J.W. Roth; photo by Mike Searle
Notes Live, a Colorado-based company with plans to build 10 amphitheaters across the country, will soon begin work on its Murfreesboro live entertainment and dining complex after it closes on land purchased from the City of Murfreesboro this December.
The plans for the property include the 4,500-seat open-air amphitheater, known as Sunset Music Colosseum on the Stones River, as well as an indoor music venue, dance hall and event space—Boot Barn Hall—a restaurant called Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse and Tavern, parking and a green space that will connect to Murfreesboro’s existing Greenway trail system, according to Notes Live Founder and CEO J.W. Roth.
After a career in food service distribution—the executive led Roth Industries to become the third-largest prepared food distributor in the U.S.A.—Roth decided to quit working for the company he built and build amphitheaters.
The entrepreneur took some time to speak with the Murfreesboro Pulse and further outline his vision for his Murfreesboro property, to be located on Medical Center Parkway near the Stones River (just across the road from Fountains at Gateway), and his current career in the live entertainment venue industry.
“I’ve spent 30 years selling chicken trying to save money to open venues,” Roth said with a laugh. “I stepped down from leadership roles there [at the food distributor] three years ago; I still own it, though.”
Roth said the concert venue at the Robert Mondavi Winery in California’s Napa Valley really inspired him to get into the live music business. When some restaurant tenants at a Colorado Springs property that Roth owned went out of business, he decided that the property—now the home of the first Boot Barn Hall and Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse—would be his first foray into live entertainment.
“When we started, I said ‘The same stuff you hear in my car, you will hear in Boot Barn Hall’,” he recalled.
It turns out these playlists are heavy in classic rock and country artists.
When asked about some of his favorite musical memories from the Colorado Springs Boot Barn Hall, the first of his live music venues, the first name Roth mentioned was Randy Travis, someone also very involved with the Middle Tennessee area.
Travis recently played the Notes Live venue in Colorado for a Rock the Red Kettle benefit for the Salvation Army in November, and Roth said it has been an honor getting to know Randy and his wife, Mary.
“Easton Corbin kicked off a tour here,” Roth said from Colorado Springs. “Those are big memorable shows. We’ve had Voices of Rock [a classic-rock collective consisting of John Elefante from Kansas, Kevin Chalfant from Journey, Randall Hall from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Charlie Huhn of Foghat], the Bellamy Brothers, Orleans, Tracy Byrd,” Roth continued, clearly enthusiastic about bringing these artists to his venue and playing a part in presenting a memorable night of live music for the audience members.
The property’s Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse “has become a very successful restaurant in Southern Colorado,” Roth said (additionally, Roth’s food distribution business offers packaged pulled pork, meatloaf, meatballs, side dishes and other products to grocery stores under its Bourbon Brothers label).
Shortly after announcing plans for an outdoor amphitheater near the Colorado Springs concert hall, Notes Live unveiled plans for two more complexes containing outdoor amphitheaters, restaurants and indoor venues in Gainesville, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta, and in Murfreesboro.
Roth said he expects Murfreesboro’s Boot Barn Hall to begin hosting events by February 2024, and for the Sunset on the Stones River amphitheater to be in operation by the summer 2024 concert tour season.
However, the Murfreesboro community can expect some concerts, events and fundraisers on the property in the Spring of 2023, “even before construction is complete,” Roth said.
These concert venues in Colorado Springs, Murfreesboro and Georgia are just the beginning for Notes Live; Roth said the company plans to construct a total of 10 amphitheaters within the next five years.
“We are getting ready to make some announcements on Dallas and Oklahoma City,” he said. “The Smokehouse and Boot Barn Hall will all be identical; the amphitheaters will all be similar, all luxurious, but different sizes.
“Making money is secondary to building the most luxurious amphitheaters in the world,” Roth said.
Private, 6-seat firepit suites are an important component of this “luxury amphitheater” concept; Notes Live is currently looking for investors to purchase the rights to these firepit suites, for a price of $285,000 each.
“They are super spacious, the best sightlines in the whole place,” Roth said. “And you get tickets for life! You’re really making a real estate investment with the perk of sitting in your firepit suite at concerts.”
These suite owners can sell or give away their tickets—tickets for every event held at the Sunset on the Stones River venue, all included with the firepit purchase.
Many Murfreesboro residents have raised concerns over additional traffic that the concerts at the Medical Center Parkway venue will bring to the area, but Roth said he expects the site to get vehicles in and out of the parking area efficiently.
“We will be able to empty the parking lot in 16 minutes,” he says confidently. “We have spent a lot of money studying traffic and parking. We are committed to doing what we need to do as far as infrastructure. The last thing we want to do is be a pain.”
Although a concert venue that seats 4,500 “sounds like a lot of people,” even at a sold-out show, that should mean approximately 2,000 cars; ideally even fewer, if some groups of four or more people ride together. Roth points out that numerous churches in Murfreesboro currently put 2,000 cars out onto the city’s roadways in a short amount of time as Sunday services conclude; area big-box retailers see far more cars in their parking lots on any given day.
Roth said he understands that his company is “not going to compete with Live Nation right out of the gate” in the concert venue space, but he envisions Sunset on the Stones River to be an important piece of the Murfreesboro entertainment landscape, an attraction that will also draw visitors from Nashville and other areas, and a place where memories will be made for concertgoers for many years to come.
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For more information on the Sunset on the Stones River amphitheater coming to Murfreesboro, visit noteslive.vip/tn. For more information on purchasing a firepit suite at the facility, contact jmaguire@noteslive.vip.
