COWTOWN BALLROOM...SWEET JESUS!

Sarah Benson INK Magazine 7/23/08

In the early 1970s, the Cowtown Ballroom was the epicenter of the Kansas City music scene.

The club booked such all-star acts as Ravi Shankar, B.B. King, Blue Oyster Cult, Foghat, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Steve Martin.

Problem is, that part of Kansas City’s history is somewhat forgotten. That’s why local filmmaker Joe Heyen is working on a documentary about Cowtown.

“It won’t be lost for long,” Heyen said. “We’re going to bring it back.”

The Cowtown Ballroom wasn’t fancy. It had no seats, so people sat on pillows. It didn’t serve alcohol and was often full of underage kids who came for the music. Cowtown had a short but packed existence from 1971 to 1974.

From 2000 to 2006, the venue was known as the rock club El Torreon. Now the building at 3109 Gillham Road sits vacant.

For months, Heyen has interviewed people who went there, who played there, and who barely remember being there.

“In some ways Cowtown is just a vehicle for me to go back in time and talk about Kansas City and the Midwest,” Heyen said. “I wanted to do a more personal story about the hippie movement in the Midwest.”

The documentary’s almost done, save for one vital element: the music. That stuff will cost tens of thousands of dollars. Heyen is paying for the film himself, and he’s holding a fundraiser Friday at the Record Bar, 1020 Westport Road, to pay for the rights to songs from Cowtown’s heyday.

Some of the songs:

•“Cosmic Cowboy” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. “Nitty Gritty were the kings,” Heyen said. “They drew the biggest crowds, and this was their Cowtown anthem.”

•“One Toke Over the Line,” by Brewer & Shipley, who used to live in Raytown.

•“Seems Like a Long Time,” by songwriter Ted Anderson.

•“Chicken Train,” by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

Heyen, the documentary’s director and co-producer, is organizing the event along with Tony Ladish, director of photography and editor. The pair has rounded up Cowtown memorabilia to auction off at the fundraiser, including an Alvarez guitar autographed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and an original Cowtown Ballroom bumper sticker. The Cowtown Ballroom logo, by the way, portrays a cow smoking a joint.

That may be why people stare when Heyen wears his Cowtown Ballroom T-shirt.

“I have all these young people come up to me and they don’t know very much about Cowtown Ballroom. They want to ask me questions,” Heyen said.

The documentary is slated to premiere early next year. Heyen said he’s sending it to film festivals starting in February 2009, and he may show the film at the Tivoli Cinemas, 4050 Pennsylvania Ave., in the spring.

The best part of making the documentary: interviewing rock legends, Heyen said. Recently he chatted it up with Steve Miller.

“I’m in heaven,” Heyen said. “I’m a music geek. I get to meet all these people who I never thought would sit in the same room with me.”