On a roll

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

In this week’s issue, you’ll find our annual Artown Guide, which, as always, features coverage of Rollin’ on the River, the summer concert series presented by the RN&R each Friday in July. Covering this series has always been a bit of a pain for us here on the editorial side of the newspaper. As journalists, we find it distasteful to hype our own shit. We don’t like to write about events sponsored by the advertising side of the paper. It just seems tacky, and gross, and conflicted.

It was especially difficult a few years ago, when the bands were mediocre cover bands or faddish world music acts. That’s part of why we editors—me, in particular—have taken a more active role booking the series over the last couple of years. We’ve also attempted to rebrand it as a celebration of local music. The complaint we’ve heard the most about Artown over the years is that there hasn’t been enough spotlight thrown on the artists—of all disciplines—who actually live and work here in the Truckee Meadows. So this approach to Rollin’ on the River is a response to that. We live in a great town, with a beautiful river and a talented community—let’s celebrate that.

That approach also led to the creation of Still Rollin’ this summer, a late-night concert series that features some of the best local music, and is an accurate presentation of what live music in this town is all about. These concerts follow the Rollin’ concerts each Friday and will be a blast. For this series, we’re really proud to partner with Shea’s Tavern, a crucial nexus of old Reno resistance to the steamroller of gentrification.

Lots of good music, and good times. Hope to see you there.