Brown County Music Center
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
Executive Director Christian Webb back stage. photo by Chrissy Alspaugh
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Sept./ Oct. 2024 • Our Brown County 17