Static Live Magazine February 2019

BY C. August Wenger
If you think starting, sustaining, or growing an original music
scene in your town is difficult, let me tell you about the effort in
Daytona Beach over the last 25 years. Daytona is a tourist town
in a tourist state, so let’s just say for the longest time there has
been a lot of Jimmy Buffet echoing the streets. And, now that
Jimmy has started a retirement community in Daytona, the
sounds are sure to live on here indefinitely. I digress. My point
is that, between Parrot Heads and Bikers, there is a lot of cover
music in Daytona, with the hotels, bars, and venues looking for
that band that can crank out the radio hits to the adulation of
their tourist patrons.
Don’t get me wrong, business is business, and there is a place
for cover bands in the music scene. Good ones deserve credit
for their ability to recreate the great music of our times.
However, this being an Original Music Manifesto, I’m here to lift
original music to its rightful place in our communities. So, how
do original acts legitimately compete with cover music and find
their place in the entertainment industry of their town? The
idea is simple, but the application is hard work; it takes cooperation.
By the early 2000’s in Daytona, not only were we faced with the
cover music monopoly, but our bands were also pitted against
each other by venues and even the local radio stations. “Doing
their part for the local scene”, they would offer us the Battle of
the Bands, where-by the bands and their fans would compete
against each other for the prize of some studio time and an opportunity
to play a prime weekend spot. A “win, win” as they’d
say, for all the bands that battled got “exposure”, the “best band”
earned their reward, the venue got free entertainment, and the
radio station got to pat itself on the back. Let me just point out
that today one of our local radio stations really is doing its part
for the original music scene, and I’ll be praising them in another
article.
At the time, in response to being shut out and being made to
battle it out for opportunity, a group of musicians in town came
together to form an original music alliance. It was named Home
Grown Roots by long time area musician, Terry Nandlal, who
resided as president of HGR for many years. I asked Terry about
the beginnings of HGR.
“Home Grown Roots approached a handful of venues and
asked for the worst night of the month to put on an original
music showcase HGR called The Jamboree. Facing social pressure,
these venues reluctantly agreed. Then HGR went to every
act in town and offered them a seat at the table. Some scenes
that had been mutually exclusive, like metal and hip-hop, or
jam band and punk, came together to support this original
music showcase.” The bands, instead of performing to 20 or
30 people in a warehouse, were now performing to hundreds
at established venues. The venues now saw the viability of
original music and soon HGR was being offered any Friday or
Saturday night at venues that had previously been exclusively
cover music.
Since 2006, Home Grown Roots has put on over 200 mini-festival
events, showcasing over 500 acts, several of which had their
earliest performances with HGR, and have gone on to become
regional and national acts. HGR is more of a promotional engine
now as the original music scene in Daytona has become
self-sustaining, with venues taking it upon themselves to not
only support original music, but to pay for it. That being said,
venues still want caliber music, and they need their acts to have
a draw. For those acts that are still cutting their teeth and building
an audience, they need a venue that welcomes anyone and
anything. In Daytona, that venue is Tir na nOg Pub. Next month,
I’ll tell you about the role of an all-inclusive venue in sustaining
an original music culture. Thanks for reading and supporting
original music at your local venue.
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