festbabe
10-14-2007, 10:02 AM
Woo-hoo...glad to see this article in our local paper about live music on the upswing.
"Once upon a time in this town of 3,584, nestled in the Piney Woods of East Texas, live music meant only a sock hop, played by a high school band in the local gym.
"But all of a sudden," says optometrist John Whorff, 42, "we have heart and culture. The sidewalks don't roll up at 5 o'clock in the evening. The impact has been tremendous."
In the past 12 months, Winnsboro has seen its sales-tax revenue climb 80 percent, according to Shane Shepard, 27, the town's Main Street/community development director.
The catalyst is Crossroads Coffeehouse & Music Co., which provides some of the best live music in Texas on Saturday nights, Mr. Shepard and other residents say. The intimate venue occupies a 100-year-old building once used as a mortuary and hardware store on the town's Main Street.
Crossroads' popularity is part of a live-music boom that has infiltrated pockets throughout rural Texas. Coffeehouses and other acoustic venues have come to outposts such as Athens, Teague, Linden, Archer City and Mineola. And in tiny Point, artists including Mark Chesnutt and Gary Busey have performed in a converted cotton gin called the Cotton Pickin' Theater."
Full article (and schedule) online here (http://http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/101407glsmalltownmusic.37ea315.html).
"Once upon a time in this town of 3,584, nestled in the Piney Woods of East Texas, live music meant only a sock hop, played by a high school band in the local gym.
"But all of a sudden," says optometrist John Whorff, 42, "we have heart and culture. The sidewalks don't roll up at 5 o'clock in the evening. The impact has been tremendous."
In the past 12 months, Winnsboro has seen its sales-tax revenue climb 80 percent, according to Shane Shepard, 27, the town's Main Street/community development director.
The catalyst is Crossroads Coffeehouse & Music Co., which provides some of the best live music in Texas on Saturday nights, Mr. Shepard and other residents say. The intimate venue occupies a 100-year-old building once used as a mortuary and hardware store on the town's Main Street.
Crossroads' popularity is part of a live-music boom that has infiltrated pockets throughout rural Texas. Coffeehouses and other acoustic venues have come to outposts such as Athens, Teague, Linden, Archer City and Mineola. And in tiny Point, artists including Mark Chesnutt and Gary Busey have performed in a converted cotton gin called the Cotton Pickin' Theater."
Full article (and schedule) online here (http://http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/101407glsmalltownmusic.37ea315.html).