Andrew Barrack is going live on the RadCraft Industry Relief Zoom chat this week!
I’m excited that I get this opportunity to work with Andrew, not just because he’s a great musician but also because he’s such a critical thinker. Behind-the-scenes, I’ve had the pleasure of picking his brain over a series of calls and Zoom chats in preparation for this presentation.
Andrew is committed to getting it right—sure he’s going to nail his songs, but more importantly he’s got a message for us that gives a voice to an often forgotten part of the community: musicians.
In the craft barley space, musicians often reside in the fringe as entertainers at events or occasional collaborators. They’re often forgotten in the bigger picture too, Andrew reminds me. Live music is a luxury; Venues are an amusement. Pandemic or not, these are easy components of our lives to give up on a budget— wants, not needs.
Musicians and owners of independent venues have needs too, though, and Andrew tells me he’d like to shed light on these artists that we often take for granted in the corner of the beer festival.
NIVA, a new coalition of independent venues, reported to Rolling Stone on earlier this month that 90 percent of its 1,300 member venues report they do not have cash on hand to last more than six months without federal intervention, and just over half of them say they do not have enough to last more than three months. Pretty wild when you consider this is just a sampling of the venues in the United States, and even wilder when you compare these stats to the 30 percent of brewing company that reported to the Brewers Association in April that they would shutter if forced to shut down for more than three months. As breweries are granted permission to re-open slowly, independent venues have no re-opening plan in sight.
“Can you imagine a world where the only venues were big box?” Barrack asked me in one of our conversations. We’re discussing how independent music related to craft beer, but sometimes he’s so passionate that he makes me feel like we’re solving worldwide dilemmas. “I would rather pay a little bit more to see one of my favorite bands in an intimate venue than a huge stadium with a half dome. We’re losing iconic venues to Coronavirus.”
If your brewery or distillery was focused on music before pandemic, Andrew can’t stress enough the importance of staying committed to relationships with bands. “You’ll have to get creative,” he says, “but if you had live music rock the livestream, or find another way to keep moving.”
Listen to Andrew Barrack’s tunes, and get his industry relief insight this Thursday, May 21 at 3pm MTN on the RadCraft Industry Relief Zoom chat.
(Zoom Meeting; Password: 223518)
Check out Andrew Barrack’s new CD In Seasons, available on Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, Apple Music, and Soundcloud. Cheers to indie music and beer!
— Emily Hutto, RadCraft Founder & CEO