How New York Saved (& Made) My Life: My Love Letter to NYC

“Country Music saved my life when I needed it the most”. Carly Pearce quoted at this year’s CMA Awards when she cried through her acceptance speech for Female Vocalist of the Year. She genuinely is so grateful for the genre for getting her through the hardest time in her life. I can relate, but my thanks goes way beyond country music. It is not just the music that I give thanks to this Thanksgiving season. It is not just a genre or a specific artist or one venue. No, it is a much broader intertwining place. A big city with millions of people, but still can become the smallest place in the world through six degrees of separation. I am talking about the one and only city that never sleeps: New York City.

NYC has everything that a music/concert diehard could possibly need: intimate small venues, dive bars, live TV show performances, stadiums, theaters, or clubs. It is the music hub that has given me the rich and vital fast paced life I lead, filled with the best people, whom I thank the universe for putting them in my path, whether it was randomly waiting on a meet and greet line or waiting for doors to open before a show. You never know who you are going to meet and you definitely don’t know which or if any of these chance encounters can lead to a lifelong friendship or who you will be introduced to via the initial contact. That is the power of the social network, and the most important one isn’t Instagram or Twitter. The most powerful force for myself has been the magic of New York City. Really, it is the city that kickstarted my life. However, the last two years the music industry went dark and Quarantine and the city lockdown took my life as I knew it with it (as did everyone’s- life got thrown upside down for way longer than we could have imagined). Yes there were livestream performances, Zoom, or virtual meet and greets, but what couldn’t be substituted on a screen was the energy a live crowd has, or the interactions waiting on a line, the socializing aspect of music was just not there. This really caused a dark, depressive period of the pandemic for me. I didn’t fully realize how much it took a toll on me until the lights of the city were turned back on and live music returned to the city.

So, if I was accepting an award for Best Music Promotions Brand I would start my speech with “New York City saved my life when I needed it the most”. Since Rockin Rox Promo isn’t up for any awards, this Thanksgiving weekend I am going to reflect on my most significant NYC moments (and of course share some great throwback performances in the process). Let’s dive into my love letter!

We are going to start back in April 2015 at Joe’s Pub. This is the first time I am going to see this band I discovered on YouTube, their music video for Shut Me Up was the hook for me that eventually made me come back to this band 21 times in counting. I am talking about none other than the five talented guys who stand as 4 time reigning CMA Vocal Group of the Year: Old Dominion. SiriusXM The Highway was filming the show and also had a meet and greet at the end. This was my first of many following this band around the city and the Northeast area and also the first time I met the band. Little did I know NYC had something else in mind that will also make this specific evening extra memorable. There was a bit of confusion of where to line up for the meet and greet. Another confused fan was in front of me, not in line yet, she asked “Is this the SiriusXM meet and greet line?” I say I think so, her guess was as good as mine, but nonetheless she gets in line behind me. Since meet and greets are usually rushed and it took awhile for the band to get in the right spot they were rushing through the line, the girl behind me, her name was Sabrina ended up being in my picture with the band. First thought is oh cool a complete stranger in my picture, but Sabrina did not stay a complete stranger for long, and that is the beauty of the New York City concert scene (especially in country music). That night Sabrina went to the show with her friend Scott. Since he didn’t have a meet and greet I met Sabrina first and she introduced me to her friend as we were leaving. Then the three of us went our separate ways, not exchanging any information or social media.

However, as chance has it I then was going to a Lady A show at Jones Beach the next month. Who do I bump into at this show? You guessed it, Sabrina and Scott (also enters Sabrina’s now husband Devon who was still sitting back at the seats while the three of us caught up in the aisle, but we will get back to Devon in a minute). At this point we realize we probably have been to a lot of other events at the same time and didn’t realize it. I believe the last chance encounter before we considered each other close friends and started planning to meet at shows was a Cassadee Pope concert at Playstation Theater in Times Square. Cassadee was opening for Chris Young and she was taking pictures with fans after her set. On another meet and greet line I spotted Sabrina and Scott, after our pictures we stood together for the headliner’s set. Our concert crew really took form at that show, and as they say the rest is history (with a little meddling by NYC).

The next connector of the puzzle would definitely be Sabrina’s husband Devon. Devon works at Artists Den, a company that films live performance tapings in intimate historical venues for television and your only way into the taping is to win. We are going to skip ahead to February 2017 when Live at the Artists Den was featuring Lady A and being filmed at the United Palace Theater in NYC. It is a cold February day in Washington Heights and I start the line for the show well before doors. I am accompanied eventually by Sabrina and Scott. The unpredictability of who is in proximity to you on a line in the city is just wild. There was a girl and a guy talking behind us, and I overheard the guy talking about JVC Broadcasting (the radio station group that I worked at during college). And just like that a conversation started among us, because this guy happened to also work in the promotions department at the station. That is all the introduction I needed to make a connection with these two strangers behind us, Andrew and Alicia.

We are going to fast forward again to August 2017 to another 'win your way in’ event in NYC. That is another thing I love about this city, if you know where to look there are so many free/contest events you can find. iHeart radio does the ‘only way in is to win’ events usually for album release parties or SiriusXM will do small stage performances or of course being in the audience for the Citi Concert Series on the Today Show or the Central Park GMA performances will just cost you a good night's sleep. iHeart was doing a mid day performance in their headquarters on 6th avenue in NYC for Lindsay Ell during release week of her album The Project. For this event I didn’t happen to win, but Scott and Alicia did. Scott mentions to Alicia I didn’t get in and Alicia responds to her win to iHeart and somehow gets another spot for me. This was so awesome of her, also the three of us and maybe one other group were practically the only fans there, the rest were iHeart employees on their lunch break. The small crowd was amazing because we were not rushed when we went up to talk to her afterwards. That afternoon was the beginning of Alicia and I bonding over our love for Lindsay Ell. Fast Forward to 2021, I went to my first festival with Alicia to see Lindsay Ell. Definitely the highlight of the Barefoot Country Music Festival for us hands down!

We have been fast forwarding so much in this recount of connections I think it is time to rewind a little bit. So, also in the Artists Den crowd was my good friend Karyn. Karyn was also a stranger to me who I kept seeing at multiple shows. After enough times recognizing and running into each other we became fast friends, concert buddies, and even traveling companions. One third of Lady A is singer songwriter Charles Kelley. There were eventually multiple Lady A shows run-ins where Karyn and I finally exchanged information and actually planned to meet up at VIP on the Kelsea Ballerini Unapologetically Tour. Originally we both attended Charles Kelley’s solo tour The Driver Tour at Gramercy Theatre in NYC in December 2015 (also a show where I won tickets and meet and greet on the radio). Opening for Charles was, back then up and coming artist, Maren Morris. I discovered Maren’s stuff online and was one of the only people in the crowd that already knew all the songs (Charles and I bonded over this during the VIP Q&A). I bring up Maren because Karyn and I recognized each other again in the crowd of Maren’s headlining show at Bowery Ballroom in February 2017, opener being her now husband Ryan Hurd (definitely the most perfect lineup). From there on out Karyn and I hit every Ryan and Maren show we can get to, and this time not as random people running into each other, but as really close friends. I am thankful that we both have similar tastes when it comes to who we want to see and how far we will travel for them (and we both share a love for a good waffle at a hotel the morning after a show or post show nuggets that night).

My love letter wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention these next two special people, who are definitely responsible for connecting me to even more people and creating exponentially more music memories in NYC and beyond. The first is my friend Michelle who I met waiting for a BUILD Series event with Old Dominion. We were the only two waiting to get our spots in the studio for the discussion with OD. We got to talking about Old Dominion, the shows we’ve been to, how long we’ve been following their career. Low and behold most of the events we mentioned we were both at and just didn’t know each other yet. After this event we both had to go back to work in the city, but we exchanged information since it seemed inevitable that we would see each other again. When Old Dominion was performing on the Today Show I won a fan pass which came with a plus one. I reached out to Michelle to see if she wanted to be my plus 1. She did and she also brought this guy Chris with her who also got into the performance with us. Both Chris and Michelle were already a part of this huge fan army, a group that consisted of people all over who are hard core Old Dominion fans. Michelle saw my dedication to the band and after the Today Show meet up I officially became part of the We Are Old Dominion crew and later in 2020 I got included on the group chat. Fast forward to now Michelle has brought me into a group that I consider my OD family, she even connected me with a girl in the group who lives in my neighborhood, so now we plan to do the traveling together like we did for Old Dominion’s stretch of shows in New Hampshire. Love you OD GC!

Last, but certainly not least, is my dearest friend DJ Jonny Laz. I met Jonny when we both worked at JVC Broadcasting 6 years ago. You can still hear Jonny on air at 6pm and catch his 9 o'clock mixdown on weekdays. Besides being an extremely talented DJ, I owe any familiarity I have with New York City clubs and bars (especially in the LES) to him. Once I moved to the city three years ago even though I was no longer working at JVC I was able to go to Laz’s gigs in NYC more often. DJing is all about networking and making connections. By going (and staying to the end) to most of Jonny’s gigs I met so many DJs through his work network with Set Artist Management. Now one of my good friends as well, Max DJ MP3, I met at Tijuana Picnic when Laz was playing on a weekend I was out for my birthday in 2019. Also an extremely talented DJ who I have seen more in livestreams over 2020, but hope that changes in the future!

So that’s it! My love letter to New York City, for the circle of people that had come into my life by all these repeated chance encounters, centered around a variety of music. NYC, a city that is just as big as it is small, has become the epicenter of my social network and for that I couldn’t be more thankful. Such an intertwining city, that even after all these anecdotes there are definitely connections I have missed. One person knows another, who happens to be standing in a line behind you or hanging out in the DJ booth with your good friend and old coworker. For those people I haven’t explicitly mentioned, know you are loved, I cherish the memories of how we met or who we met through, and to the people who I haven’t met yet, I look forward to the coincidence and the music event that broadens my circle even more.

With Love,

Rockin Rox