Hey Hey In Rockers and welcome to The Lobby Coronavirus Lockdown 2020 Edition #3! It’s a warm Sunday morning here in Buffalo, NY as this week our city begins it’s re-opening process after the stay at home order put into effect by the government in mid March here in the US. With the summer sun shining more often, the stress of isolation beginning to get on peoples nerves and the economy being devastated by the containment efforts society must find a way forward through this epidemic, and it looks like this is our first effort in making this happen.

In the first wave of openings retail stores will be opened for “curbside” pickup and allow customers in a 25% occupancy. Restaurants will slowly be allowed to have customers dine in, again at a lower capacity and we believe our recording studio will also be allowed to open again. Of course it is all about the comfort of our engineers and clients, but it’s nice to know that things are trending in a way that will make people feel a little more comfortable and make our way a little nearer to normal life.

As far as concerts go, well … I’m afraid that’s another story. It may be a little while before we can get a large group of people together and celebrate music and arts together. There may be a chance of outdoor shows and some revised seating concepts to keep to the suggested distancing guidelines, but until there is some sort of control of this spreading virus crowds will be small. And with that, our summer tour of the US with Lifehouse has been postponed until 2021 along with hundreds of other tours across the globe that have made the same decision for the safety of their fans, themselves and society in general. Super disappointing but unfortunately necessary in these crazy times. The overwhelming majority of these shows wil be rescheduled and we’ll be back out there like this never happened. But for now …. we all sit tight.

But we are an adventurous and creative people and all sorts of “virtual” events have popped up over the past couple of weeks online. Our singer John has done a ton of acoustic online events from his place and I’ve done a few myself from my backroom, raising over 10,000 dollars for COVID19 medical response here in my hometown. I plan on doing a few more over the next couple of months, it’s a different way of connecting, but it’s still a connection, and that’s something we all need.

I did have to take an urgent cross country flight to Los Angeles from NY last week to finish singing on a new GGDS track for a holiday record due out later this year, more on that in the upcoming months, but I must say travel is very eerie (and not recommended) as we make our way through these times. The planes were much more full than I had anticipated which was scary, but I wore my mask and made sure to be as safe as I possibly could as I traveled. I don’t plan on doing much of that over the next few months, and from the looks of our calendar I should be able to spend some time this summer here with my family. … A silver lining in a pretty dark cloud that is the concert industry during The Coronavirus Pandemic.

So it seems I continue my role as a a 2nd grade teacher for a little while longer, get to spend some more cherished time in the backyard with my kid and do my best to keep pulling ideas together for some songs for when this whole thing breaks ….I can’t wait.

We’ll get through this ….. Stay Safe …. Peace ……

Robby