While so many industries have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, the impact on local live music and entertainment has perhaps been the most devastating. With performance venues indefinitely shut down, it's not just the artists and musicians who are suffering, but also the business owners and crew.

Lending his world-famous voice to the call for help, GRAMMY nominee Taylor Hanson spoke on behalf of the Recording Academy and the music community at a local event in his band Hanson's home state of Oklahoma. Last Thursday's "Save Our Stages Press Conference organized by Congresswoman Kendra Horn (D-Okla.) was held to raise awareness of the permanent closure of Oklahoma City's Paramount Room and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local music and live entertainment scene.

Hanson, who serves as a Governor for the Recording Academy’s Texas Chapter, expressed the dire need for assistance, saying, "No industry has been hit harder than live music and entertainment industry, because we're designed to bring people together."

Adding her support for the cause in a press release, Rep. Horn advocated for the passage of the bipartisan RESTART Act, arguing that it would help to, "Save Oklahoma’s performance venues, restaurants, and businesses, and to help these local employers keep their lights on and their doors open."

"We were simply too small and too new to weather the storm of the pandemic," Paramount Room operating partner Jeremiah Holland said during the press conference.

Throughout the Recording Academy’s “Summer of Advocacy,” Academy members from 49 states, DC, and Puerto Rico called on their representatives in Congress to support the RESTART and Save Our Stages Acts. Without the inclusion of these legislative solutions in a future COVID-19 stimulus package, there will be music venues in every American city facing the same fate as the Paramount Room.

"I think it’s important for people to recognize that the stages have been there for them," Hanson added during his speech, "and right now, the stages need you."

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