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Steve Kaufman remembers the exact moment his career began.

He was in his early teens, a musician since the age of four when he started playing the piano and later the cello.

At 10 he had picked up the guitar, but the folky strumming of chords didn't light his fire, so he started picking the strings with his fingertips in the classical style.

Then one day his older brother Mark stepped into his bedroom with a kindly suggestion. "He said, 'You know, idiot,they use a pick for that.' And he threw the pick at me, and it was like in slow motion."

Kaufman reaches into the air as if to catch the flying pick thrown almost 30 years ago. "I just reached up and grabbed it. That's where it started, right there."

That instant began Kaufman's career as an internationally known flatpicker whose oft-quoted claim to fame is his status as the only three-time winner of the National Flatpicking Championship held in Winfield, Kan. In these parts, Kaufman is known as a darn good picker who makes his home in Blount County and, most recently, the guy responsible for renovating and reopening the Palace Theater in downtown Maryville.

Steve Kaufman & company bring new life to a Maryville institution.

by Paige M. Travis

Downtown Maryville, if you've never been there, is a stretch of West Broadway plus a few side streets. Like many downtowns, this one was at its prime in the '30s and '40s, with businesses in every storefront and plenty of foot traffic to keep a place open even in the cold of winter. These days, only a few businesses are open on the downtown blocks of Broadway, including the Soup Kitchen, the Appalachian Ballet Company, and Roy's Records.

Kaufman and his wife Donna Dixon bought the Palace in August 1998 from Roy and Alma Garrett, who own Roy's Records. The Garretts owned the Palace for four or five years but never renovated it.

"We planned to do what Steve did," Roy Garrett explains. "We kept it awhile, but the [record] store keeps us so busy. We didn't sell it until we could find someone to do what Steve did. We love it."

The original building at 113 West Broadway was built by Carl Phlanze in 1868 as his furniture and casket factory. After a fire in 1933, it was rebuilt as a theater and later housed a drug store and a carpet store. The space, which experienced some lavishly gaudy remodeling in the '70s, hadn't been used as a theater since it closed in the mid-1980s.

In 17 months, Kaufman renovated the downstairs into a for-lease office space, the Broadway level lobby into an espresso bar, and the theater itself into an acoustic music venue, movie theater, and all-around entertainment complex.

"People do things for different reasons," Kaufman says. "We did this Palace not for the reason of making any money here, but to restore part of Maryville—not to sound corny." Because he doesn't make his living in Maryville (his "day job" is making instructional books and videos for Mel Bay Publications, performing, and conducting flatpicking workshops across the country), he doesn't feel pressure to make money from this business venture. "As long as the place sustains itself, that's fine with me," he says.

But that's not to say Kaufman doesn't have high hopes for the Palace. Through years of touring, holding workshops, and festival-hopping, he has collected an impressive assortment of friends in folk and bluegrass circles. Many of them, including Norman Blake, Beppe Gambetta, and Doc Watson, perform and teach at his Guitar and Mandolin Camps held every summer at Maryville College.

The Palace's intimate 213-seat space is perfect for the kind of unplugged shows Kaufman plans to host.

"There are just so many good entertainers out there that we can have in here," Kaufman says. Already, the Palace is booked every weekend from the end of February through the middle of May.

In addition to hosting acts like R.B. Morris and Hector Qirko (Feb. 19), Bill Mize (March 4), Coulter Phillips Celtic Ensemble (March 10), and Misty River (April 8), Kaufman wants to screen family films on Saturday afternoons and perhaps add some weeknight entertainment in the form of magic shows, comedy, and open-mic performers. He may also screen some independent films.

Kaufman first saw the Palace through a musician's eyes as a place with great sound where he could jam with his friends. The espresso bar was a natural addition because he and Dixon love coffee. But since the theater's opening on Jan. 8, Kaufman has started to see the results of his efforts from the community's perspective. On the night of the Palace premiere, a woman asked him, "Do you realize what you've done?" Kaufman admitted that he didn't. "She said, 'You do this every week. You put a show on somewhere, and you see this kind of crowd every week...What you've given us is a place to go.' And I didn't even think about giving people a place to go. I thought of just bringing in good entertainment."

Kaufman has created a place for young people to hang out and older folks to reminisce as well.

"There was a lady who came in for the show. She was in her 30s. She said she remembered coming here in the '70s, and her mother said she remembered coming here in the '30s," Kaufman says. "That's a special thing when you hear about stuff like that happening. That's what I've learned, how appreciative the people in this area are of that."

People also appreciate the coffee drinks. "There are people coming from Friendsville and Loudon just because they've heard of the lattes," Kaufman says.

Not everyone thought that a coffeehouse was a natural addition to Maryville's sleepy downtown. In preparing his business plan, Kaufman worked with Teri Brahams, director of the Small Business Development Center at Pellissippi State Technical Community College, who was encouraging from the get-go. "Teri saw how this could work," Kaufman says. Banks were more skeptical. "They said, 'Is Maryville ready for a coffeehouse? We don't think so.'" Kaufman and Dixon got a loan from American Fidelity, who had what Kaufman calls "open vision."

From the response he's gotten, it's clear the community was ready. "The only challenge I've come up with," Kaufman says, "is convincing people to drive down Broadway." He tells those who hesitate, "If you go there, there's no way you can miss it. It's the only building with a flashing marquee." And it's surrounded by plenty of free parking.

Open for three months, the espresso bar "is doing great," Kaufman says. They've recently extended the hours to be open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and hired three more employees. Sean Walsh, who Old City patrons may know from his years at Lucille's and Tjaarda's, manages the coffeehouse and books performers for the theater. Walsh met Kaufman and Dixon while working with Scott Grimsley's Sound Ventures, the company that records the concerts and workshops during Kaufman's yearly guitar and mandolin camps.

"We're trying to keep Steve free from the day-to-day operations as much as we can because of his pretty amazing travel schedule, and the mail-order business keeps him pretty busy," Walsh says. Walsh, a novice guitar player, says he's excited about every performer who's on the concert calendar. "One of the things I really hope evolves is that we have a really eclectic schedule," he says.

Saturday, Jan. 8, was opening night, a sold-out show featuring performances by Kaufman, Mike Whitehead, Roscoe Morgan, Tut Taylor, and Steve's influential brother Mark. The show went off without a hitch, except for a slight glitch in the pre-show screening of Laurel and Hardy's On Leave. The Jan. 21 show with the same line-up also sold out.

After an opening weekend that surpassed his expectations and a few days without any last-minute repairs to do, Kaufman has had a few moments to reflect on the project that's taken up his time for the past year and a half.

"It was kind of scary, with this kind of monetary involvement," he says. "It either makes it great, or you lose everything. And if it works out, the city's got a nice historic monument, and we've got a place to bring my friends in to play, and there's a place for people to hang out. Five to 10 people will get their salaries paid for. I can't see anything bad about it. The only downside is that [if it fails] I lose my house and everything." Kaufman laughs. "So really, to lay it out, it was a good risk. It was a good thing to do."