I don’t know about you, but I’m missing live music. I miss seeing and experiencing it, and I miss playing it. There’s nothing like the connection between an artist and their audience. When the songs hit and the connection is there, energy exists that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the universe.

I love what Todd Snider says many times about music helping us escape our impending doom…at least for 75 minutes. But, it’s easy to get lost in a concert or lost in a song. This will be the first year in a long time that I haven’t seen Bob Dylan somewhere along the way. He just released a new episode of the “Theme Time Radio Hour” on SiriusXM, so at least I’ve got that, but I still miss seeing His Bobness on the stage and being constantly amazed at the metamorphosis occurring before us.

Of course, there’s a good reason that we’re not seeing live music now. COVID-19 is serious and continues to be a serious issue that we all have to face. If we ever want to see live music again, we need to adhere to what the scientists are saying and wear a damn mask, social distance from people, and be responsible. It’s not an outlaw thing to do to avoid wearing a mask — it’s stupidity personified.

Live venues are hurting. Artists are facing financial crises. Crews are missing income. Music industry employees being laid off. It’s up to us, the people, if we want to get back to having live events again. In the meantime, check out artists that are performing virtually. If you have the means to do so, send them some money to their virtual tip jars. Contact your Congressperson about the bills out there designed to help support live venues.

When the pandemic first hit, i had a burst of songwriting that I hadn’t had in quite a while. I’ll be doing some live versions of those songs soon and releasing the videos here.

In the meantime, stay safe out there, take care of your love ones, and let’s look to see each other sometime soon down the road.

Peace.