Shapiro and EG’s own Dean Budnick will be talking about The Music Never Stops Friday

Creating music events – festivals, concerts, clubs – involves a lot of work, good contacts, and no small amount of magic. Peter Shapiro has had all of those on his side in a career as a concert promoter stretching from the early 1990s. He’s going to be talking about that Friday night with EG’s own Dean Budnick, at the Union Theater in Westerly. 

It’s going to be a fun conversation. Their discussion, to be moderated by co-founder of ATO Records and Mick Management Michael McDonald, will be centered on the book Shapiro wrote with Budnick, The Music Never Stops. Reading the book is like hanging out at a bar for hours with your best storyteller friend. 

Budnick grew up in EG (Class of 1983), left for a while, then moved back with his wife and young family 20 years ago. He has been writing about music since his grad students days and and his path has overlapped with Shapiro’s numerous times since Budnick first interviewed Shapiro in 1997, leading to the decision to work on a book together about Shapiro’s amazing career. 

You will hear about how a 24-year-old Shapiro took over Wetlands, a major New York City music venue, in the 1990s; his Brooklyn Bowl venues today (the first one in a bowling alley in Williamsburg but now with iterations in Nashville, Las Vegas and Philadelphia); the Lockn’ Festival, U2 3D, the Jammy Awards, among many other events. One of the big ones was the Fare Thee Well tour, a 2015 concert series that reunited core remaining members of the Grateful Dead along with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio. The cover of the book features a photo from one of those shows, complete with a rainbow that’s quite a story in itself. 

Head to Westerly to find out more – buy tickets (and a copy of the book if you’d like) HERE.