Manor Records returns with a new store in West Bottoms

Manor Records. // Photo by Nichola McDowell

Locally beloved music label Manor Records held a soft opening for a new brick-and-mortar record shop in West Bottoms over the weekend. The show included Manor family artists True Lions, Supermoto, and Khrystal.

Since closing its bar location in Strawberry Hill this past March, the label has restructured its leadership team and business model to more effectively support local musicians. Members of the new board include President Shaun Crowley, Vice President Skylar Rochelle, Secretary Kayla Jarrett, and Treasurer Connor Randell. Together, the team decided that with the new storefront, they would omit the complexities of bar inventory and upkeep. They have shifted the store to be a limited liability company, or LLC, which Crowley says more easily allows the record store profits to be donated to the label’s nonprofit.

Connor Randell and Shaun Crowley. // photo by Nichola McDowell

With the label’s vision clear again, Manor has set down roots in the basement of 12th Street Post, a six-vendor bazaar hosting over 80 Kansas City artists.

“It felt too good to be true. It can be this curated thing I take care of, and it’s actually manageable,” Crowley says of opening the new store. “It’s going to be good to have a headquarters that’s actually healthy for us.”

As for Friday’s event, the late afternoon crowd seemed mostly to be friends, family, and members of the Manor music community perusing the label’s new digs or chatting on the couches of an unofficially designated “listener’s nook.” So far, the shelves are partially stocked with donations of used records, cassette tapes, and CDs. Just like the genre diversity of the label itself, the store already has an eclectic collection of rock and pop, blues, R/B and soul, and jazz. Of course, you can also purchase releases by Manor musicians. Empty bins display QR codes where visitors can find a link to donate to the shop’s GoFundMe page.

The soft opening’s evening lineup painted a musical triptych of the label’s brick-and-mortar journey.

True Lions. // Photo by Nichola McDowell

True Lions, a fiddler’s punk fusion, opened the night, and the crowd began to grow. The new Manor hearth was warm and inviting as the yells and calls of singer and fiddler Alison “Al” Hawkins traveled up the concrete basement stairwell of the label’s new home in the Post. True Lions is deeply expressive, if not angry at times, and lightened with Midwestern folk.

“These are Ozark old-time tunes reinterpreted… or dis-interpreted,” Hawkins said, as if allegorical for Manor’s frustrating experience of having and closing the shop in Strawberry Hill.

Supermoto. // Photo by Nichola McDowell

After every hearty storm, there is calm, and Supermoto followed the raucous opener. Feet in the crowd danced to the band’s combined influences of jazz, funk, indie, and hip-hop. Lead singer LyMerrick Jones had a charm and warmth to his tone—supported by instrumentals on keys, bass, and drums—that lit up a feel-good groove echoing through the cement acoustics of the Manor basement store.

As the sun set in the West Bottoms, Wyandotte singer Khrystal. began her set on the piano, crescendoing into a melodic dreamverse of soul. She played tracks from her 2021 release, Life Be Life-ing, along with her throwback track, “Melanin Poppin.’”

“The Manor never dies,” Khrystal. said, ending her set and closing the show. We couldn’t say it any better.

Manor Records will host an official grand opening in the Post at 1501 12th St. with another three-part music lineup this month. Latin Asian fusion food pop-up, Chivo’s, will also debut at the event. Mark your calendars for Friday, Oct. 20, from 5-8 p.m.