4 minute read
Brown County Music Center Celebrates 5 Years
~by Chrissy Alspaugh
Drawing many of the nation’s best-loved recording artists to Nashville, Brown County Music Center is emerging from its first five years in operation triumphantly gaining speed, despite considerable setbacks from being closed during the worst of the pandemic.
Fans will be able to celebrate the anniversary this fall with special merchandise, a social media contest, and not-yet-announced shows through the end of the year.
The community-owned nonprofit music center has welcomed performers including Chicago, Scotty McCreery, Kenny G, The Beach Boys, Vince Gill, Clint Black, Kevin Costner, Jo Dee Messina, Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right Live, Weird Al, Patti LaBelle, Big Daddy Weave, Blues Traveler, Rodney Carrington, Buddy Guy, Steven Curtis Chapman, and many more.
While the venue is selling out show after show, bands are falling in love with the music center, too.
The theater holds just over 2,000 seats and boasts state-of-the-art sound and lighting. Executive Director Christian Webb said performers rave about waking up after a night on their tour bus to be greeted not by skyscrapers and street sounds but the serene Brown County hills. “Melissa Etheridge and her team did yoga overlooking the hills behind the music center. Joss Stone walked across the parking lot to go work out at the YMCA,” Web said. “This place is definitely a haven for bands.”
The tiny town has a long reputation for drawing big names.
For 35 years, the Little Nashville Opry hosted a roster of country-music stars, often selling out its own 2,000 seats. In 2009, a suspicious fire destroyed the venue.
A decade later, the music center opened its doors with a concert by country singer Vince Gill in August of 2019.
But before its first birthday, COVID slammed the doors shut. For the next 650 days, the Brown County Music Center became the community’s health clinic. The lobby intended for eager concertgoers became a testing, and eventually vaccination, center. The stage and auditorium were transformed into extra courtroom space. Federal funding for those emergency needs helped the center limp along financially, but Webb said the venue was a mere “four to six months away from having to pull the plug” when the doors finally reopened on September 11, 2021.
Re-launching with a sold-out Halestorm show, coupled with the venue’s overwhelming success prior to COVID, filled Webb with certainty that the music center not only was going to succeed, “but do amazing things.”
In 2023—still a year ahead of original revenue targets— the music center made its first profit and subsequent gift back to the Brown County community: a check for $267,000. Forward-thinking project management established that 75 percent of the center’s revenue goes to the Brown County Community Foundation to be invested and returned to the community via grants for things like volunteer fire department radios or projects supporting arts and culture; while the other 25 percent of profits go to the county commissioners for pressing issues such as road resurfacing or sewer improvements.
This year, an estimated 90,000 fans will visit the music center. Webb said only about five percent of show-goers are Brown County residents.
Webb, formerly stadium operations manager for the San Diego Chargers before moving into live entertainment with Live Nation, has creatively worked to increase revenue with funding streams that the music center doesn’t have to split with performers. He swapped out the concessions menu from hot dogs and pretzels to pulled pork and walking tacos, the bar now offers specialty drinks, and the center built a premiere parking lot and premiere VIP seating with in-chair bar service.
“We’re going to keep pushing the envelope and elevating ourselves so we can make the biggest community impact possible,” Webb said.
Another key to the venue’s profitability, he said, is the “army” of more than 250 volunteers who lower operating costs and make every show possible.
Coming in the next year, an outdoor beer garden will be constructed by the Brown County Woodworkers Club as a new space for concertgoers to enjoy live music and drinks after a show and that can be rented for private parties.
Also on Webb’s to-do list, is securing sponsors for the music center’s spirits, beer, possibly wine, and “possibly one more partner that helps us hit our bottom line so we can give more back to the community.”
He said he feels “lucky and blessed” by the job he gets to do and can’t wait to see the center’s impact in the—hopefully uninterrupted—years to come.
“If this is five,” Webb said, smiling, “we can’t wait to see you at 10.”
For information or upcoming shows visit https://www.browncountymusiccenter.com/
courtesy photos
