With the help of the Louisville, Mississippi, community, Ed and Janet Koeder, owners of the town’s local music shop, Mainly Music, are finally bringing live music to their small town with hopes to attract music fans from all over central Mississippi.
This Saturday, presented by Dirty Outlaw Entertainment, Lake Tiak O’Khata will be the site of the first free concert, which features music from Mississippi native Chad Perry and lead singer of Lillian Axe, acclaimed Louisiana hard rock band.
The concerts are a passion project that has in some way been in the works since the Koeder’s first bought Mainly Music in 2012.
Ed Koeder, Mississippi State University alumnus and former member of The Famous Maroon band, said the idea for free concerts in Louisville started out small, first arranging a Battle of the Bands competition that was held at Louisville’s Red Hills Festival. Koeder said he felt this would help showcase the town’s talent.
“We were trying to get something started to show the area what they were missing by not having it,” Koeder said.
Things began to pick up in 2015 after Koeder bought a vacant warehouse located behind Mainly Music and rebuilt it into a top-of-the-line recording space named Burnt Orange Sound Studio.
“It’s been a slow process trying to build one event on another event,” Koeder said. “It really started coming together when we got the studio, it gave us access to bigger names and it was really able to start bringing in another tier of entertainment.”
Jason Stewart, manager and seasoned sound engineer at Burnt Orange Studio, who first began his friendship with Koeder as a customer at Mainly Music, has also been working closely with Koeder and the city of Louisville to put together these concerts. It is obvious that Stewart has an immense love of music, which transfers into all his work on the upcoming events.
Stewart hopes that the studio will help bring attention from entertainment acts that would otherwise possibly never visit Louisville.
“We’re just steady spreading our network and in order to do that we’re trying to bring musicians into Louisville because we have no art or music going on in this town and we’re trying to change that,” Stewart said.
Stewart said he also hopes the concerts will be an eye-opener for the city of Louisville and a positive change that would lead to more music being performed in the town.
“Two or three little bars up and down the strip that could have music venues wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Stewart said. “Kind of like the Cotton District, it would be really nice to have a place like that. We just want to make this a staple in Louisville.”
With one concert per month planned until May, Koeder and Stewart hope the concerts eventually snowball into a regular event in Louisville, with possible plans to branch out further in the state.
With help coming from many in Louisville, including the Winston County Mississippi Economic Development Partnership, the Louisville Chamber of Commerce, and even local businesses like Next Level Fitness (the site of another concert in May), the people working hard to bring these events together hope the concerts attract music fans from all over Mississippi looking to enjoy great food, drinks, company and music.
“I promise you won’t be disappointed,” Stewart said.
Brian Jones, along with special guest Chad Perry, will perform the first of these concerts on Saturday, Feb. 4th, at Lake Tiak O’Khata in Louisville. The concert, along with all others planned, is free of charge.
