lounge was the product of a charismatic young piano-playing singer from Fountain City, who began playing at the bar in 1969 after a stint in the service. For the next decade, Con Hunley was the biggest draw around, bringing in the ladies who drooled over the handsome singer and the men who came because of the women. It was a recipe for success as hot as the Corner's famous chili, and Hunley continued at the Corner for awhile, even after his recording career took off.

After that, the Corner saw some bumpy times. Owner Ernestine “Ernie” Purkey sold the business in 1988, and after a succession of owners, it closed completely around the turn of the century. Mike Moore took over in 2003 and made the Corner Lounge a popular local bar again, but after Moore decided the bar business wasn't to his liking, the building was shuttered in late 2004.

Enter longtime musician and soundman Corts, who'd noticed the “For Sale” sign in the bar's window.

Corts concedes it was “a drunken dare” that got him into the bar business, courtesy of original business partner, Bert Holmes. Corts and Holmes were hanging out at Preservation Pub one night when the subject of the Corner closing came up. Holmes urged Corts to call Moore and ask some questions.

“I said, ‘I don't wanna get in the bar business.' But he said, ‘Ah hell, just check into it just for the hell of it,'” Corts recalls with a chuckle. “The more we talked, and the more we drank, [the idea] started sounding better. So I called Mike, and he said, ‘I'm out of it; are you interested in it?'”

Corts agreed to meet with Moore to discuss the idea, but the following day, the state tax commission seized the bar for back taxes. “So I gave up on it,” Corts says.

Several months later, Corts and Holmes were again having cocktails at the Pub, when Holmes prodded Corts to call Moore again. Moore explained that he'd not been in the Corner building since the state's auction of the equipment to satisfy a tax debt, but he agreed to meet Corts at the bar to access the damage.

“We walked in, and the cooler was still there, and this was still here,” Corts says, laying his hand on the long wooden bar that has seen thousands of drinks pass into the hands of thirsty customers. “All that stuff was in place, but [the room] was trashed.”

After some discussion, Moore and Corts came up with a plan whereby Corts agreed to affect the necessary repairs and take over the business. After reporting back to Holmes, “We were in business,” Corts says. In addition to Holmes, Corts' brother, Marty, bought into the business.

Corts and his family got to work, and the Corner Lounge was ready to be re-opened on Feb. 4, 2005.

On the day of this interview, Corts held court during happy hour, while his daughter, Adrienne Corts-Upchurch, a familiar face to many Knoxville barflies, holds down the bar. It's still early, and a few regulars have stopped in for a cold one.

Adrienne recalls her initial reaction to her father's announcement that the family was going into the bar business. “I thought it was really cool,” she says. “When he said, the Corner Lounge, I said, ‘I love that place.'”

Although Adrienne has been in the business for years and owning a bar was a longtime goal, her anticipation turned to apprehension when she saw the state of the building.

“I had a lot of waiting to do while things were getting done,” she says. “Then when Dad said to start ordering beer and hiring people, that was my job.”

Preparation for opening went down to the wire. “Opening day was interesting, to say the least,” Corts-Upchurch reminisces. “We got the last beer order at 5:30, and we opened at 6. Dad said we did it on a dime and a prayer, and that's really what it seemed like.”

An opening night crowd that lined up around the building proved the effort worthwhile. “It was awesome,” she says.

Corts shakes his head when he thinks about his original plan for the Corner Lounge, which did not include regular live music. “We were thinking it would be a neighborhood bar,” he recollects. “We had a pool table and games and two dart boards.”

If anything, Corts hoped his bar would provide a place for himself and his pals to play on occasion. “We started building the stage, and it started getting a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger,” he says. “Then a coupla bands that we knew came along and wanted to know if they could play here.”

Kim Baxter, a singer and former AC Entertainment employee, offered to get involved on the ground floor, and the Corner had an official booker. “We decided we'd keep it to local bands,” Corts recalls. “But it started to swell when the local bands started going out of town and playing with bands and inviting them to play here.”

Corts' experience as a soundman made sure that the P.A. system grew and soon became one of the best in town. “So the pool table went away, and we became a small music venue,” he says. Nowadays, the Corner has live music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with Tuesday and Wednesday left open as optional.

In addition to live music, the first and third Fridays of every month feature a popular poetry slam in the early evenings. The slams, hosted by poet Rhea Sunshine and featuring a wide variety of spoken word artists, freestylers and poets, draw a large crowd of folks who may not otherwise frequent the Corner. “The poetry slam draws a completely different crowd,” Corts-Upchurch says of the hip-hop-flavored show, “but there are a lot of good ol' boys who've come in and loved it.”

When Holmes died unexpectedly earlier this year, the Corner was forced to close down for the month of July in order for the family to restructure its partnership and get new licenses. The bar re-opened again on Aug.1, serving up its usual blend of cold beer, hot food, atmosphere and live music. The most noticeable change has been the addition of Superdrag drummer and Independent Recorders engineer Don Coffey Jr., who took over the booking during the time off. Coffey, who has staged Hottfest at the Corner the past couple of years (see the calendar entry on page 39 for info on the 2007 edition of Hottfest), quickly put together an impressive schedule of acts, pairing out-of-towners with appropriate local artists, while adding much-needed focus to the Corner's entertainment calendar.

“I like the small room music venue approach,” says Corts, who mans the soundboard on band nights. “And I think Don has kinda taken that to a new level. It wasn't anything that Kim was doing or wasn't doing, we just needed another shot in the arm to take this to the next level.”

Coffey says booking a club was something he wanted to do. “It was something I haven't done yet,” he explains. “I've been running the studio for a while, and I was looking for a new challenge.”

Coffey's home life also played into his decision to take on the Corner's music schedule. “Now that we have a baby on the way, I'm gonna have to be home more often, and honestly, I was looking for something I could do from home,” he says. Coffey and his wife, Kym, are expecting a child in December.

Coffey feels that consistency will be the secret to building a larger regular music crowd for the Corner. “It needs to be where if you walk into the Corner Lounge on any night, I want [the entertainment] to be good,” he says. “It may not be your cup of tea, but the people up there will be good at what they're doing.”

While live music is the late-night staple, the Corner retains its homey neighborhood tavern feel in the early evenings with happy-hour specials and one of the best bar menus around. In addition to the Corner Burger, the chicken wings and other favorites, the Corner is the only walk-in location you can get caterer Sweet P's barbeque. Pulled pork sandwiches are part of the regular menu, and rib platters are available on Wednesdays.

The glue that holds the various facets of the Corner Lounge together is family. Adrienne manages the bar. And Ed's sons, Timmy and Judder, are often on hand to help out, and everybody on the staff is a relative or a close friend. “It's sons and sons' girlfriends, friends who are close enough to be called sons or brothers,” Ed explains.

The crowd that frequents the Corner is as diverse as the venue's musical offerings, says Adrienne. She explained that the demographic of the neighborhood makes for a built-in older crowd, but that the area's affordable rent has provided an ever-growing younger audience. “A lot of my friends are moving into this neighborhood or … live two or three blocks from the Corner,” said Corts-Upchurch, 27. “So it's really neat.” Indeed, it's not unusual to see tattooed punk rockers elbow to elbow with businessman in suits at the bar during happy hour.

The ongoing revitalization of the Corner's neighborhood, which is based around the intersection of Central Avenue and Broadway, makes for a potentially bright future for the little bar that could. “It's definitely getting better around here,” Corts-Upchurch says. “And we've had people tell us they appreciate us being here, because we make an effort to make people feel safe when they come down here.”

As for the future, look for more of the same, only better. “The concept is already there,” Ed explains. “What the Corner Lounge is, what we're trying to do. Everybody knows what we're after, and what we want to do.”

For Corts-Upchurch, the family business is her life.

“Really, it's like my child,” she says. “I don't have any kids, so this is my child. It's like my child, but with a lot of screaming people in the middle of it. I love it.”