Pittsburgh is reaching out to Austin, Texas, for a few music tips, and they have nothing to do with how to play pedal steel guitar or put on a conference like South by Southwest.
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, the City of Pittsburgh and WYEP (91.3 FM) have announced an initiative that would include a study by Don Pitts, creator of Sound Music Cities, an Austin-based entertainment company that provides solutions to growing a music economy. The former head of the City of Austin's Economic Development Department’s Music & Entertainment Division, he will visit Pittsburgh Nov. 3-9 to tour the music scene, hold town meetings and offer an assessment early next year on how the city’s nightlife and music scene can be enhanced.
The catalyst for the Music Ecosystem Project was a VisitPittsburgh survey in which music and nightlife did not rate as highly for Pittsburgh visitors as other aspects of their experience here.
“The VisitPittsburgh survey just helped underline the fact that there was a gap here,” said Russell Howard, the PDP’s vice president of special events and development. “The music scene in Pittsburgh, it thrives, but it thrives despite the lack of support and systems that other cities have in place to support them.”
The Austin connection stems in part from a Responsible Hospitality Institute conference, attended earlier this year by a group of Pittsburghers representing city government, community development organizations, media, cultural and tourism organizations.
Taking part in that trip was Abby Goldstein, general manager of WYEP, which sees nurturing the Pittsburgh music as a strategic goal. The station received a $30,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments to fund the study and additional expenses like further meetings.
“Pittsburgh has gotten so many accolades in the last few years, but not for music,” she said. “With such an amazing history and high caliber of talent in the city, I wanted to know why. I want this city’s music scene to get the same level of respect and be held in as high regard as the symphony or the opera.”
“One of the things we saw when we went there for the conference is that Austin succeeds because there is an entire system of support,” Mr. Howard said.
What is timely, in light of the imminent closing of James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy on the North Side due to the owner’s frustration with noise complaints, is that Mr. Pitts’ was nicknamed “The Sound Whisperer” for his work in reducing sound complaints by 70 percent in Austin.
“One of the examples is that when someone is putting up a residential building in close proximity to an existing music venue, the developer is responsible for sound-proofing their development and the people moving in have to acknowledge that they’re moving in next to a music venue,” Mr. Howard said.
After seven years with the Austin government, Mr. Pitts, who was traveling Wednesday and unavailable for comment, was placed on administrative leave in January for failing to discipline one of his employees in regard to a questionable travel expense. He resigned a month later.
In addition to reducing sound complaints, while he headed the Austin department he commissioned an Austin Music Industry Census, he created the North American Music Cities Best Practice Summit and a Music Venue Assistance Loan Program to support venues and deal with sound quality.
“I haven't worked directly in Pittsburgh but love what I've seen in my past visits,” Mr. Pitts said, while en route to Memphis. “I've been lucky to work in scenes all over the country — Nashville, New York, LA and, of course, Austin.” He said Pittsburgh “has a ton of stuff going and is more entrepreneurial than a lot of cities that look at themselves as established.”
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership had announced in the spring a goal to enhance music and nightlife Downtown. Since then, Mr. Howard said they have programmed around 100 music acts Downtown, like Saturday’s Fright Up Night, which will feature music at Revel + Roost, Original Oyster and Primanti Brothers, among other locations near Market Square.
Still, though, he says there is some resistance from restaurant and bar owners who are concerned about noise or zoning complaints or with the size of their rooms.
“Sometimes, when I talk to restaurants and they say, ‘Oh, we really don’t have the space for that,’ I hold up the Park House [on the North Side] as an example,” Mr. Howard said. “There couldn’t be a place less suited for music than Park House, but what they do, it works. There’s no reason that can’t be happening Downtown. Not everything has to be a built-out venue, though we are talking to developers about doing that.”
News of the Sound Music Cities study drew mixed reactions from local music industry people on social media, ranging from why we need an outside opinion to how WYEP’s aesthetic will factor into whatever steps are taken.
“I think there’s always a temptation to assume that other cities have figured out something we haven’t,” said Thrival Festival director Dan Law. “My instinct is that the resources going into this study could be better used to mobilize and aggregate the knowledge base in Pittsburgh.”
Clarks bassist Greg Joseph, who teaches at Point Park University, likes the outside input.
“I have been in the music business for many years,” he said. “When I need answers to problems arising here in Pittsburgh, I immediately call my industry friends in New York or Nashville to see how they are confronting issues in cutting edge markets. There is no shame in that. Ultimately the decision to change and better the Pittsburgh music scene will be up to us.”
Asked about his personal vision for the Pittsburgh scene, Mr. Howard said, “One thing I love about places like Nashville or Austin or New Orleans is you can sort of walk around and there is a music wafting from here and there.”
Paul Steigerwald, a dedicated music fan who as the announcer for the Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to clubs all over the country, thinks that will indeed be a challenge, particularly Downtown.
“There aren’t many good stages in Pittsburgh,” he said. “James Street was an exception. Every place in Nashville has a stage. With lights. They stick bands in corners here and managers tell the musicians to ‘turn it down a bit.’ Now, if you could put James Street Gastropub next to the Thunderbird next to Brillobox next to the Park House next to Riley’s Pour House next to the Rex Theatre, you’d have a helluva a music row.”
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576.
First Published: October 26, 2017, 1:53 p.m.
Updated: October 26, 2017, 1:56 p.m.
