Postcards From The Pandemic: Alex Bevan's Daily Coronavirus Concert

Shortly after Ohio Governor Mike DeWine began doing daily coronavirus briefings, Cleveland singer-songwriter Alex Bevan decided to play an online concert every day until the stay-at-home order is lifted.

"The governor comes on with his updates at 2 o'clock, so at about 3:30 I start playing," Bevan said.

Since March 20, Bevan has performed seven days a week on his Facebook page for about an hour.

The Alex Bevan Hour poster [Tom Giulivo]

Spring and especially summer are important to Bevan, who was in high rotation on local radio in 1976 with his hometown favorite "Skinny (Little Boy from Cleveland, Ohio)."

"My income has stopped. This time of year is the ramp up to summer and the abundance of outdoor venues and boat clubs, wineries, patios etc." he said. "My last live performance was March 7."

"Low Tech and Proud"

I think of myself as low tech and proud. I've been using this iPad to do streaming concerts from my house for the last three weeks.

I was thinking, "Well it's going to be a long couple of weeks. Maybe I'll get into this streaming thing."

Sometimes the performance goes smoothly and sometimes there are little train wrecks.

Alex Bevan readies for one of his daily online concerts. [Deidre Bevan]

Daily Routine

I decided I'd try to do one a day. It'll give me structure through the day.

It's caused me to go deep into my catalogue, which has been a lot of fun. It seems we get between 700 and 1,100 views a day.

The comments are all fun. I look at every one.

Alex Bevan's home performance studio. [Deidre Bevan]

Finding Inspiration

I take a couple long walks every day and I come up with a set list. Then I sit down and I practice.

I try to play each song at least two times before the performance.

So as long as we're locked down, I'm going to try to keep doing this.

It's what I'm doing to do my part. I don't have a skill set that allows me to go out and be a first responder. God bless those people. So this is what I'm doing.

Alex Bevan's collection of set lists. [Deidre Bevan]