Could Greensboro’s music scene look like Austin? This group wants it to happen. | The music

Now, officials at the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation hope to do the same with the area’s live music scene.

They offered the details to 150 people gathered Wednesday night at One Thirteen Brewhouse & Rooftop Bar on North Greene Street. The event officially launched the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation’s “Live Music Vibe” initiative.

Mark Brazil — the former Wyndham tournament director who is now the foundation’s chief executive — and foundation president Bobby Long brought to town Mac McAnally, a 10-time Country Music Awards Musician of the Year who performs with Jimmy Buffett’s backing band The Coral Reefer. Bandaged.

On Wednesday night, they outlined plans for the music initiative — which the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed.

“This program will consist of three pillars: partnering with Mac McAnally on a singer-songwriter series, introducing up-and-coming musical artists to our region, and providing more opportunities for our local musicians” , Brazil told the crowd, according to a press release. “Some of the venues will be in bars, some in bigger clubs and some in outdoor festivals of varying sizes.

“Just like we did with the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour, we want to make a splash in the music industry.”

The initiative will feature music spanning a variety of genres.

The name of the entire effort has yet to be announced.

Among those in the crowd who praised the idea was Adam Paul. He is CEO of local Emmy Award-winning 7 Cinematics, a music video production and streaming company.

“Greensboro is the perfect city for these artists – songwriters, musicians, artists, sculptors and filmmakers,” Paul said in an interview.

McAnally saw how performing live music can help mark an artist.

“The pandemic has accentuated a few things that I think can play an advantage for this region, because the way music is monetized has totally changed in the last couple of years,” McAnally told the crowd, according to the release. Press. “In the 1950s, the recording industry was really just a promotional tool for the touring industry, and then the recording industry became bigger than the touring industry.

“Right now nobody’s buying records, so I actually think it’s good for the music itself that bands have to come out and relearn how to play live music.”

Long added, “For so many up-and-coming musicians, who have so much talent, and these guys have an eye for that talent, life gets in the way. They end up not being able to make that dream come true. They can’t get near Nashville or Austin, which are the two live music capitals of the world.

“We would like to create the third leg of this stool.”

Through its relationship with McAnally and Buffett, the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation will identify talented musicians and provide them with opportunities to perform in front of live audiences in high-quality venues across central North Carolina.

“More than anything,” Brazil said in an interview, “we want other cities in the southeast and across the country to say, ‘What’s going on in Greensboro in the Piedmont Triad?'”