Outdoor Songs with Warm Indoor Hopes

I’ve always thought and considered live music to be a basic human need in people’s lives, at least once every week; or at least each month. When I say live music I mean the act of listening to music blossom from band or musician who causing the physical airwaves to reverberate and move your body and eardrums; not by thumbing the heart button on your smartphone during a live performance.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to play music during the summer of 2021 and am continuing to book shows for the rest of the year. It feels so good to get back into the clockwork motions of practicing, packing, unpacking, setting up the stage, and striking the first note.

I love watching people turn their heads in delight - not just because of me playing for them - but to watch them all remember how good live music feels for them while I play that first song. I’m not just writing this to highlight my personal joy of playing - it’s true according to my tip bucket. People are very happy about the normalcy live music delivers to their psyche.

All of my shows I booked for the summer and fall were outdoors at tap houses. We’ll see how things go during the winter for indoor shows. I’m cautiously optimistic things are around the corner, which I write while hoping that my family is done with the fear side of the issue - with my wife getting through COVID and our kids getting it as well during Labor Day Weekend 2021, with me not affected by it thanks to the Moderna shots.

I remember the last show I played during up to the lockdown of 2020. It was at the M&J Tavern in downtown Bend, Oregon on March 10, 2020. The news of the pandemic was out, but life was pretty much as normal as it ever was before. The kids were still in school, and hand washing was pretty much the only precaution advised. There wasn’t any news of the illness being in Bend or Central Oregon yet. The reporting of the virus cases was centralized in the Kirkland, Washington, at that unfortunate senior living center.

People weren't wearing masks, but there was  an ominous air of caution going around, and people seemed to know that this situation was only going to get worse and worse. When I was setting up for this last gig, there was plenty of hand washing stations and hand sanitizer bottles, but there wasn't that much information out there on how it spread or what was going on.

Shortly after that show, things changed very quickly. I didn't really pursue any other shows, as it just didn't feel right to get people together. Also, schools were shut down followed up by a statewide lockdown, so it wouldn’t have mattered if I had booked anything anyway. 

I have friends who were hit horribly by this issue. Live music was their main source of income, either from promoting their albums, or playing on a national concert tour that was  postponed and ended up getting cancelled.They also were local venue owners who needed to shut their doors, and pull the posters down that were promoting the shows they work so hard to secure. Also, let’s not forget about the very successful local and regional artists and musicians who you would see at venues around town and the stage on a routine basis. All of these folks are lot more centralized with music as profession, and all of them needed to get really creative to somehow keep on earning a living and relearn how to book and play a show again.

My optimism is showing again though. We’re going to be just fine.