Only months after a city ordinance threatened to eliminate it completely, Provo's local music scene is slowly making a resurgence.

Provo had once been regarded as one of the nation's capitals for independent music, according to Corey Fox, a fixture in the Utah Valley's local music scene for 12 years.

The recent opening of several music clubs in Provo has resurrected the Provo music scene, and Utah's Valley's musicians are welcoming the change.

"There does seem to be a lot more opportunities to play," Eddie King of local band The Sugarland Run said. "There are more clubs opening up, and the city is more willing to play along."

The enforcement of a dance hall ordinance passed in 1999 made local music an almost completely unprofitable venture, but recent adjustments in the city's policy changed matters drastically.

"Our goal was to prevent problems, but we found that the restrictions were so tough that we were actually preventing musical events from taking place, which was not our goal," Provo Director of Community and Government Relations Mike Mower said.

But even before the city's government began to make its presence felt, the live music industry in Provo had been dying a slow death. Business had been dropping and live music venues slowly began to disappear.

For a time, local musicians had almost no place for expression in Provo until Fox convinced the management at the comedy club Johnny B's to begin holding regular music shows.

"I kept seeing the need," Fox said. "There was so much talent and no places to play."

Those shows abruptly stopped during the controversy over Provo's dance hall ordinance when the club's new management decided that its limited music business wasn't worth the trouble, leaving the city completely bereft of live music venues.

"The ending of Johnny B's created an uproar," Fox said. "The good thing that came out of it was that it made people realize how much they cared about the music. They suddenly missed it when there was no longer a place for it in Provo."

That new awareness and the city's newfound desire for cooperation created an ideal landscape for the revival of live music in Provo, and new live music venues began to open.

"I came from this culture of abundant music," said Chuck Hamm, the owner of the recently-opened Muse Music. "It just seemed like here there was a dearth."

Even with its recent resurgence, Fox feels that the local music scene in Provo has a long way to go.

Fox stressed that if Provo's local music is to re-attain its former glory, it will be a long process.

"Provo's an interesting place," Fox said. "Bands don't tend to stay together long enough to build a fan base."

Regardless of the current slim chances for success, the dream of making it big as a musician is still alive and well in the Utah Valley. According to Fox, there are more bands here now than there ever were in Provo's musical heyday back in the mid-90s.

"There's just as much quality as before, but there's so many more bands that some quality bands have been lost," Fox said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 6 Jan 2003