On Jan. 8, on the heels of the Texas Beer Co.’s’ departure from the corner of Second and Main streets, the public was also greeted with the startling news that the Black Sparrow Music Parlor across the way would be closing.
Black Sparrow may be shuttering its doors for now, but owner Shannon Bagent wants folks to know her business, and the digital radio station KBSR headquartered there, aren’t going anywhere. The space likely will open again offering a different format, but no date has been set.
“Black Sparrow absolutely lives on, and I will continue this, but I never really do the same thing twice,” she said. “It will be different because I am different than I was seven years ago.”
In 2016, Bagent discovered a derelict building in Taylor’s downtown that fit her vision for a non-corporate music venue in a town with a bit of “room for a counterculture.”
“I found the building that I just fell in love with, and it was falling in on itself,” Bagent recalled in an earlier interview. “The ceiling was coming in. The roof was toast. Everything was falling apart.”
Undeterred, Bagent, whose former career spanned decades putting on high-profile music events and festivals, poured her life savings into birthing Black Sparrow, which over the years grew into a successful mainstay for tourists and locals alike, featuring live music shows, community events, the digital radio station, and in more recent years, a restaurant.
Greenhouse Craft Foods, which partnered with Black Sparrow for the past year and a half, announced last weekend that it was going out of business.
“Today I am announcing that Greenhouse is no more,” wrote Greenhouse’s owner Rob Snow, who also closed another location in Round Rock in October, on his Facebook page. “We have closed our location at the magical Black Sparrow Music Parlor with the heaviest of hearts.”
Though Bagent, who owns the building at 113 W. Second St., said she is having to start over, including pulling all new permits, she is looking at this closure as an opportunity.
“Right now, what I am doing is starting over with a fresh canvass, and I don’t really see myself painting the same picture twice,” Bagent said. “I have worked in music my entire life. I would love to mix it up a bit.”
Bagent said KBSR continues to operate.
“KBSR is alive and well,” Bagent said. “Deejays are coming in and out and broadcasting their shows. That won’t stop. We still have the community radio going strong. We have 21 deejays, and that is still going strong.”
Bagent is floating different concepts around for the next incarnation of Black Sparrow, but whatever it is, it will be something reflecting more of who she is now rather than who she was when she launched Black Sparrow, she said.
“I just see something happening that’s a little bit quieter and more thoughtful,” she said. “I see something more along the lines of a place where people can come to sit, do their work and be with their friends. I see maybe a place where people can come and meet up with folks, but I don’t really see all the loudness, all the rowdiness happening.”
One recent idea that came to her was a community hangout called the “Pour House,” in a nod to the leaner times many believe society is facing, featuring dollar coffee and self-serve bowls of stew.
“I still have an amazing sound system and stage, so I could see doing some kind of shows, but I don’t think that I will be going full force towards the music like that anymore,” Bagent said. “It will be a lot more of a thoughtful, more of an intellectual home.”
In the meantime, Bagent said she encourages people to share their ideas with her via her email at [email protected]. She also welcomes suggestions for how to speed up the permitting process.
With Greenhouse on the way out, Bagent said she relishes the ability to fly solo at Black Sparrow once again.
“I am absolutely over the moon to have this sweet baby back in my care,” she said. “Black Sparrow is still a vital business. Black Sparrow still exists. We are still here. We just can’t open to the public until I repull permits.”
