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Live music is slowly returning to the Live Music Capital of the World

KVUE spoke with local musicians, venues and listeners to see how they're feeling.

AUSTIN, Texas — It was around this time last year when the music came to a halt in the City of Austin, as things shut down due to the pandemic and live music at local venues went silent. 

Slowly but surely, music is being heard again on street corners and local venues downtown as local musicians are picking up their instruments and getting ready to book gigs again. 

"Oh, my gosh. We've all been through so much, and music can heal us. And that's what our community of musicians is here to do," said Pat Buchta, the executive director of Austin Musicians

As Buchta knows firsthand, it's been a year unlike any other for local players and venue workers, from the fear of catching a deadly virus to the tremendous financial hardships. 

"It's great we're starting to see people vaccinated and so, with that, we're seeing a lot of our clubs and venues starting to reopen cautiously," said Buchta.

Still, some same it's still a little too soon to be opening up venues just yet.

"It's fully careless, very careless, you're going to risk opening up? I think it's too soon. We're so close. The shot is right there," said musician Pablo Flores.

KVUE's Hannah Rucker spoke with a group of girls from Maryland who said they've been to several live shows the past few nights and that the East Coast compared to Texas is night and day.

"I haven't seen live music since corona happened, so over a year," said one of the girls. "I have not been to a bar with live music, being able to dance and have fun. In Maryland, there's none of that."

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