All You Need Is An iPhone … And Talent

Think of what Elvis had to do to get to a national audience, or The Beatles in German clubs and a sweaty basement The Cavern. Now artists can hit a button and go live to the world for free via Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and Instagram Stories. An iPhone (the new one that has amazing cameras and built in microphones) is all you need. This week, as the music world began shutting off the real world, the virtual world became more important than ever.

Brad Paisley sang with Carrie Underwood live with perfect social distancing. They sang their duet hit, “Remind Me,” Brad with his acoustic guitar at his studio board and Carrie in her kitchen. No earpieces or monitor mixes, they just did it, and it sounded crazy good.

Hard times create some amazing things. Luke Combs debuted 20 minutes of new music from his garage, and Keith Urban played from his equipment storage warehouse.

As we are post St. Patrick’s Day, things are closed or are closing. The party is over, even for the spring breakers.

It’s hard for the actors to act, but the superstar musicians like John Legend and Paisley have the raw talent to pull this off.

Anyone can do it. Baby acts should be all over this. Use the 2020 technology to do something different.

Those lower Broadway honky tonks in Nashville reluctantly closed, with Dierks Bentley stepping up first to give $1,000 to each of his 90 bar employees. Florida Georgia Line and John Rich provided financial support to their respective bar employees too. It’s the right thing to do.

The Grammy charity arm is cranking up. It’s time for everyone to join together virtually. The internet is not a luxury. Al Gore may not have invented it, but it should be available to everyone in high speed. That is not the case for a lot of rural America. This needs to be fixed.

You might have seen where Netflix was asked to throttle down it streaming speeds for Europe. The internet was never designed to be used like it is being used. This mysterious next phase of cell phones is still years away for many.

The internet changed the music business after it nearly ruined it. This unfolding pandemic should cause everyone to review life in general. Will movie theaters ever come back?

This medical emergency has taken out every major motion picture release for the next five months. New albums, tours, award shows, festivals … everything is scrubbed or postponed.

Gig workers, techs, club musicians and symphony musicians are all grounded. Those wannabe groups and singers, even the ‘Idol’ and ‘Voice’ contestants are done for now. It’s a horror show.

Garth Brooks told his fan we will all get through this together. Let’s pray this ends soon.

It is time for the greatest stars to be the greatest stars in every way they can. Do what you do. Perform – safely -- on the internet. Lets just hope it holds up. Thirty-four minutes into Brad’s online gig the internet at my house crashed. It can’t handle everyone on here at once.

I hope someone is taking notes on what needs to be fixed after we get out of this mess. In the meantime, wash your hands, and stay home!