The Steel Guitar Forum

So starting today all the bars are shut down according to the Governor because of the "19". They opened up, had a super spike in cases and are now down again. Who knows how long it will be this time. I think they will be over cautious in re-opening.
Musicians, get ready for a long dry spell! Hopefully, we all will survive. We have fellow musicians here in Austin that will be in dire straights shortly.(money wise) If you see a post anywhere that is asking for a donation, give what you can even if it is $1.
I am fortunate to have a real day job and will survive just fine. Others are not so fortunate.
In the meantime, keeping the chops up is difficult but
doable.
Good luck to all, Stay Safe!!!

The same thing happened here in Arizona last night.
We are shut down again for 30 days here now -
bars & gyms..
Ron

I have an adjunct college teaching job that only pays during the fall and spring when I teach, and I depend on gig and private lesson money (and savings) to get me through the summer. Well the 7 or 8 gigs and the 40 or so private lessons every month aren't happening now, so I am really feeling it. Even when we did get to play a little bit when the bars reopened we didn't make even close to what we used to. Might have to sell off some gear to make it through the summer, dire straights indeed.

Here in Colorado too.Bars shut down,but protestors can still block the freeway.....

@Jordan- if you can,try to avoid selling gear.With the lack of gigs, our work tools' value will be as compromised as that of our work-- I recall reading that during WW2 Duesenberg, Cord, and Pierce-Arrow cars got donated for scrap right along with the Model T's.

The bars in Texas only have to shut down if 50% of their revenue is from booze. If they charged more for seeing the band they can stay open.

Same here in California.. I wish all the best of luck.. we have a tough road ahead of us!

Shut Nashville back down effective tomorrow the 3rd.

I hope a decision gets made to shut EVERYTHING down in the whole country for the next 3 months, so we can finally get a real handle on this virus. This state by state open/closed/open/closed nonsense obviously isn't working. We were closed here in PA from mid-March, and now that it's time for us to reopen, the states that didn't take it seriously are screwing things up. The virus doesn't care about borders.

Wear a damned mask........and just stay home unless you HAVE To go out.

Unfortunately if your living depends on live performance, it is time now to start pivoting to some other way of making a living. There may never be a vaccine. And even if by some miracle they develop one in the next year, reports are there is already a more infectious mutation of the virus starting up. Get a real estate license. Start teaching. Go back to school. Start a business. Something. But waiting around for some miracle is just going to put you further and further behind the eight ball. And if you are counting on herd immunity, think again. Not only would millions need to die, those that survive are going to be living with long term health issues for years if not for the rest of their lives which is a nightmare for our future health care system.

In life, those that adapt and change, survive. Those that don’t, don’t. Reece Anderson built a construction company and of course MSA. None of it is going to be fair, fun, or easy.

A shutdown will not work. When you flatten the curve, you extend the curve. There are still just as many people under the curve. A lock down is not a cure. What they are not telling is that with the spike in infections the deaths have plunged. They keep saying they are waiting for a vaccine but that has never happened on any virus yet. It takes years to even create a reliable test. When the politics of this are over it will go away.

Deaths always trail a spike. And if there are no beds, it doesn't matter what you have: car crash, heart attack, liver failure: no beds means you are collateral damage. And while there is some evidence that our hospitals are having some success in reducing deaths, the true cost is the health issues for those that survive: scarred lungs, liver and kidney damage, PTSD, hallucinations, brain fog, loss of eyesight are all the perhaps permanent cost of this disease. The virus doesn't care about your politics. It just wants to feed and spread and it will continue to feed and spread as long as there is a host to receive it.

Get used to it. Clubs, bars, and brewpubs have been closed for three months here in Mass. I haven’t played a gig since early March. Just starting to come out of it now with a few outdoor gigs with social distancing and masks. The virus keeps moving around the country in waves because each state has it’s own rules. We won’t get rid of this until we have a nationwide plan. The virus does not recognize state lines.

The virus has varied effects on various people. True, some die, some have serious long-term aftereffects as Bill says. But others bounce back well. Not every person gets all the symptoms either - for example I have heard of those who never develop the fever.

Since obviously none of us knows how WE will fare, nobody wants to find out the hard way. It needs to be taken seriously, but we don't need to cower in terror either. Wear a mask, keep distance where possible, wash your hands, and use common sense.

We have 2 daughters, with their respective husbands, who have all 4 of them been working all along. We have a niece who is a nurse ON A COVID WARD, who has been working through it. None of them have been infected yet.

I can appreciate the desire and need for caution. But I think it's overly pessimistic to expect a worst-case scenario for all of us.

I agree with you Don. No one should cower in terror. And certainly some will fair better than others. But I think the days of going back to live music with crowded bars isn't coming back for a long long time and people need to prepare for that eventuality.

I think the days of going back to live music with crowded bars isn't coming back for a long long time and people need to prepare for that eventuality.

I agree, Bill. I had about 30 summer gigs on my calendar this year, but most everything is crossed off now... the fairs, the clubs. I'll be playing a few outdoor gigs, town concerts and breweries with social distancing.

All of you are totally correct. Living in fear is not the answer. Being cautious is a very good plan. Please DO NOT treat this as a hoax, it is real, I have had 2 people I know die from it.
The main grocery stores here have made it mandatory for face masked to get in, yet people ignore that. There is a fine ($300) but who will enforce it? No-one that I can see.
I am playing some outdoor gigs where the tables are 30 feet or so from the stage. I have a lot of sympathy for those that have nothing to fall back on.
They better find another avenue to make money.
I have a friend of a friend, that hired 20 new people in anticipation of a 4 of July celebration with social distancing, the new rules shut them down and she laid off all 20. The trickle down effect is going to get worse before it gets better. This is not doomsday, (yet) there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Hope it is not a train!

The decision to reopen and attend bars appears to have been an unwise one.

There have been a few outdoor music events here in the last month or so, but the venues sponsoring them have been served with cease and desist orders from the local business council. Not sure what kind of legal enforcement authority they have - possibly liquor license revocation. The county sherif seems to care less; maybe he has no legal authority on it either.

There will be a large outdoor annual Peddler’s Fair in town this weekend that I was scheduled to play both days. I canceled two months ago and don’t regret it, the way things are turning out here. Not accepting any gigs at this time might put me out of the race for a while, but hopefully I will still be around to have a choice if and when the time comes to make one.

My last regular gig was in late February. Everything from early-mid March onward was canceled. I had 12 gigs that had been booked as of 12/31/2019, for between March and August. Without this pandemic, we would have booked an additional 10-15 shows through the summer, and then another 10-15 through the fall. But of course nothing is happening now. I don't know any musicians here that have played "regular" in-person gigs, nor do I know of any planned.

There are a few spotty outdoor things going on here. We recorded a live stream (from one of our back yards) for a local music festival last Friday. Doing a live stream next Friday for the local arts fest, which has been canceled in-person, but they'll do live remote feeds from 10 bands playing outside at their own locations. Then I have an outdoor, socially distanced, gazebo gig in Bellefonte on the 26th. But I think indoor gigs are out for the forseeable future. Restaurants and even bars here are open, but it's heavy social distancing and definitely no bands anywhere. No law against it, but nobody's doing it.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think it's wishful thinking that we're gonna get "back to normal" anytime soon. I chart out the numbers once a week, and the overall situation has in fact been getting better, with the caveat that numbers started increasing a few weeks ago in some places and that continues. Politicians and other partisans have all been trying to spin what's causing this to their political advantage. But I think the short answer is that nobody really knows what's causing this spike, and causes may vary by location. A lot of things have happened since late May and June that may well have contributed and it may be hard to sort it out completely.

All that said - I think activities will continue to be gradually ramped up in areas if there's evidence that things are not getting seriously worse at their local level. It is impossible to quarantine the entire planet forever, and a fool's errand to try. In fact, many people have been working right through this - somebody has to keep the critical supply chains and services going.

So I think we're in "you pack your own parachute" territory. Nobody can really stop [editorial] "you" from going out and playing crowded bars if they're permitted and you're hell-bent. People who come to gigs - well, that's their choice too. But I think that people who engage in risky activities should stay away from people in the higher covid-19 risk groups. No visiting older parents, grandparents, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living centers, people with heart/lung/kidney issues, and so on. We are mostly free to go about our business, but our rights stop right where they infringe on others'.

In Idaho, back on June 5th or 6th, 10 young adults contracted (and/or spread) Covid, traced to four bars in downtown Boise, bars popular with the college crowd. Within two weeks the number that was traced grew to 69 cases, and a few more bars made the list of “hits”.

Now Idaho is in the red category of 50% growth per day of Covid cases.

Like it or not, crowded bars spread Covid. I really miss playing at my local watering hole, but I certainly understand why it is shut down. It is not government over-reach (IMO) to try and isolate, test, and trace this disease.

I have a sneaky suspicion that I know why it is spreading ... if you don't, well maybe you are part of the problem?

Then you are smarter than me. It doesn't look like the protests added much. A lot of protests here in New York and no particular uptick in cases. In fact, I haven't seen any correlation between places where the virus is spiking and the protest movement, mainly they say because they were out doors and most people wore masks.

Centers with spikes all seem to align with opening of bars and restaurants and in places were mask wearing isn't as wide spread. If anything, the protests seem to highlight the importance of wearing masks. If those crowds didn't become super spreaders, the main reason seems to be most wore masks.

sneaking suspicion (plural sneaking suspicions) A premonition, or hunch. A belief based on little evidence.

I can think of a few bars I wouldn't mind closing down here in the Midwest. Example in case: A bar I was in last night , The patrons are way too smart to wear masks, zero social distancing, hours together huddled around the bar, shouting and laughing, 30-40 patrons on and off during the early evening, 5pm to 8 pm. There were 100 feet of tables available in a dance hall dining room area, with bar service, and these guys preferred to huddle around the bar with zero social distancing. This particular group of patrons openly questioned the veracity of information being provided by the health authorities about the virus, talking about "not being sure about this Virus Thing" The television was blaring and it screamed CORONA CASES SOAR IN THE US; 50,000 in one day. Only the employees were using masks. I just couldn't believe my eyes. Some guys like 80 years old came in with masks, because you can't enter even a Walmart without a mask, but they put their masks away when they saw that the majority - everybody else - was not using the mask. At least these guys made use of the ample room available and sat away from the crowded bar at one of the 25 otherwise empty tables.
I am an employer, and I have to comply with work hazard rules, I could never do this to the people who trust me. I won't be crying very hard if the bars get shut down again. I won't need an explanation either about why its necessary.

Looks like we got Pearl Harbored again. Who’s gonna build the next one?

It's so sad to watch people.....especially older folks who are especially at-risk......make a simple issue complicated:

The places that have worn masks, socially distanced and been very careful and slow to "open" are doing very well and improving.

The places that don't follow those simple protocols are getting worse, and more people are getting sick and dying because of it.

Look, I get it. I play guitar and sing for my living. Right now, I should be doing 5-7 lucrative gigs a week at country clubs and pool parties. I've got squat. I'm DYING to play......

......but, ya know, not literally, luckily.

Stay safe and sane, kids. Please.