Live performances essential for Fort Worth artists. Let’s safely let the music play
As if 2020 hasn’t caught up enough of life’s previously noncontroversial pleasures in its muck, the resumption of public concerts has recently come under fire from some within the Fort Worth music scene.
As a longtime professional musician who proudly calls Fort Worth his musical home — and often physical home, too — I’d like to offer a defense for the return of live music.
Understandably, the long-predicted COVID-19 autumn surge has many questioning the safety of public gatherings. While those at high-risk and those simply uncomfortable working in such an environment should not be forced to participate, pushing for a continued shutdown for all, among other problems, brushes aside (or entirely ignores) the widening socioeconomic damage and mental health challenges shutdown-policies are creating.
Dr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization said the organization advocated lockdowns only “to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted.
“But by and large, we’d rather not do it,” he said, citing the impact of increased poverty, particularly among the world’s poorest people.
Separately, an open letter titled The Great Barrington Declaration, authored recently by three epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, warns: “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health ... leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.”
The document specifically calls for the resumption of music and “other cultural activities.” It’s been signed by nearly 11,000 medical and public health scientists and over 30,000 medical practitioners. And the list is growing.
Detailing all the collateral damage from the response to COVID-19 is beyond my scope here, but as it pertains to live music, consideration of the mental health issue is critical.
For many that exist within it, the local music community is a life-affirming framework and network, a foundational pillar in the pursuit of happiness and meaning, and a powerful vehicle of catharsis. It’s as essential to mental health as nutritious food is to physical health.
Health and wellness require more than food, hydration and avoidance of disease. A person at high-risk of physical sickness is no more or less worthy of consideration than an individual susceptible to mental health problems. A one-size-fits-all response does a dangerous injustice to this reality.
Another current reality is that earning money is still necessary. A recent condemnation of the return of live music asserted that most performing musicians have other sources of income. This is an unqualified and dubious enough claim, and it overlooks the many musicians for whom performing music is their complete livelihood.
Professional or otherwise, the musician is part of an interdependent community of venue owners, booking agents, sound engineers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, door people and more, all of who have at least one mouth to feed and, presumably, bills to pay.
The payment of those bills is made possible by the other side of the community coin: the music-lovers, listeners, barflys, lonely-and-lookings, dancers, drinkers, and, to loosely riff on Ray Wylie Hubbard, the spenders of daytime-money.
Whatever the role of the community’s various individuals, for many, live music is essential.
And just as other industries have returned with precautionary measures to help create a safe environment, the music community has worked together to stay open and move forward in a responsible way. It can continue to do so.
The compassionate, practical and ethical way forward is not to force the reservations and objections of some onto all, but to allow each to consider the information in light of one’s own unique circumstances and constitution, then choose whether, how and when to participate.
Good health to all, and let the music play.