2020: That's a Wrap (finally)

Ron “DJ Indiana Jones” Miner - Rest In Power (DOUG MCSCHOOLER/FOR INDYSTAR)

Ron “DJ Indiana Jones” Miner - Rest In Power (DOUG MCSCHOOLER/FOR INDYSTAR)

2020 was, to put it lightly, not great! The entire music industry has been decimated by COVID (Over $30 BILLION in losses in 2020) . We lost some titans locally including everybody’s favorite DJ and best friend Ron Miner, metal and hardcore legend Brian “Bob” Fouts, and Hal Yeagy, longtime owner of the Slippery Noodle. Despite all this the Indiana music community kept creating and pushing forward. The Arts Council of Indianapolis created Indy Keeps Creating, connecting artists with capacity and funding. The music venues of the state came together in an unprecedented way to create the Indiana Independent Venue Alliance, which allowed them to meet regularly to discuss COVID protocols, understand needs, and come together for funding opportunities to keep the doors open. Musical Family Tree was proud to serve as the financial partner for IIVA, allocating almost half a million dollars of Federal CARES funding to Marion County venues.

Robert Scheer (Indy Star)

Robert Scheer (Indy Star)

Indiana’s artists kept producing. Whether it was in their living rooms, on live streams, or coming in from a studio, Indiana artists kept grinding. Kurt Cobain once said “Thank you tragedy, I need it for my art” and Indiana’s musicians used the tragedy and challenge of 2020 to put out an impressive amount of new work in 2020. On our MFT Radio Hour on WQRT this week, we pulled together a group of local artists and fans to talk about some of our favorites from this year. Below is a not at all comprehensive list of releases from 2020 that we felt were notable with links to the artists to check ‘em out.

Of course, you can tune in to WQRT 99.1 FM on Thursday at 7 PM or Saturday at 11 AM for our special TWO HOUR End of Year radio special. Also worth noting, if you miss the broadcast, you can check out this and any other MFT Radio shows streaming on our MixCloud page!

Notable 2020 Releases (that we know of, there are undoubtedly more):

Jim Rawlinson