To many, 2020 will go down in their memories as The Year Without Music. For those whose living is playing music, it’s been financially devastating – the same goes for other businesses that are dependent on music – venues, staging services, backline services, sound production and recording.
For semi-pro musicians, it’s a financial hit, but not to the extent of the real pros.
Beyond the financial concerns, though, there’s the emotional and spiritual void left when the music habits we’ve nurtured over the years are rudely disrupted. The powerful joy of playing music with friends, or playing it on stage, or going to see bands play live music – we feel suddenly and powerfully bereft.
But at least two things are helping.
One is, the imaginative ways musicians and organizations have sought to (at least partially) fill the void. Artists are streaming their music and their performances online. Communities and organizations are working to present fresh music to patrons hungry for the live arts. The CBA has stepped up big time in this regard with livestream events and their Turn Your Radio On program . Ray Edlund and others have been posting great pictures of bluegrass stars from their archives. There’s a Facebook group for Winterland, the old music venue in San Francisco, and they’re posting amazing photos of shows from the past.
This leads to the second thing that’s helping us get through our “Year Without Music” – music has incredible staying powers. Even deprived of our full on musical fix, the echos of past shows, experiences and performances still resonate within us.
Quite recently, I had someone come up to me and say “Hey, you’re that guy from that band, right”? Of course, the answer to that question is yes. He went on to thank me for the shows he’d seen, and how he thoroughly enjoyed the music scene in our town. Even after 9 months of “silence” on the music scene, the pleasure he got from those experiences still affected him.
My emotional response to seeing Ray’s photos and the Winterland photos online reminds me that I am still benefiting from music I encountered years ago. I suspect this is true for most folks, if they think about it.
It’s tough to say what the post-pandemic music scene will be like. It’ll never be exactly as it was – our way of life has been altered to some degree and there’ll be a vacuum from venues that failed due to the pandemic. But art always finds a way, and I look forward to being involved in creating that future – you should look forward to your participation too!
