The local music scene is ever-changing
For the final article of 2018 it seemed appropriate, if somewhat cliché, to take a look back at the past twelve months in the Chattanooga music scene.
The year started off with a benefit concert for a local personality. It would not be the last. The here takeaway isn’t that Chattanooga artists and musicians are perpetually in peril (they aren’t, but hard rain falls, sometimes.)
The real takeaway is that for all the good, the bad, and the ugly of our scene, the local arts community will not hesitate, differences be damned, to rally around a brother or sister in need.
Hip-hop, a vibrant and thriving aspect of the Scenic City for much longer than many people realize, finally started to garner the attention it has long deserved.
A number of important, rising stars making phenomenal albums, broader local media coverage, the work of Hip-Hop Cha, increased support from some larger venues, and a series of positive community outreach, education and showcase opportunities have exponentially raised the visibility, awareness and respect for the genre.
The Old Time Fiddlers Convention, a lost Chattanooga treasure, has returned for good thanks largely to the efforts of Matt Downer, another feather in the musical cap of a city that might have once forgotten how much it had to offer. Likewise, the Honest Pint’s annual “Paddy’s on the Parkway” celebration continues to expand, bringing more of Chattanooga’s favorite acts together in one place than any other event of the year with the possible exception of MainX24.
Chattanooga Girls Rock, the weeklong all-inclusive music boot camp for young girls has made its mark, shifting from the “is this going to work?” phase to established local institution. I especially look forward to the next few years when the first year alumni start forming a bumper crop of exciting new bands to write about.
The year saw a spate of releases from prolific groups like Monomath, Ashley and the Xs, Genki Genki Panic, Alex “I can play anything” Volz, Robin Grant, Lon Eldridge, Matt Downer, and many more. In fact, a list of local bands and solo artists who produced multiple new releases in the past year would be too long to list here.
Suffice it to say that our local artists (I’m still not cool with the term “creatives”) are bringing an energy and work ethic to the scene that didn’t exist 25 years ago. Stagnation and boredom are a thing of the past and by all metrics will remain so.
A combination of new venues, reimagined old venues, real investment, and audience support have seen bigger name national acts adding Chattanooga to their itinerary, something utterly unheard of even ten years ago.
My love for and support of the local music scene must at times seem hagiographic, but understand it wasn’t always so. When I arrived here a quarter century ago from a place that already had a well-established, thriving scene, the outlook was bleak.
A host of promising venues came and went in the blink of an eye while older, former powerhouses closed up shop leaving only a handful of bars and performance halls who weren’t taking any risks.
That is how it was in the early nineties and more than a few promising artists left for presumably greener pastures. For those of us that remained, the scene has evolved and continues to do so, gaining momentum year after year and it’s a beautiful thing to have witnessed firsthand.
Younger groups and new comers will still grouse about a perceived lack of opportunity and pay, and not without a small degree of merit, but compared to similar sized cities, Chattanooga not only holds its own, it has leaped ahead of the pack and shows no sign of slowing down as we move in to 2019.
It is the nature of the music business that there is a high rate of attrition, due in no small part to often unrealistic expectations. Call it nature’s way of weeding out the ones who lack the mettle for a life that is more challenging than it appears to the folks who aren’t living it.
Still, from the perspective of a frayed edge musician whose start came playing for beer in the kind of roadside dives with bullet holes in the walls, there has never been a better time to be a musician or artist, or a fan for that matter, in Chattanooga and the future looks brighter than ever.