First Crack 67. Steve McClellan on Developing Musicians and Independence
December 2nd, 2005 by 
Garrick Van Buren
Steve McClellan’s name is synonymous with and as legendary as First Avenue where he worked for 30+ years. Lately, he’s been working with the Diverse Emerging Music Organization - a non-profit focused on connecting independent venues and new artists. We sat down at the Acadia Cafe, I had a Duval (Acadia has an amazing beer selection) and he jumped right into it.
Keep up and you’ll hear about:
- DEMO
- Developing musicians
- The new 35th Anniversary First Ave Bootleg CD - 16 tracks of bootlegs, just in time for gift giving - all proceeds go to DEMO.
- A run down of Minneapolis clubs
- KFAI
- Twin Cities Metro Independent Business Alliance
- Bringing cultures together through music
- and how committing to independence is a long-term and risky strategy
This is one of my favorite conversations ever. I couldn’t have asked for anything better to end First Crack’s month hiatus.
Special thanks to Bill Boulger from IndieTickets for connecting us.
Listen to Steve McClellan on Developing Musicians and Independence [49 min]
Check out my FastCast for a 10 minutes bonus track with Steve McClellan focused on DEMO, the Bootleg CD, and the December 14th CD release party.
Posted in Minneapolis, Music, Podcasts | 
December 10th, 2005 at 10:55 am
The inteveriew with Steve was great. The man can talk and it’s great that you were able to capture it (and keep him on-topic!). Nice work and much appreciated. Every independent musician should listen to this show.
-Ross