Band On The Brink: The New Dylans

Over the past year, The Tennessean has chronicled the comeback of The New Dylans as they navigated the business and art of making music. On Dec. 1, The Tennessean launched a 30-day blog series, Band on the Brink, including stories, music and videos to tell the folk-rock band's story, which illustrates the new reality of working musicians in Music City today. The Tennessean will premiere a documentary film from the project at the Belcourt Theatre on Jan. 27th at 6pm, followed by a live performance by the New Dylans and panel discussion with industry experts. The New Dylans band members who will perform live at the event are Jim Reilley (guitar/vocals), Reese Campbell (keyboards/vocals), Chris Autry (bass) and Ken Coomer (drums). The panel includes industry experts Chris Keaton, owner of Keaton Music Ventures; Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International; Mark Montgomery, music and tech entrepreneur; and Charles Alexander, songwriter and entrepreneur. The panel will be moderated by Nate Rau, The Tennessean's music business reporter and writer on the Band on the Brink project. Tickets for the event are now on sale on the Belcourt's website. (http://bit.ly/1x4DM1I) Tickets are $15 online, $18 at the door plus the Belcourt's preservation fee. Admission includes two drink tickets courtesy of Mayday Brewery. --- "For this project, we were trying to answer a simple question: 'What's it like to be a working musician or songwriter or producer in Nashville in 2014?' We wanted to steer clear of the narrative pushed by the music industry and the city's establishment about Nashville's It City status, because for most of the working musicians we know, it's never been tougher to make a living," Rau said. "The New Dylans are the perfect band because, as their critical acclaim attests, they are supremely talented, but they are also entrepreneurial and extremely hardworking." --- BAND ON THE BRINK: THE NEW DYLANS The New Dylans were left for dead by the music industry. They were lauded by critics and tastemakers in the 1980s. They were signed to a record deal and heaped with praise in the pages of Village Voice and Rolling Stone and on the airwaves of MTV and NPR in the 1990s. They toured the country ferociously. And then, at the end of 1996, broke and burnt out, the folk rock band from Warren, Pa., broke up. This is the story about how the New Dylans, after an 18-year hiatus, returned to making music in Nashville. And it is the story about a shrinking sector of the music industry — the middle class — in 2014. It may be boom times for artists like Taylor Swift, the Black Keys, Jason Aldean and Jack White, but for middle-class musicians like those who comprise the New Dylans, making music in 2014 is a rather gritty chore. — Excerpt from Band on the Brink written by Nate Rau. Read more at http://www.Tennessean.com/newdylans