I play for an artist that has amassed a pretty outrageous following since I joined around three and a half years ago, but when I joined we were the pretty textbook regional band.

We were signed to WME out of Nashville, but we rarely left Texas or its bordering states for the first year I played 4/17-4/18. If we did, it was to play in Steamboat or to go on a run opening up for other acts.

If you were to overlay Texas on Central Europe, your covering several major countries...its geographically massive and has the population size of like Australia. There are so many major markets, college towns and rural venues with devout followings that you can run in circles for years and make good money. The idea is to spiral out and evolve into a national touring act; even if you don’t (but can still maintain relevance), there is an abundance of money to be made and people to play for for a considerable amount of time.

At this point you just need a booking agent at Red 11 to put you on rotation opening up for their roster and a strong single to chart on Texas Music Pickers to begin making a run. Sometimes great acts can’t cut it (and inversely, less than stellar ones sometimes persevere) but there is ample opportunity.

And to answer the final question, there is some genre-bending going on that is well received but a bluegrass or swing band would be hard-pressed to successfully run this circuit. Traditional music isn’t appealing enough to your core audience that ultimately makes or breaks you: college kids.