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Artists And COVID-19: Dylan James Lewis

Musicians are canceling gigs months in advance to follow social distancing practices and avoid bringing people together in groups. It’s an essential public health response to a pandemic, but it also means no income for full time musicians.

Dylan James Lewis is in several bands. He plays guitar and mandolin… is in a band with his life partner and pieces together his income.

“Giving music lessons, playing gigs and shows by myself as well as with other bands and then with my main project which is with my life partner and that’s called Humbletown.”

The band is a folk, bluegrass group. The two musicians write their own songs and sing, sometimes inviting other people to play instruments.

“It’s all about the harmonies really.”

Lewis says they had to reschedule a recent album release because of the pandemic and they’ve had several gigs cancel.

“We’ve had a festival cancel, we had a video filming cancel as well as I would say, for me-I had about a thousand dollars worth of shows cancel in the month of March. But yeah, I think that we’re not only losing income, but we’re losing opportunities.”

So he’s being creative. Lewis does virtual guitar lessons with students. And he and his partner are using this time to focus on their new baby. He’s trying to find a silver lining to the pandemic.

“I want to start a collaboration series of people that are far away. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do because technology allows us to do that. But it’s something I never really got around to. So over the next couple of months I’m planning on making a series of videos.”

Using the power of video connections, for an upcoming project, Lewis plans to record with musicians from as far away as Spain.