Shoe Tree Listening Room aims to be 'community place' with local music, pickin' jams
"Salty Dog Blues," "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" and "Petticoat Junction" were just three of countless songs shared during a Bluegrass Jam at The Shoe Tree Listening Room on Thursday night. The sounds of acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins and fiddles rang off the room's walls as folks tapped their feet to tunes passed down across generations.
Passing by the gray, nondescript building on St. Louis Street, it would be easy to miss The Shoe Tree Listening Room. The only clue is a skinny tree, outfitted with blue glass bottles and a few mismatched shoes standing near the wooden front door.
Shoe Tree is a new music venue, the "performance art division" of Arrow Creative Reuse, an arts and craft thrift store that opened on St. Louis Street in December 2022. West of Arrow Creative Reuse, Shoe Tree is located at 1342 E. St. Louis St., across the street from the Springfield Public Schools Administration building.
The venue, which held its first show in June 2023, is managed by Re Baker-Dietz, owner of Arrow Creative Reuse, and her parents, Sandi Green-Baker and David Baker, who share a history of providing unique, intimate listening spaces to the Springfield community.
The majority of musicians who perform at Shoe Tree fall into the Americana genre, but David said he wants the venue to be a "community place." No artist will be turned away.
Shoe Tree doesn't feel like a traditional music venue. Hand-crafted signs, made by Sandi, are displayed on the front stoop during shows and the interior walls are covered with a variety of eclectic artwork.
In one corner, three larger than life hand-painted circus posters cover the wall. Sandi painted these in 2002 for a concert at McDonald Arena (now Great Southern Bank Arena). A lot of old student artwork is also displayed on Shoe Tree's walls, created by students Sandi taught at Gainesville, Humansville and Rogersville, including a life-size velvet Elvis.
As for seating, 50 folding chairs create a semi-circle around a little stage at Shoe Tree. Only about four or five musicians can be up on the stage at once, David said with a laugh. There's not much room for more. At a recent show they almost had to turn guests away, David said, due to the small space. But there have also been a few times when no one shows up, Sandi said.
"We're flying by the seat of our pants here," David Baker said, eliciting chuckles from his wife and daughter. "We're building the reputation of having great music here."
Another detail that makes Shoe Tree unique is that it is a dry space; no alcohol is allowed inside of the venue and none is sold there either. This is intentional.
"I've been sober for four years and I'm kind of happy to have a space that we can have events at where there's no alcohol because I don't have to deal with it," Re Baker-Dietz said. "I don't have to explain myself and it's really nice."
The family trio agreed that they've heard a positive response about the dry space from the majority of Shoe Tree's guests.
Instead, a selection of non-alcoholic beverages, like soda, lemonade, kombucha and coffee is for sale.
An emphasis on interaction
In addition to traditional shows, where folks sit in an audience and watch musicians perform, Shoe Tree regularly hosts free, interactive events like the Bluegrass Jam.
During the Bluegrass Jam, more than 15 musicians sat in a circle, each with their own stringed instrument — some with several. The musicians passed around a microphone and took turns singing bluegrass tunes. Some were classics, like "Salty Dog Blues," and others were family heirlooms, like one local musician Wayne Shelton sang about "tick-picking season," a song his mom wrote in her 90s.
Springfield musician Guinevere Sheafer has also been hosting songwriter gatherings at Shoe Tree since October. During the gatherings, which are free and open to songwriters of any skill level, participants are asked to reflect on various prompts posed by Sheafer. These are often about goals, what musicians are trying to express through their music or even hiccups during the writing process. Toward the end of the gatherings, musicians are able to get up and perform for each other, if they'd like.
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When crafting the idea for a songwriter gathering last fall, Sheafer said Shoe Tree was the first place she thought of hosting the event.
"You feel like you're walking into an artist's living room," Sheafer said of Shoe Tree's atmosphere. "You just feel like you're walking into this really whimsical, magical hidden corner that you just had no idea existed on St. Louis Street."
In addition to the inviting nature of the space, Sheafer said Shoe Tree's small size has also forced her to interact more with others.
"I think it's this really unique environment that kind of forces you to get out of your comfort zone a little bit and just socialize in a way that you may not typically socialize," she said. "I think that can be challenging for some people, but also you leave with this incredible sense of warmth."
Sheafer's next songwriters gathering is Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.
How Shoe Tree got its name, other fond memories
Shoe Tree has been operating in its current space on St. Louis Street for about eight months, but the venue's legacy is much longer.
In 2017, Sandi and David began hosting musicians in their home, which at the time was on Holland Avenue. For each "concert," the two moved their couch and loveseat from their living room, filling the space with folding chairs — the same ones used at Shoe Tree today, David Baker said with a laugh.
The Bakers hosted both local and touring musicians in their home. When a touring musician came through, they would offer up their home as a place for them to stay, cooking dinner in the evening and breakfast in the morning before they went on their way. At maximum capacity, the house held 40-50 people, David said.
Hosting house concerts runs deep in Sandi's veins. Starting in the late '80s, her late father Ival Green began operating Ival's Music Barn in Ozark. Every Monday night, through the early 2000s, folks gathered in the Music Barn for pass-the-mic jams.
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Several items from the Music Barn are now displayed at Shoe Tree, including a black and white sign that says, "DUCK."
"The rafters in it (the barn) were really low at one point and so he had that 'DUCK' sign so you wouldn't hit your head on them," Sandi Green-Baker said with a smile on her face. Ival Green died at age 90 in April 2022.
Some of the Bakers' favorite shows at the original Shoe Tree were when The Bottle Rockets came to play. Now defunct, The Bottle Rockets were a rock band formed in Festus, Missouri, with singles like "Welfare Music," "Indianapolis" and "Radar Gun."
"The second time that they (The Bottle Rockets) played, the weather was warm enough that we had the windows open and so our neighbor across the street, he never came to a show, but that one particular night he was sitting on the porch and listening to the music," Sandi said. "After the band was finished with their show and they left, then this guy walked across the street and he goes, 'You know, that band sounded like a band I used to listen to in high school.' He said, 'They sounded like The Bottle Rockets.' And Dave goes, 'They were.'"
As for the name, Shoe Tree, it caught on after David Baker threw a few shoes in a tree in the family's front yard. The concept of a shoe tree is rooted in folk art, David said, and represents a celebration of life. After David threw a few shoes in the tree, others began to do the same. Touring musicians began to write their names and the dates they played at Shoe Tree on their shoes and throw them up, too.
Eventually, the tree had to be cut down because it was dying and became hazardous. Re Baker-Dietz guessed that about 250 shoes were on the tree when it eventually came down.
"We lived there for 32 years and the kids played under the tree ... and then it became the shoe tree with all these wonderful memories on it," Sandi Green-Baker said.
The Bakers operated Shoe Tree from their home for about five and a half years, shutting things down in 2020 because of the pandemic.
What's on Shoe Tree's calendar for the rest of February?
Friday, Feb. 16 from 6-9 p.m.: Vintage Photo Remix (alter a vintage photograph with acrylic paint), $20 admission
Saturday, Feb. 17 from 7-9 p.m.: Kelly Hunt, featuring Staś Heaney and Brandon Day, $20 admission
Friday, Feb. 23 from 6-9 p.m.: Pet Portraits (create a pet portrait with acrylic paint), $20 admission
Sunday, Feb. 25 from 2-4 p.m.: Heart Chakra Jewelry and Crystal Workshop (learn how to support the chakra system with crystals), $25 admission
Sunday, Feb. 25 from 7-9 p.m.: Crys Matthews, $20 admission
Wednesday, Feb. 28 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.: Stamp Carving (Carve a custom rubber stamp), $15 admission
Thursday, Feb. 29 from 7-9:30 p.m.: Leap Day Pickin' Party, free admission
Tickets can be purchased on the Arrow Creative Reuse website ahead of each event.
Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield's Shoe Tree Listening Room a 'community place' for artists
