Co-Mission Contributor: Mercy Bell
(Photo by Chad Cochran)
So on March 1st and 2nd I was bartending in Nashville and actually invited Fred to come to my bar since he was visiting Nashville. Good thing he didn’t come, because he could have been a casualty of the tornado that touched down around 12:45 AM right outside of my bar, and which decimated my neighborhood of 5 Points in Nashville.
A week later, I got news that SXSW had been cancelled because of COVID-19, where I was scheduled to play my first official showcase. Then, all my shows from March into June were cancelled by promoters and venues. Then my bar had to close! So I’m jobless right now. The irony is that in February I quit my steady desk job so I could go to SXSW, tour, and bartend.
But, my grandmother survived WWII in the Philippines, my other grandparents survived the Great Depression, and my mom lived under a dictator in the Philippines, so I’m leaning on their example. Community, cooperation, creativity, and innovation are what we need right now, and we can do that from our houses. I’d make music even if there was an apocalypse and I was playing for myself at age 75 in a parking lot. Being creative has gotten me through every hard time of my life. This is serious and terrifiying. But I keep reminding myself that if you survive your rock bottom, it can be a trap door to a new life. So hang in there, Earth.
If you wanna help me out:
– FOLLOW me on Spotify, add my music to Spotify playlists.
– Listen to and share my music http://hyperurl.co/k4oriv
– Follow me on social media and engage with me! (It looks good on algorithms) @mercybell on IG and Twitter @mercybellmusic on Facebook
– Buy merch (here! https://mercybell.bandcamp.com/merch)
– Shoot me a tip! Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MercyB. Venmo: @mercybellmusic