Jerry Hines: On the Invisible Work That Makes a Music Career Possible
By Jay Franze Fans see the lights. They hear the songs. They cheer when the artist walks on stage. What they rarely see are the hundreds of decisions, and dozens…
Archers Gate (Annie’s Music Center, Cincinnati, OH) 6/27/26
Archers Gate, Saturday, June 27, 2026 , Annie’s Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio Sometimes the concert experience begins long before the first note is played. Leaving the house Saturday evening, I immediately…
Paul Sidoti: Believes the Song Always Comes First
By Jay Franze Some guitar players spend their careers trying to be noticed. Paul Sidoti has spent his making sure the audience notices someone else. That may sound like an…
The Dreamboats (Veterans Park Amphitheater, Springfield, OH) 6/18/26
The Dreamboats , June 18, 2026 , Summer Arts Festival Veterans Park Amphitheater, Springfield, Ohio. Sometimes the best concert nights start with a little uncertainty. I left home around 5:00 PM on a…
The Dreamboats: Aren’t Playing Oldies. They’re Rebuilding Live Entertainment.
By Jay Franze There’s an unwritten rule in live music: if your audience spends more time watching the show through their phone than actually reacting to it, you’ve probably lost…
Stephen Quinn: Is Building a Country Career One Opportunity at a Time
The music business has a strange habit of making years of preparation look like a few minutes of opportunity. A three-minute audition. One song in a Nashville recording studio. A…
Trey Calloway (The Local, Nashville, TN) 6/5/26
By the time Friday night rolled around, CMA Fest had already done its best to remind me that I’m not twenty-five anymore. After spending Thursday bouncing between artist meetings, live…
Darryl Worley (3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN) 6/4/26
The first official day of CMA Fest always feels a little like the first day of school. Everyone is excited, everyone is running on too little sleep, and Nashville suddenly…
Stephanie Rabus: Has Spent a Lifetime Refusing to Give Up on the Dream
At 11 years old, Stephanie Rabus underwent open-heart surgery. Thirty-three years later, she found herself dealing with her heart again. And somewhere between those two moments, she built a life…