NEW YORK (AP) - A historic New York City music club that nurtured Bruce Springsteen's early career is closing.

Willie Nile and the Smithereens are the headliners Monday night at the Kenny's Castaways farewell show.

Nile tells The New York Times that he recognized a young man with a scruffy beard sitting at the bar one night in the early 1970s. It was Springsteen, who had just released his first record, "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J."

Nile was signed to Arista Records in 1980 after impressing record executive Clive Davis with a set there.

The Fugees, Patti Smith and Yoko Ono have also performed at the club.

Co-owner Maria Kenny says the club's rent in Greenwich Village more than doubled in the last five years.