“We’re sorry, the number you have dialed has been disconnected or is no longer in service. Please hang up and try your call again ...”

Telephone companies have an uncanny way of emphasizing failure. Callers are likely to hear this fatalistic message for one of two reasons — either they haven’t dialed the right number, or, in the case of KarrTunz, Sylva’s largest private music venue to date, the business they were trying to reach has gone under.

It isn’t the latest news. KarrTunz has been closed for a little over four months, and to most, it died without so much as a whisper. Over the course of its five-month lifespan, KarrTunz’s business declined, eventually dropping off altogether, and owner/operator Art Karr could no longer afford the rent.

“We definitely had a lot of bands that were interested in playing here. We had bands, really good bands, from L.A., from New York, from Florida who wanted to play here, and as far as I know, all of them really enjoyed it,” Karr said. “I mean, we had the best stage anywhere around here, we installed a shower and washer and dryer for touring bands who wanted to play here. We tried to make it as band friendly as we could. But even though we had a lot of band interest, we didn’t have a lot of fan interest.”

Fan interest is a commodity that has long been in short supply in Sylva. Since the early 1990s, venues have started and failed, often opening their doors to an enthusiastic public, only to see attendance drop off to next to nothing.

City Lights’ coffeehouse used to garner a respectable crowd in the late 1990s, as folksy duos and singer/songwriter types set up for Friday and Saturday night shows. However, the shows went by the wayside with the remodeling project that became Spring Street Café.

A large and ambitious venue called Crossroads, rivaling the likes of KarrTunz in scale, was opened in the late 1990s by a group of local doctors. The venue made a short run of it, but ultimately failed to draw regular crowds. In the end, it wound up relying on income from food sales rather than cover charges.

Ron Fisher, a local doctor affiliated with Crossroads, said the reason for the clubs failure ultimately lay in finances.

“Crossroads closed for multiple reasons, the biggest I guess was that the outgo of money was sufficiently greater than the income, and it just ran out. You really have to have a substantial supply of income to keep you going for a couple of years,” Fisher said.

Crossroads would close before Western Carolina University’s large-scale concerts such as the Cullowhee! Arts Fest and pop stars like Michelle Branch would be advertised for months prior to show time, only to fail to even come close to selling out.

Despite this somewhat sordid musical history, Sylva still seemed the perfect location for Karr’s alcohol-free, smoke-free, youth-geared, rock venue KarrTunz. KarrTunz opened in Jackson Plaza in June of last year, and in the beginning, Karr was convinced he could hold on.

“I thought Sylva would be a good location. I thought we could draw crowds from the surrounding area, like Bryson City, Franklin and Waynesville,” Karr said. “Instead of driving to Asheville, they could come up to Sylva to see live music. But I guess they just didn’t want to make the drive.”

Facing a $2,200 a month rent payment plus the overhead of simply running a business, Karr chose to shut down.

“Sylva’s not a town that’s going to draw 100 people three nights a week, every week, and that’s at least what they needed to get by, and as far as I know they never made a dime in profit,” said Jeff Atkins, Karr’s volunteer booking agent.

However, profit is something that shouldn’t be expected, said Karin Kimenker, who co-owns Soul Infusion Tea House and Bistro with her husband, Jason.

“I guess we’ve made it because we never expected to make any money,” Kimenker said. “And if we do charge a cover, we give 100 percent of that to the band. Our philosophy is that the band is bringing business to us. And besides that, most of the music we offer is free.”

Soul Infusion is an exception on Sylva’s musical landscape. Though it isn’t a “venue” by an exact definition — the primary focus is an organic restaurant — Soul Infusion offers up live music on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as Thursdays in the summer. Acts generally focus on bluegrass and traditional music, singer/songwriter types and occasional forays into blues, funk and jazz.

Part of Soul’s appeal is its intimacy — indoor seating capacity maxes out at 50, while the outdoor stage area can hold 150 — the availability of beer and wine, and the business’ role as a community hang out even when music’s not playing.

“We wanted to create a place unlike any other ... a place where people could come together for tea, to share their experiences with each other, meet new friends, listen to some great music, play a game of Chess, eat some healthy food, or just a place to kick-back and relax with a cup of tea and a good book,” reads the Kimenkers’ mission statement.

Despite the closure of KarrTunz, Atkins began looking for a new place to give it another go. At the top of his list was In Your Music in downtown Sylva.

“We wanted In Your Ear because we wanted something in Sylva. We didn’t want to put it in Waynesville, and we didn’t really want to mess with Asheville because it’s too far away,” Atkins said. “We wanted something local to us. And of all the places, we figured that it seemed like In Your Ear would be a good fit. They’re a music store, so therefore they already have a vested interest, and they have an upstairs that they’re not using for anything. It’s open, it’s already in downtown, it’s a good location, it just seemed like a very logical choice.”

Logical, but not entirely for sale. When Atkins approached Lauren Calvert, owner of In Your Ear music, with his idea, she was hesitant. Thinking that Calvert’s dedication would be to the music, not to the money, Atkins was put off when Calvert’s questions came from a business standpoint.

“It’s not about making money, because no one’s going to get rich. There’s no point in even trying. That’s not what it’s about,” Atkins said. “And the problem with a lot of people who try to do something like this is that they just don’t get it. People tend to see us as a bunch of kids with dollar signs on our faces. For them it’s a business; we do it because we love it.”

However, loving it doesn’t pay the bills. To make the second floor of In Your Ear a viable music venue, Calvert said, she would be required to hold liability insurance, allow for handicapped accessibility, and have someone on hand to guard the store, as there’s no separation between the stock and the upstairs entrance.

“I’ve thought about it, and we’ve thought about it in the past, and there are a lot of reasons we haven’t done it and probably wouldn’t do it,” Calvert said.

“You just add it up. There’s quite a bit of overhead to make a productive show. It’s tough to make a living at it. I don’t really need a place for kids to hang out, I need a place to make me money. I’m not into babysitting anymore, I’ve done that before and I’m through with it,” said Calvert.

So the search continues — a search driven by esoteric, if not utopian, ideals.

“We’re trying to inspire people to realize that they have whatever they have inside of them and that’s all that it takes for them to be what they want to be and to do what they want to do,” Atkins said. “All you need to know is that you can do it. You don’t have to buy it, it doesn’t have to be sold to you, and it doesn’t come from someplace else.”

The faith, however, seems to be catching on.

“We don’t really care about money or glory or any of that shit,” said John Henry Gloyne, a tattoo artist at Mean Machines in Barker’s Creek and vocalist for Sylva band Libianca, who has joined Atkins’ search for a new in place to play. “I just want other kids like me to feel important and empowered. A lot of them were raised to think that playing music is just a pipe dream, but really, anybody can play music. All you need is yourself.”