I should probably choose a flashier headline for this post. Maybe:
- You won’t believe this shocking news
- Jim Morekis is a fine guy, but you won’t believe what he told us today
- How could this happen three years in a row?
I launched hissing lawns back in September 2013 with a boringly self-explanatory post: a new music blog for Savannah, Georgia. The goal here remains the same: to do our part to bring attention to Savannah’s music scene, from the immense talent of local artists to the great bands — both well-known and little-known — passing through town.
We aren’t really interested in clickbait or inundating readers with our opinions on everything, especially music news that is readily available on much larger sites. If one of our contributors had wanted to write an appreciation for the life of Chris Cornell, that would have been great, but I don’t know that we have much to add regarding that tragedy. Ditto for the controversies engulfing PWR BTTM, a band we’ve praised in the past, and tons of other major developments.
Given our relatively modest ambitions, we’re thrilled to have been selected as Best Local Blog in Connect Savannah’s readers’ poll for the third year in a row. Connect’s annual issue highlighting survey winners is a sprawling affair — a cultural snapshot of many of the people, businesses, and organizations that make Savannah such a vibrant and interesting place. We’re honored that hissing lawns has a place in the mix.
Savannah isn’t a big enough market to generate any significant income for a site like this, so we’re reliant on volunteer contributors. That reliance guarantees that we’re all reviewing, recommending, and photographing musicians that we want to support, but it also means that we can’t cover lots of talent that deserves more attention. We have struggled to find regular contributors beyond a core group of us, and there are entire genres that get little coverage from this site.
So: if you want to see more vibrant coverage of the music scene in Savannah, please consider getting in the game and becoming a contributor to this site.
I totally understand that writers, photographers, and many other creative people don’t want to work for free, but it’s also true that many people do in fact work for free routinely — on their own sites, in various journals, on social media, etc. As a Savannah Morning News columnist, I write for money three times a week, but I also continue to write for free here and elsewhere. I love doing music photography and do it for free too, even as I get occasional offers for paid gigs. Click here for an interesting discussion of some of these issues.
Anyway, if you have any interest in joining the low-key team here at hissing lawns, check out this post with additional guidelines for contributors. Then send a message to us via the hissing lawns Facebook page.
And thanks to all of you who read and appreciate this blog!
cheers,
bill