Tucson rock band The Living Breathing recently released a music video for their song "Take It Easy," which was originally released on their 2019 album What Is Me?

The song is a standout track from their second album, showing off many of The Living Breathing's strengths: a mellow combination of rock and folk, uplifting melodies, powerful vocals, and smooth production from Tucson's 4Rail Studio.

The music video was filmed in Santa Barbara this January, and features Natale's son walking through the woods and beach. The video captures the 6-year-old being himself, which the band says is a central message of the song. 
According to Natale, the song is about "holding on to your youth and trying to remember the innocence before 'life sets in'. To remember that feeling and use it in difficult times/relationships. Basically, try not to stress about every little thing that life throws your way. Take a deep Breath and 'Take It Easy'."

Watch the music video below:

Just in case you need to sate your craving for live music, the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance is partnering with the Town of Oro Valley to host live concerts every Thursday through June 4.

The weekly performances begin at 5 p.m. and are streamed through SAACA’s Facebook page and the Town of Oro Valley Parks and Recreation Facebook page. Performances range between an hour and 90 minutes.

“Music brings us together, and the town is proud to be working with SAACA to host these concerts,” said Oro Valley Mayor Joe Winfield, in a release. “These concerts—and these musicians—can help bridge the social distancing gap that we are facing today with their artistry. I think we all look forward to a time when we can gather together and kick up our heels. For now, let’s stay connected through music.”

The concert series was launched after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled arts and culture performances throughout the region, including the shows at Steam Pump Ranch and the Oro Valley Marketplace.

Looking for something to do tonight while stuck inside?

Turn down the lights and get the cognac ready tonight because Tucson's favorite neo-soul singer, Seanloui, isn't letting the pandemic stop him from live-streaming his baby-making music live for our viewing pleasure.

"It's my live show that a lot of people haven't seen but heard it worldwide on Spotify," Seanloui said. "A lot of people out there don't get to see what we do for the songs in a live capacity."

Tonight, Seanloui will be the first guest on No Audience Needed, a new live-streaming project from the mind of local stage and lighting guru Kevin Dowling. The project plans on live-streaming twice a week on its YouTube channel, noaudience.live.

Dowling works for Total Lighting Support, a company that provides lighting for events and large concerts. With the company's schedule cleared, as well as the schedules of other local audio/visual companies due to the shutdown, Dowling got a great idea.

Tucson's favorite Chanteuse Marianne Dissard is back with a stunning cover of Phil Ochs's late-60s protest song, The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns, repurposed to protest the recent firing of USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier.

Crozier was relieved from duty for sending a letter to other naval personnel stating "sailors would needlessly die" if the Navy continued its slow response to COVID-19 on his ship and others. The letter was later leaked to the San Franciso Chronicle.

Ochs wrote the song in protest of the 99 crewmen who lost their lives when the USS Scorpion Submarine sunk in 1968. Despite numerous know issues with the sub, the USS Scorpion- nicknamed the Scrapiron by its crew - was sent into service due to the pressures of the Cold War.

Dissard, along with Thøger Lund, Vicki Brown, and Marco Rosano in Tucson, Arizona, and Raphael Mann in Ramsgate, England recorded this gritty, yet beautiful version from their respective homes at the start of the COVID-19 shut-down in late March. Waterworks Studio Owner Jim Waters mixed the recording.

There's a pay-what-you-want download option for the song on Dissard's Bandcamp profile.

If you want to donate toward Dissard's recording costs, click here.

My name is David Slutes. I’ve been a part of Hotel Congress for, oh, 24 years or so. I’ve taken on various roles—Cyber Café manager (remember cyber cafes?), Hotel Manager, self-appointed sommelier, and for the last 16 years, Entertainment Director. But even prior to my employment, I spent a great deal of my life here at Hotel Congress. As a musician, this was my favorite place to play; as a bachelor, this was my favorite place to play. Now, in April 2020, I am married with two children, and packing groceries at the Hotel Congress Market.

And I couldn’t be more grateful.

Hotel Congress is a special, weird, controversial, sprawling beast. The creative energy of the people who work here, the professionalism/anarchy of the management, the fearless politics and “go for it” attitude of ownership, and the “every guest, every time” mantra we corp-speak is actually embraced.

But now, most of this has been silenced. The concert venues, sit-down dining, dance club, weddings, parties, and hotel guests have all necessarily disappeared.

I miss it all. I miss our festivals and giant events of course—that’s my thing—but mostly I miss the days to hum. I miss the clink of wine glasses, I miss Salvador Duran crooning on Thursdays, I miss the wide grins of old friends meeting at the Tap Room to reminisce or pregame. I miss the knowing Michigan snowbirds showing their friends historical building details while adding new apocryphal details to the Dillinger legend. I miss the aging musician regaling his girlfriend about the amazing show he played here back in the ’90s opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I miss the late night thump of the disco and the sleepless guest calling down to tell us to please turn it down. I miss the FBI-escort surrounding the political power lunch while seated next to the punk rock band, both tables tucking into the baked eggs. I miss the late night love birds sneaking into the dark corners where they think the security staff can’t see them. I miss the quartet of mezcal fueled dancers swaying to cumbia under the stars. I miss the giant pancakes awaiting to be eaten by the kids who are running laps around the plaza while a honeybee, eying his opportunity, swoops in. I miss best-bartender-ever Barb, yelling at one guest then hugging his best friend. I miss the clamor of the food truck as it churns out tasty 2am food to the post-drinking, pre-Uber club bum bar folk. I miss the boomers demanding more chairs for the early evening concerts then barely giving way as the horde of dancing millennials take over late night. I miss the gentle touch of our door staff escorting out that guy who is acting like a jerk. I miss the woman who insists on renting a “ghost room” then gets too scared to stay in it all night. I miss the ghost that scared her. I miss that awful band that drove everyone out of the Club. I miss that sold out show that everyone waited in a line for an hour on Congress Street to see. I miss the finely dressed wedding party guests getting down on the dance floor with the grimiest downtown hipsters. I miss the death-warmed-over, hungover couple who stumble down the stairs after their late-checkout, staring straight into the front desk attendant’s eyes and boozily stating “That was the best goddam night EVER” and then pleading for Tylenol and a Bloody Mary.

Local First Arizona is hosting a free Virtual Earth Day Arizona Celebration with a special guest appearance from Calexico's Joey Burns of Calexico from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22.

At this online celebration of Earth Day's 50th anniversary, Local First will explore how to build environmental and community resilience against a global pandemic and climate crisis while raising funds for vulnerable Arizona small businesses in the COVID-19 era. This public health crisis highlights how major disasters disproportionately affect those without resources, healthcare, housing, job security and food security. Businesses all across Arizona are rethinking how to do operate.

But the novel coronavirus has also presented an opportunity for businesses to identify where they can be more sustainable. On a macro scale, the shifts needed to curb the effects of climate change are very much possible and beneficial for businesses as they work to rebuild beyond this current crisis.

Local First Arizona's mission has always been focused on supporting strong local economies and communities that are diverse and inclusive and ensure all people can thrive. Now, the Local First sustainability programs are expanding in real time to adapt to the changing world and support businesses to navigate and thrive in uncertain times. Through partnerships and collaboration, these programs provide the tools needed for rebuilding more sustainable and resilient businesses for a healthier world.

Local First Arizona will be expanding its efforts for economic and environmental resilience in
Tucson by launching the Southern Arizona Green Business Leaders Program and growing its
SCALE UP Educational Program. We are hosting a new virtual sustainability series focused on community-supported agriculture, food waste, home energy audits, water conservation and more. Join us to help raise funds for the statewide Small Business Relief Fund, celebrate 50 years of climate action and resilience in Arizona, and highlight green local businesses across the state, including:

• Hotel Congress of Tucson
• Fair Trade Cafe of Phoenix
• Arizona Apparel Foundation of Tempe
• NexVeg of Flagstaff
• Pop-Cycle Shop of Tucson
• Friends of the Verde River of Cottonwood

Mrs. Green will be our MC and we'll have a performance by special musical guest Joey Burns of Calexico.

For more info, visit the LFA website.

Michael Peel is the Southern Arizona director for Local First Arizona.

It's Friday, which usually means going and doing something fun to cap off the end of the work or school week. What's that you say? Everything is closed? Well, not to worry! Tonight, Fox Presents Friday Nights In!

Co-hosted by Tucson Weekly, tonight's "Friday Nights In" features Acoustic Crossroads with singer/songwriters Billy Shaw Jr. & Amy Munoz right in your living room. Stream starting at 7 p.m. to take part in this virtual concert, without having to worry whether you're standing six feet away from the closest concertgoer.

Billy Shaw Jr. is a Tucson native and country music award-winning entertainer. Amy Munoz is a rocker who hails from Bakersfield, California, but has become a beloved Tucsonan. Get a taste of their tunes from your couch or dance like nobody's watching in your room.

For more information, visit the Facebook event here. We'll see you there!

Unfortunately we won't be able to sample some tasty rock jams this year as KFMA Day has been canceled.

KFMA announced earlier today that the yearly event has been canceled amid rampant COVID-19 closures:
Tickets will be refunded, but no information has been released as of yet on when.

The performing arts community has plenty to be concerned about with the pandemic now raging across with globe, with major festivals like SXSW and Coachella either canceling or postponing their 2020 events. And while there is only one confirmed case of COVID-19 in Pima County, there remains a lot of uncertainty because there are so few test kits that at this point that testing has been extremely limited here and across the country.

Already, this weekend's Tucson Festival of Books has been canceled (although that was more about the reluctance of authors to travel than concern about being in danger of catching COVID-19 at the University of Arizona). Other major events are on the horizon, including the Fourth Avenue Street Fair, the Tucson Folk Festival and the Pima County Fair. As of this morning, all those events are moving forward.

The show is going on at downtown's Rialto Theatre and 191 Toole, according to an email from Rialto Theatre Foundation Executive Director Curtis McCrary, who says that staff is taking additional steps to sanitize surfaces, wash their hands and stay home if they are sick. Likewise, the Rialto asks patrons to stay home if they are not feeling well or have recently traveled to an overseas COVID-19 hot spot.

Here's the letter from McCrary:

Dear Rialto and 191 Toole patrons, ticket buyers, and the Tucson community at large:

We wanted to let you know that we are very closely monitoring the rapidly developing situation with the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic, as it has officially been deemed as of today.

Although there are very few known cases in Arizona, and only one to date in Pima County, we understand the importance of doing everything possible to mitigate its spread. To that end, we are following CDC guidelines, any governmental guidance or strictures be they local, state, or federal, and we are in close communication with touring artist management as we collectively assess the situation as it unfolds.

We also have instructed our staff that it is of paramount importance they stay home if they are feeling even the slightest hint of sickness, and we will take any recommended measures, such as working from home or other social distancing, should they become necessary. In addition, we have issued extensive instruction to staff regarding hand-washing and sanitation practices that reflect the seriousness with which we take this matter, and will continue to do so on an ongoing basis.

It is our understanding that the spread of the COVID-19 virus comes most readily from surface contact transmission, so we’re taking every precaution possible regarding handwashing, use of hand sanitizer, and disinfection in bathrooms, bars and elsewhere.

For now, as shows and events on our calendar are still going on, we advise anyone planning to attend a show to consider carefully the potential risks, and follow best practices according to the CDC:

Representing women's voices in Celtic rock, the fire-breathing Eldritch Dragons perform under the light of the full moon. At The Metal Arts Village.

The dreamy folksy strains of Natty & The Sunset enliven Monday night. At Elliott's on Congress.

NOTE: The metal concert featuring Mortiferum with Thra and Suicide Forest that was scheduled for today at Club Congress has been canceled due to a family funeral.