The Sefton Listening Room concert series is the product of two people, two retail spaces and one hard-earned lesson about how work factors into life. “Everybody says [to set] realistic goals, and it’s deeper than that,” says Jennie-Mae Skinner, founder of Sefton Coffee Co. “Ours are peaceful goals.”

Next Thursday, Jan. 19, the basement of Sefton Supply Co., located one door north of Sefton Coffee on N. 8th St. in downtown Richmond, will host its fifth Listening Room event since September’s launch. That monthly cadence is just right, according to singer-songwriter David Shultz, who played the inaugural show and runs Sefton Coffee alongside Skinner. “It’s something that’s going well in a way that we want,” he says, “and it’s not motivating us to double-down on it. There’s just no need to expand a good thing. I’ve been so burnt out by doing that.”

Burnout avoidance played a role in Skinner’s decision to take over the Sefton Supply space. She opened Sefton Coffee nearly 10 years ago, and she briefly operated a market on N. 7th St. But the block-away, back-and-forth proved stressful, so when the storefront next door became available, she snagged it and filled it with inventory — wine, mainly — just in time for the onset of COVID-19. “I had it fully stocked and fully set up and was going to open in March of 2020,” Skinner says. “It just never opened… I had a private wine collection for the entire pandemic [laughs].”

Around the time Sefton Supply was meant to open, David Shultz played his last pre-pandemic gig a couple of blocks away, at Richmond Music Hall. Though he did some outdoor recording at Montrose Studios with Richmond-based guitarist Alan Parker and released singles from those sessions, Shultz took a break from performing between early 2020 and late 2022. It was one part of a self-described “big realignment” that also included a new relationship with Skinner. Sefton Supply’s vacancy came in handy at that point. “We kind of combined our lives,” Skinner says, “so it became a very expensive storage space, with all of our extra furniture in the back.”

Remember the Listening Room?

Shultz and Skinner first met as students at Thomas Dale High School in Chester, and while they weren’t especially close during or directly after high school, they always ran in similar circles. One of those was the original Listening Room concert series led by Richmond singer-songwriter Jonathan Vassar and held initially in another basement: that of the St. James’s Episcopal Church parish house. Shultz was a regular performer at that series, which ran from the late 2000s into the mid-2010s, and Skinner often supplied coffee. When Shultz’s urge to gig came back around, he and Skinner came to a realization. “Remember the Listening Room? Why aren’t we using next door?” Skinner asked. “And that was it. That’s all it is right now. It’s not a market or a wine shop. It’s now the Listening Room space.”

December’s event filled that space and then some. Turkish-language duo Yeni Nostalji opened, and rock band Timothy Bailey & the Humans headlined for a crowd that occupied both the available seating — a cozy mix of chairs, couch spots and welcoming nooks — and the standing room at the foot of the stairs leading down from the first floor. “There’s a relaxed quality to it,” Timothy Bailey says. “There’s a kind of living room vibe that sets everyone at ease.”

In Bailey’s eyes, it’s the ideal setup for a band whose lyrics are crafted with care and personal significance. “I’m interested in something that allows a closer reading of the music,” he says. “A closer relationship to the content. And I think they’re doing a beautiful job there at the Sefton room.”

The lighting is low, working alongside the deep green color of the walls to set a focused and intimate scene. “I just for some reason [felt] this color needs to be down here,” Skinner says. “I didn’t even know, when I was setting up for the wine shop, what exactly I was going to put downstairs.”

Finding the perfect flow

Listening rooms often have strict guidelines about phone usage and arrival times. But so many aspects of Sefton’s series evolved organically. Like the basement’s decor, acoustics turned out to be serendipitous. “We were really excited when we first heard sound down there,” Shultz says. “It’s a generous room.” The runtime is also a natural extension of Shultz’s own style. “I never play long sets,” he remembers saying to Chris Staples, the other half of the inaugural bill. “And Chris Staples was like, ‘I never play very long. Everyone’s always mad at me.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, me too. I hate playing a long time.’ So we both had our 30-minute sets, and it basically, on accident, made the perfect flow.”

“I love that it’s these shorter sets,” Skinner adds, “because you don’t have to commit to this huge thing when you’re tired — not just me, but anybody. You know it’s going to be beautiful, [and] it’s just two hours of your evening.”

Skinner came to value time differently during the pandemic. After closing the shop temporarily, she sold coffee from of the front of the store and set hours according to what felt right each day. “I would just literally only do what I felt I was able to do,” she says, “which would be like, ‘I’m going to open for two hours this morning. If that’s enough, that’s enough.’”

She’s carried that commitment forward. While regular hours returned, Skinner brushes off profit-minded recommendations to open Sefton Coffee earlier and close later, and the Listening Room’s schedule builds in a period of rest between the shop’s closure and when it’s time to set up wine and snack sales next door. As Skinner sees it, the resulting sense of poise is part of what makes the shows so enjoyable. “Everybody can feel that,” she says. “I think crowds can feel that you’re happy and relaxed.”

That’s not to say finances aren’t a concern. In the same way that Sefton Coffee adapted during the pandemic, Skinner and Shultz are hoping Sefton Supply can flex to keep Listening Room shows viable. They’re considering opening the basement up to a limited number of non-Listening Room shows, as well as meetings, classes, receptions and pop-ups. “The hardest part is trying to figure out how to actively go from something that’s working really well [to] generating income so that we can have this space always to use.”

Alan Parker and indie rock band Minor Poet will play January’s event, and there are plans for a Valentine’s Day market alongside the usual refreshments at February’s. Regardless of what comes next for the concert series, it’s sure to reflect the organizers’ drive to find harmony between work, life and music.

“David and Jennie-Mae have found exactly the right spirit,” Tim Bailey concludes. “It’s the spirit we need now.”

The next Sefton Listening Room will take place on Thursday, Jan. 19 at Sefton Supply Co. Alan Parker and Minor Poet will perform. Doors open at 6 p.m. and music starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at seftonsupply.com.