Barry CourterYou may have seen earlier this week the first announcement regarding a new live music series called Noontunes. It’s a free concert series that will take place on Wednesdays beginning next week and running through July 27.
The series itself is worth noting, but there were a couple of items related to it that I think represent significant change in how things are being done in town.
We are very proud in our city of doing things “The Chattanooga Way,” which has come to mean, for those who buy into it, that things get done with a spirit of cooperation. Since the building of the Tennessee Aquarium, local business, civic, private, foundation and government leaders have realized that everybody wins in the long run when everybody works together.
It sounds simple enough, but a lot of projects have failed in other cities because egos got in the way. For the most part, the big projects, like the aquarium, the Tennessee Riverwalk and the revitalization of the Southside, have been successful because people have cooperated.
Noontunes is a collaboration between River City Co., SoundCorps, the Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau, Jazzanooga, WUTC-FM and River City Sessions. That agencies and groups in town are working together on a project is not really news then, given that “The Chattanooga Way” has been around for awhile.
What is somewhat significant is that this is the kind of thing that was promised, or talked about, a year or so ago when the CVB hired an entertainment marketing person [Mary Howard Ade] for the first time, and the organization SoundCorps came online.
Ade’s job is to sell to potential visitors our live entertainment options, something the CVB didn’t feel was a viable enough component in years past. SoundCorps’ mission is to grow the music economy in Chattanooga. The two go hand-in-hand, which is why they are working together on Noontunes.
The other thing that stood out about the series is that SoundCorps Executive Director Stratton Tingle said to me, “All of the musicians will be paid. In fact, that is going to be true of everything we are involved in. Musicians should be paid for their work.”
No more playing a gig “for the exposure.”
In a later conversation, he said since his organization started in early 2015, it has refined its mission to focus on the professionals in the industry – the people who make their living playing music, running lights or sound or recording studios.
This is all good news.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.