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LL: As a performing and recording blues artist my world has been turned upside down via the

worldwide pandemic. I’m still navigating around trying to right it! How do you see the music
industry and specifically blues musicians going forward as the world comes out of this?

MF: This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many unknowns and changes
currently to our musical world. Firstly, and not just for blues musicians, the ability to perform live
once again will be a huge boost to incomes and visibility

going forward. There has to be a huge pent-up demand for
audiences to see live music and this can only bode well.
Historically the live performance opportunities have led to
solid merch sales at gigs – CDs, T-Shirts, swag etc. With a
decline in CD sales what will that look like? We don’t
know.

How can we boost or supplant declining CD sales with

other merch? We don’t know. We cannot survive on
streaming revenues which are criminally, outrageously not
in favour of the content makers. This will be a challenging
time and we all have to communicate with each other to
find new avenues to revenue streams.

I have no concrete answers, but the conversation must

continue.

LL: How about you, Michael? What’s coming up for you? Michael Freeman

MF: I’ve just finished co-producing a new Mississippi Heat

album – my 6th with them – and that is now at mastering. I’m in pre-production with iconic Tracy
Nelson for an upcoming album with her for the new BMG label Revival. I’m in discussions with
Italian blues artist Freddie McGuire about an album with him when Covid allows us to travel.

My career and love for blues continues and I am so very grateful for all the support and
opportunities that have come my way.

Thank you for including me!

~ Lawrence Lebo

Lawrence Lebo is an award winning, critically acclaimed Blues recording artist living in Los

Angeles, CA, USA. She can be found on the web at www.lawrencelebo.com