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The Long Point String Band plays during The Great Beckley Beer Festival in 2021.file photo by Tina Laney/for The Register-Herald
file photo by Steve Keenan/The Fayette TribuneThomas Danley, lead vocalist and lead guitarist with Beckley-based Danley Band, performs the Star-Spangled Banner at the outset of the group’s show Saturday during the Oak Leaf Festival in Oak Hill in 2021. Danley was joined by bandmates Tommy Acord, guitar and backing vocals; Jason Brown, bass; and Jarvis Williams, drums.
Matt Mullins, with the Bringdowns band, warms up before live streaming a song from his front porch on Prince Street in Beckley.(Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald)
Thomas Danley with the Thomas Danley Band. Submitted Photo
Long Point String Band. Submitted Photo
Matt Mullins, of Beckley, sings at Friday in the Park at Jim Word Memorial Park on Neville Street in Beckley. Friday in the Park is every Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. until Aug. 26, offering food and live entertainment at the gazebo. file photo by Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald
The Long Point String Band plays during The Great Beckley Beer Festival in 2021.file photo by Tina Laney/for The Register-Herald
file photo by Steve Keenan/The Fayette TribuneThomas Danley, lead vocalist and lead guitarist with Beckley-based Danley Band, performs the Star-Spangled Banner at the outset of the group’s show Saturday during the Oak Leaf Festival in Oak Hill in 2021. Danley was joined by bandmates Tommy Acord, guitar and backing vocals; Jason Brown, bass; and Jarvis Williams, drums.
Matt Mullins, with the Bringdowns band, warms up before live streaming a song from his front porch on Prince Street in Beckley.(Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald)
Thomas Danley with the Thomas Danley Band. Submitted Photo
Long Point String Band. Submitted Photo
Matt Mullins, of Beckley, sings at Friday in the Park at Jim Word Memorial Park on Neville Street in Beckley. Friday in the Park is every Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. until Aug. 26, offering food and live entertainment at the gazebo. file photo by Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald
Everyone’s leisure time changed drastically due to Covid lockdown rules.
Before the pandemic, a popular way to spend that time was to enjoy live local music. Most simply adapted and found other things to do while staying home. But what about those local musicians? Leisure time was their business hours, and all that disappeared for them overnight.
Covid caused a wide range of issues for local musicians, and it seems, after gathering the facts, that different types of music might have been affected differently.
The Long Point String Band is a local four-man acoustic group that blends the authenticity of old-time mountain music with the flare of bluegrass. Brian Bell, guitarist and vocalist, said it was tough making the adjustment from playing several shows every month to playing none at all.
“It felt like it all happened in a matter of seconds,” he said. “My band mates became part of my pandemic bubble, and we tried to keep our vibe going by practicing together all we could.”
Recent technology enabled them to offer some quality live streaming shows during the lockdown, allowing people to log on and tip them via PayPal and other electronic platforms. They also used the down time to learn several new songs.
“Our sound got really tight during the lockdown, and we all tried our best to have a great time with it.”
The band had recorded a live album in 2019 at the Weathered Ground Brewery and ended up releasing it during the pandemic, available online only.
They took Covid seriously and continued to lay low for some time after restrictions began to ease up. All the band members were lucky enough to have regular jobs, so music wasn’t their only source of income.
“We didn’t jump back into the ring really strong until mid-summer 2021,” Bell said. “It was strange getting back into the scene, and the crowds just weren’t there yet.”
That changed for them in 2022 when they decided to come out of the gate strong.
“Fans were and still are hungry for live music,” Bell said. “Lots more events were scheduled this year and they have all been well attended.”
Some musicians had a very different experience.
Clinton Scott and Chris Huddle are the Untrained Professionals and have been playing together since 2018. They play their own unique takes on popular songs that we all know, as well as many originals. Huddle only had a part-time job when restrictions were put into place, and Scott’s entire income was generated from playing music.
They took the Facebook world by storm during the pandemic by live streaming at least one show per week, and sometimes two.
“It was mind-blowing how generous people were with us,” Scott said. “We were close to tears after the first FB live show, and we realized how much support we had.”
The duo said that this and a few stimulus checks kept the bills paid until things started opening up.
“We also took the opportunity to practice more songs, and even wrote some new originals,” said Scott.
The Untrained Professionals remember how frustrating it was as restrictions started to ease up. The rules were changing from week to week, and booking a show was nothing short of mass confusion.
“For a while, there were no guarantees for anything,” Huddle said. “People stopped watching our FB shows because they were allowed to go out to dinner, movies, and sporting events, but we still weren’t permitted to do what we do for a living.”
There was a time when restrictions required playing behind sheets of plexiglass to a crowd that was 20 or more feet away. “Even though you are looking through a clear barrier, it made us feel isolated from the crowd, and much less personal,” Huddle said. “But we understood that people were tired of looking at their phones and were ready to get out into the world, so we adapted.”
There were even a few venues that, because of their designs, the two had to play facing outside, with their fans behind them.
“It was a really frustrating time, because restrictions allowed basketball players to run up and down the courts sweating all over each other, and we were playing music with our backs to the crowd,” Scott said. “It was like Covid couldn’t be transmitted by six people at a dinner table, but someone on stage singing was high risk. None of it made any sense to us.”
Before the pandemic, they were playing 70 to 80 shows per year, and now they are playing over 150. In fact, they are completely booked up for 2022, and only have 19 dates left open for 2023. They believe this is because people were thirsty for live entertainment after the lockdowns.
“I think it was a ‘don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone’ type situation,” Scott said.
Matt Mullins, from Matt Mullins and the Bringdowns, is nothing short of a true storyteller on stage.
“Being in front of a crowd is as much therapy for me as it is for them,” Mullins said. “I’m just glad to be there, and if they want to hear me, that’s just a plus.”
For him, live streaming took away what he enjoys most about performing, seeing and hearing the crowd’s reaction.
“There’s a difference between singing a line and actually delivering a line, whether it’s serious or funny,” Mullins said. “Sometimes, it’s almost like preaching to the crowd. All those laughs and reactions are lost in a live stream, and I have no idea how I’m being received.”
But being a storyteller, he ended up live streaming anyway.
“My fiancee made me do it,” he said. “She told me she had heard all my stories 100 times, and I needed to go tell someone else.
“I was worried music would never come back,” Mullins said. “Even when restrictions were lifted, everything was opening up except music.”
He understood that there was no precedent for what was going on, and no one really knew what the right thing was to do, but it was difficult to get through.
“At one point, they allowed musicians to play the guitar, but not sing,” said Mullins. “No one wants to hear me do that, and it’s simply not what I do anyway.”
But whatever the rules were, Mullins followed them, venue to venue.
“Some counties were relaxed, and others were ‘getting real’ about it,” he said. “There were places that took little precautions, and then there were places that were sending ABC employees out to check on you.”
If anything positive came out of the pandemic for Mullins, it was that fans and venues alike are more appreciative of live music.
“I am getting calls to play at places that would have never answered the phone for me before,” he said. “Venues are far less likely to haggle on prices now as well.”
He said that for years before the lockdowns, it seemed like there was a ceiling on what musicians could charge, almost like it was inflation-proof.
“I have quit more than one job over the years, hoping that music alone could pay the bills, but it never quite worked out until now. I have never been this busy before.”
Thomas Danley is a local country music singer who plays both solo shows and shows with the Thomas Danley Band. Danley had been playing two or three shows per week up until the lockdowns, and like everyone else has said, that all stopped with little or no warning.
“I had a day job, so I didn’t do the live streaming shows during the lockdowns,” Danley said. “Most of my musician friends were doing it, but I enjoy performing in front of a crowd, not a phone.”
“I was lucky enough to play four or five shows during the pandemic,” Danley said. “A few were private parties, and one was an outdoor horse arena that fell into a category with less restrictions.”
Since the lockdowns have lifted, Danley is pretty much right back where he started before Covid. He is still playing about the same number of shows, and he loves that he’s back in front of a crowd.
“One thing that has changed for me is that I quit my job and just depend on my music now,” said Danley. “My regular job had become more of a side hustle, really getting in the way of my music.”
Although maybe not Covid-related, Danley seems to have come out the other side of the lockdowns as strong or stronger than ever.
Local musician Matt Deal had been writing and playing music for about a dozen years when Covid gave him a wake-up call.
“The lockdowns really forced me to come to grips with what music really meant to me,” Deal said. “I mean, in a world saturated with music, people were willing to pay me money to play the guitar and sing something I wrote.”
Then it was gone overnight, with a whole book of tour dates canceled.
“Even though I had a job, I didn’t know what I was going to do without that income.”
Deal live streamed from his living room during the lockdowns and sometimes made as much as he might have if he had played live.
“It was weird and hard to get used to for me,” said Deal. “At first, you feel like you are pandering, but then you have people asking you to please play again. The support was amazing.”
When the restrictions started lifting, Deal was happy to get in front of an audience. He said restrictions like plexiglass barriers didn’t bother him.
“I would have let them wrap me in bubble wrap if they said it was a rule,” Deal said. “I didn’t care, as long as it got me back in front of a crowd.”
Deal isn’t just a musician, he is also a fan.
“We live in an area where you can drive 20 minutes in any direction and hear great live music nearly any night of the week,” he said. “Since Covid, I find myself going out nearly every weekend to see a show. I have also taken my daughter to her first two big concerts.”
Deal said if there was any light at the end of the Covid tunnel, it was that he appreciates both sides of the microphone more.
“I’m lucky to be alive and have so many talented musicians around me that I call friends.”
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