It is just fitting that during this holiday of Thanksgiving, we give thanks to all of the families, friends, fans, supporters, and the sponsors, who have "walked the walked" or who have traveled the long journey to the unknown with the artists of the independent music industry. Every artist heard, or is yet to be heard, will tell you that their families and their friends who constantly support, encourage, and push them to pursue not just a career but their music and their hope of things not seen.

They are what every artist's needs in an industry filled with bureaucracy and red tape - where most of the times the business comes first before the talent and the music.  They are the "balcony people." These are the people who will clap their hands and acknowledge nameless talent. They are the unknown stranger who drops a coin or two in a musician's tin cup who they see playing as they walk by the subway entrance or the bystander who stops and take his or her time to listen to their music.  It's a family member who will sit in a folding chair watching the artist perform in an empty garage…closing his eyes and visualizing of that day that his brother or sister is performing in a sold out venue.  They are the people who believe in the artist's talents…who dream their dreams...and who stand by them no matter what - watching them fall and then rise again.  It is through this enormous support system or network of people that an artist draws inner strength and inspiration that brings the best out of his or her music from deep in their soul.

Whoever you are…whether you are a fan who would stand in line for hours to get the new CD, a brother or sister who would bear each night the noise down the garage, or a music producer who has been moving heaven and earth trying to cut a deal for an artist's first single…Thank you! 

Amy Bakari

Editor-In-Chief

In Between The Tracks

Association of Independent Artists