Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge is a self-professed ’70s-inspired “dive,” with a modest stage and a less modest disco ball. The roughly 100-person venue shut down mid-March 2020, and stayed that way for five months because Nashville's capacity limits made it too costly to reopen.
Now that things are starting to open again, co-owners Amy Dee Richardson and Daniel Walker wish the city would step up and better support music venues.
"I would like to see some more help coming from the government in the observation that, 'Hey, we are Music City, so let's go ahead and protect our musicians, our artists and the venues that support those musicians more,'" Walker said.
So far, Nashville –– which is indeed known as Music City –– has not. That’s pushed Nashville's independent venues and musicians to try and navigate reopening on their own.
Musician Colleen Orender started playing at Dee's again to small audiences. She says the city didn't do enough to let people know that there are ways to safely see shows. "Music is a draw for everybody that comes to Music City, that's what we are called, so they should have figured that out first," Orender said.
The mayor's office said the local vaccine rollout should trickle down to benefit musicians and venues. But the city still lags behind the national average for vaccine rates.
Nashville does have a fund it uses every year to solicit ideas to bring visitors to Nashville. This year that fund, which comes from hotel taxes, is estimated to be about $2 million in size –– with fewer people stayed in hotels during the pandemic, the pot is smaller than usual. One idea from a local nonprofit group, Sow Good, is to have a concert series.
"This is Music City," said Sow Good board member Mark Eatherly. "Not only should we have recovery concerts, they should be the best recovery concerts in the world."
Some shoppers may have noticed that their grocery bills are higher lately. Prices for energy and used cars and trucks are also up . Jayson Lusk, head of the agricultural economics department at Purdue University, said that multiple factors have been pushing up food prices, including China purchasing more American products recently, more people driving and pandemic-related challenges in supply chains and workforces. Also, wages are up, although productivity has been growing faster than labor compensation for decades. "I expect inflation to probably continue for the next half a year, at least," Lusk said.
Olivia Rodrigo Tops Music Charts in Explosive First Week With 'Sour' - WSJ
Olivia Rodrigo has stormed the charts—hitting No. 1 with huge streaming numbers for an album that clinches her status as one of music's biggest new stars.
The Disney actress and pop singer-songwriter's debut album "Sour" tops the latest Billboard 200 chart, generating the equivalent of 295,000 in U.S. sales in the week ended May 27. It is the biggest week for a debut charting album since late 2014, when Billboard began including streaming in its flagship album-sales chart, the magazine said.
Bartlesville library offering free music streaming
The Bartlesville Public Library will offer patrons free music streaming beginning June 1 through an agreement with Freegal Music.
The library previously had CDs for checkout, but stopped, in part, because the CDs kept disappearing, library Director Shellie McGill said.
"Plus, there was such a complete lineup of different music, it was hard to decide what to carry. Now that there's streaming, we can offer it again. It's something a lot of libraries offer, and the community was reaching out to see if we would offer that service. … (Subscribing to the service) has been in our long-range plan for three years," McGill said.
Freegal offers access to a collection of 15 million songs, audiobooks and music videos from labels that include Epic, Sony Music, RCA and Columbia.
"We have locked into a two-year contract to see if it's something our community will use, and I think they will," she said.
Library leaders are also researching a new program exempting sales tax on equipment used to provide internet to underserved communities. Signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt on May 24, House Bill 2946 also establishes a $4,000 grant program for the equipment.
McGill said Bartlesville Public Library plans to apply. In October, the library used CARES Act funding to purchase 30 internet hotspots for checkout by patrons to extend internet access.
"The Music of Queen" with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra slated for Saturday, June 5.
We did two drive-in shows in Atlanta in the fall. We did the Bowie show on one weekend and Zeppelin the following weekend and that was it for 2020. We actually had two crews out in the middle of March of last year. One group was going to Kansas City and one was already in Denver. They were setting up for their show and the governor said, 'Oh, yeah, we're done. No events as of this moment.' They literally just looked up, packed up their gear, got on a plane and came home. I was scheduled to go to Kansas City for two Stones shows, so thankfully that governor shut it down before we got on the plane. I was ready to leave the house and head to the airport when I got the news.
We just started up again in early April. We did three shows in Oklahoma City but that was streamed. They had a few people in the audience, but it was limited to 25% capacity or something like that. They're short shows, you know, 65-minute shows. They didn't want people milling about in the lobby trying to get drinks and stuff like that. They weren't selling drinks or snacks or anything like that. They were just doing single shows, which is kind of what we're doing in Dayton. We're doing a single set rather than a full show but we're doing two of them, one at 6 and one at 8:30.
Oh, yeah, I believe 2009 was the first time we did it and it's hugely popular. We've been all over the world with it. They're one of the biggest bands ever, particularly in Europe. They're massive there but, I mean, they're huge here too. It's pretty amazing because we sell out show after show. The movie in 2018 helped big time. We exploded on top of what we were already doing. That was really crazy.
Not really, it was more so, 'What do I want to do next? Who is the next group we're going to do?' It was interesting because Sony sent me a note that said, 'Hey, we just signed Def Leppard to a publishing deal and they'd love for you to do the show.' So, our next show up will probably be Def Leppard. The guys in that band are obviously still out touring, but they're all excited we're actually going to be doing the show. It's always great to hear, 'We want you to do our music.' That's just fantastic.
It's slowly opening up. We've got six shows booked in June so that's good news. Now, our normal June is way more than that. In June 2019, we probably did 13 shows that month. We had zippo in 2020 so the fact we have six shows this June is fantastic. That's really good news. A lot of smaller orchestras couldn't actually afford to do streaming or to keep their staff on the payroll. They're just now getting back in the offices and trying to wind things back up and getting marketing and development on the way again. We're getting calls every day now as orchestras start coming back online and that's great.
BTS's 'Butter' Music Video Is The Biggest In The World By An Enormous Margin
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 26: V, Suga, Jin, Jungkook, RM, Jimin, J-Hope of musical group BTS ... [+] attend the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
No matter what metrics anybody looks at, one thing is clear: BTS's "Butter" is a massive hit on every platform it's available on. The track is racking up incredible streaming sums and is surely selling incredibly well, but it's on YouTube where the tune's official video is performing not just better than any other upload on the site, but leading the charge by a huge margin.
BTS's latest monster release is in a very, very distant first place among all the most popular videos on YouTube in the past week, as the title that winds up at No. 2, Jubin Nautiyal's "Lut Gaye," only managed to earn 41.4 million plays in the most recent tracking frame. That means the South Korean septet's new single beat the second-most-popular release on the platform this time around more than five times over.
As if coming in at No. 1 wasn't enough of a show of dominance for BTS, the band also debuts another new clip at No. 4 on the weekly ranking of the most popular videos on YouTube. The vocal act's performance of "Butter" at the Billboard Music Awards racked up an impressive 29.6 million plays, enough to make it the fourth-most-watched post of the week.
On Location: MEMPHIS Strike Gold with Virtual Music Competition
DJ Double M finds happiness in music despite visual challenges | wusa9.com
WASHINGTON — Music is a universal language. It helps get us through some tough times and brings us joy in the good times. It's the sounds of happiness from the audience that makes one D.C. Disc Jockey happy, despite any challenges he may face.
When DJ Double M is on the ones and twos, the crowd moves and grooves. He's the man behind the sounds, keeping folks on the dance floor.
"When I was very young. And coming up to a teenager. I tell everybody the radio was my best friend," John Colbert said.
Colbert has had a love for music for as long as he can remember. It's been a light for him in a world of darkness.
"I'm laughing because everyone always asks me that question and is surprised when I tell them no," Colbert said.
He lost his sight when he was 3 years old. He was born premature and doctors predicted this would happen. It was before he had a chance to learn colors, memorize faces, and see the world around him.
"It was so gradual, and I was such a young age that by the time it was totally gone, it wasn't a big deal to me," Colbert added.
"If I can play something that makes you feel good, makes you forget about some trouble for a while, then as far as I'm concerned, I've done what I'm supposed to do," Colbert said.
#GetUpDC , we're learning about the man behind the groove this morning! DJ Double M keeps folks on the dance floor, without ever seeing his audience. His inspiring story this morning on . @wusa9 #GetUplifted pic.twitter.com/ehn7F3phz2
Reopening of business is music to Las Vegas' ears - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper
Rick Springfield performs during a free concert Aug. 12, 2017, on the 3rd Street Stage at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas. From midnight Monday, May 31, until 4 a.m. Tuesday, June 1, the "Downtown Rocks Again!" event will feature eight acts on three stages as the city celebrates the reopening of business.
The countdown is an annual tradition in downtown Las Vegas on New Year's Eve. Three, two, one ... "Happy New Year!"
And, just like that, a new year with new opportunity awaits the tens of thousands of locals and visitors packed into the Fremont Street Experience to celebrate.
Downtown will host another, arguably more significant countdown tonight as the calendar flips to June 1, signaling the end of pandemic gathering restrictions in Clark County.
It seems only fitting that a recorded message from Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman will be played on the Experience's "Viva Vision" digital display canopy just prior to midnight. Goodman is a fixture at the downtown celebration on New Year's Eve.
In a statement sent to the Sun, Goodman said she is "excited" about Las Vegas being "fully open for business."
"You can feel the enthusiasm and energy building as more and more visitors are coming to our city," Goodman said. "People are ready to travel safely and have a good time, and there is no better place for that than Las Vegas."
On the heels of a Deadmau5 concert at the nearby Downtown Las Vegas Events Center on May 21 — a performance that drew about 10,000 spectators — the "Downtown Rocks Again!" event will feature eight acts on three stages.
The band lineup June 1 will include acts such as Alter Ego, Zowie Bowie, Rock Steady, Velvet Elvis, Spandex Nation and Crush. There will be no charge to enter the pedestrian mall area.
What Is Asian American Music, Really? | Pitchfork
For Wong, the concept of an "Asian American jazz" had crystalized several years earlier. At Stanford, he and a friend would discuss McCoy Tyner's Sahara , DownBeat's 1973 album of the year; its cover features Tyner holding a Japanese koto. "We'd talk about what an Asian American jazz would be like," he remembers. "Not just Asian Americans playing jazz standards—but what would we actually contribute?"
The Bay Area was especially ripe for cross-cultural exchange. The saxophonist John Handy, who rose to fame as a member of Charles Mingus' band, was playing gigs with the sitar player Ali Akbar Khan. The famous jazz district the Fillmore, known as the "Harlem of the West," bordered Japantown. Headlining the first Asian American Jazz Festival was the Afro-Asian quartet United Front—which, according to member Anthony Brown, was one of the first ensembles to incorporate traditional Asian instrumentation and sensibilities in a progressive jazz format, while also foregrounding lyrics that spoke directly to racial injustice. They integrated concepts of breathing and space that bassist Mark Izu had learned from studying gagaku, or ancient Japanese court music. "In gagaku, everyone takes a group pause called the ma," Izu says. "You can't monitor, like in Western music, whether you've added a sixteenth note."
When I was younger, I felt like "Asian American" was an itchy and cumbersome inheritance. I didn't know about the decades of activism and history; all I knew is that I didn't like having strict parents or being subjected to casual racism. I wanted to be spontaneous and brash, go to parties, express my political convictions, indulge in the fantasy of making serious art—and I didn't see that freedom as available to me. I was hungry for role models, any who could rattle the rigid, tyrannical ideas I'd absorbed about what Asian Americans were allowed to be. Over time, I've become wary of rhetoric that assigns too much radicalism to an artist's existence—they're visible; we are the same race; thereby I am empowered. There is plenty of music by Asian American artists that I find uninspired and even embarrassing.
If we say a piece of music makes us "feel seen," then we also owe it to ourselves to parse what about it is so invigorating, what it reveals to us about our own subjectivities. We should ask what new language it offers us, in the subtler details of rhythm, tone, metaphor, phrasing. I want more art, and our processing of it, to help assemble our personal experiences into something more than just isolated narratives. A persistent form of dehumanization against Asian Americans is the erasure of our longstanding involvement in this country, including its music. By looking to the past, and to each other, we might be able to strengthen our collective sense of belonging. We might recognize ourselves anew.
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