Watch Travis McCready & Mike Brown’s Pollstar Live! Digital Session: ‘We Had A Rock & Roll Show’

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Monday, May 18 was an important day for our industry: Travis McCready played at TempleLive, a venue run by Mike Brown in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in what is being called the first ticketed show with a live audience in the two months since the coronavirus pandemic forced the shuttering of our economy two months ago.

McCready, this week’s Pollstar cover subject, and Brown sat down for a Pollstar Live! Digital Session livestream with executive editor Andy Gensler in a wide-ranging discussion (below) the day after unpacking the performance, the protocols, the economics, the politics and far more surrounding the show—which may hold many answers for how this industry can come back

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McCready also gives an amazing performance literally on the side of the road from the back of his car with Van, his Great Dane, as he makes his way from Fort Smith to Pineville Missouri to play a second show at the Tall Pines Distillery. Here he performs “Eye of the Hurricane,” from his former band Bishop Gunn off their album Natchez  and a snippet from one of his fantastic new solo jams “Jack Dog.”  He also discusses what it was like to perform before a socially-distanced audience and a simultaneous livestream, which is something we may be seeing a lot more of in this business.  He also talks a bit about his history of being a touring musician whose band playing with the Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses and Lynyrd Skynyrd among others.

Brown also discusses the fascinating history of TempleLive and their three venues owned by Beaty Capitol Group —all Masonic Lodges. He also talks about  first meeting Travis at a WME showcase at IEBA in Nashville in 2016, seeing Ashley McBride perform at the Basement East and some of the “fan mail” he’s received while trying to put on the show.

Check out all of Pollstar Live!’s Digital Sessions HERE which include a one-on-one with Patterson Hood of the great Drive-By Truckers along with an array of  industry executives including AGI’s Dennis Arfa, Nederlander’s Alex Hodges and First Avenue and NIVA president Dayna Frank among others .