For Donna Livengood, it’s been strange to experience the ever-changing – and sometimes cyclical – nature of music listening.
For 35 years, she’s watched people from all walks of life – including, one time in 1991, Jon Bon Jovi, who was on a cross-country motorcycle trip – peruse the shelves of her store, Rocky Mountain One Stop.
Now, she’s bidding goodbye to this era, with the last day to stroll her store’s mix of odds and ends slated for Dec. 24.
“It's becoming a little more real as we get closer, and so it's a lot of emotions,” she said. “We’'re definitely going to miss it. I’ll miss the people and just being here every day.”
Rocky Mountain One Stop first opened on Elm Street in Cortez on April 19, 1986, before moving to Main Street and eventually landing at its current location, at 330 N. Broadway.
Near closing time Thursday, and between assisting a steady stream of customers, she reminisced on her “one stop” venture and on her time there, the sun setting beyond the shop’s graffiti-style exterior.
In a now bygone era, Livengood placed orders for CDs and vinyls once a week – back when distributors issued thick catalogs every few months listing artists and their albums.
At one point, Livengood had 7,000 vinyls in stock and thousands more CDs.
When The Journal visited her curio shop, she had music playing from her computer — but only because her stereo was down.
To clarify, Livengood isn’t a streaming service subscriber.
She prefers full sound, the kind you can’t get by plugging headphones into your phone or playing your personal playlist in your car.
She recalled borrowing her daughter’s car for a few days and inserting CDs.
When her daughter drove her car again, the music immediately blaring on full blast, she asked Livengood, “What did you do to my car?”
She hadn’t known it could sound like that.
And although record players have experienced a recent resurgence, as they do every few years, Livengood said, she values the record players with high-quality needles. They cost at least $60, she said.
“You'll hear things you never knew were in there. You'll hear different instruments, and you'll hear the real music,” she said.
Despite modern trends, Livengood isn’t conforming to contemporary music-listening practices.
“It’s all streaming, it’s all digital – digital compressed music,” she said. “You had this big, full, rich, warm sound and compressed it.”
Although people aren’t hauling vinyls around anymore, she said listeners simply aren’t treated to the same listening experience typical of decades past.
The store’s shelves reflect Livengood’s hold on music tradition, stacking sounds that span the last century.
The store didn’t stop at music.
Described as an “everything” store on its website, the establishment has been a treasure trove of sorts, offering music, jewelry, instruments, music sheets, incense, board games, playing cards and other knickknacks.
Thus, the expansive and all-encompassing term “One Stop” graced the store’s name.
Livengood affectionately referenced her husband, Matt, who has been with the business for 22 years.
He was shopping in her store when they met.
“All I can say is the community has been awesome to us,” he said. “We’ve made it a long time, and it’s all because of their support.”
The couple agrees that this closing chapter is bittersweet.
“It's kind of sad, but at the same time, it feels kind of good to be doing something different,” Matt said.
An avid player of trading card game “Magic the Gathering,” he’s helped to mold the store into somewhat of a hub for fellow enthusiasts.
Hosting “Magic” events at the store and traveling to others, Livengood reflected on frequent late nights, including some that would spiral through weekends. At one point, the store would host prerelease parties beginning at midnight.
“They think about ‘Magic’ 24 hours a day,” Livengood said of the people she affectionately called “nerds.”
No matter a customer’s reason for entering the store – music, magic or otherwise – Livengood has always curated it to be a “safe space” – one where everyone felt comfortable, she said.
Interest in the store became generational. Livengood was always amused when she’d see middle school-age children bringing their parents into the store, thinking that they were showing them something new. Many of those parents “used to hang out in here all the time,” she said.
“It's a great place to be able to come and just get a random thing that you need on the spur of the moment,” said Ole Bye, purchasing a Christmas gift for his friend.
He preferred buying drumsticks and guitar strings there, rather than online.
The store is “niche,” he said.
“It’s Rocky Mountain One Stop,” Livengood simply said, when asked to classify the store.
