First of six parts

On the Lehigh Valley arts and entertainment scene, professional folk, country, blues, jazz, rock and pop musicians have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shutdowns.

Concerts have been canceled, performance venues are temporarily closed and restaurants and bars aren’t allowed to open their doors.

While many area singer-songwriters and music entertainers have gone online for virtual concerts, there are no real substitutes for live audiences.

Country singer Kendal Conrad, who lives in Pottstown, has had a flourishing career, with highlights that include singing a duet with Keith Urban at Musikfest, and getting more than 200,000 hits on Spotify for her single, “Come to Your Senses.”

Conrad has released a new single, “Leader of the Pack.”

“My normal is playing five days a week,” says Conrad in a phone interview. “Full-time music is all I do. It’s so so weird sitting at home. I don’t know what to do with myself.

“I had so many things lined up, some of which I was not even able to announce. I spent so much time booking and getting things ready.”

One cancellation was singing the National Anthem at a Boston Red Sox spring-training game.

The alternative for musicians is going online, something Conrad has done many times since the shutdown began in mid-March.

She has done a facebook live concert in association with Discover Lehigh Valley for a virtual happy hour, a livestream fundraiser for COVID-19 first-responders by J.J. Ratigan Brewery of Pottstown, an Instagram concert for Allentown’s Strata Flats Apartments, was interviewed on the Tee Party Country Music Podcast and Fox Sports Radio, and sang her new single, “Leader of the Pack,” via Skype on WFMZ-TV Channel 69.

Conrad has also sung for a Virtual First Friday show for Bethlehem’s Southside Arts District, on PEAK TV’s “Virtual in the Valley,” on the CAT Country 96 FM Facebook page, the “Culture in the Lehigh Valley” radio show and podcast, “Nashville Meets World,” SteelStacks’ “Lunch Break” and the “Lehigh Valley With Love” podcast. She also streams live songs from her Facebook page.

Even all of these online, radio and television performances don’t make up for playing live, however.

And, for Conrad, the coronavirus crisis has made it difficult to create new music.

“It’s hard to focus. I feel distracted and worried. My mind is in a thousand different places. I’ve been cleaning and organizing, doing mindless work to take my mind off things.

“We have to stay home for everyone‘s health and safety. I get that. But now I’m going into my emergency fund, something I didn’t think I’d have to do at this point in my career.”

Conrad has been uplifted by the online support of her fans.

“There has been really positive support from a lot of people. I didn’t realize how many there were.”

She is considering doing a monthly facebook live concert after the coronavirus shutdown has ended.

Like everyone, Conrad wonders about the future:

“We might not have the big shows or bus tours with all the costume changes. Will people scale down? Will venues pay as much? Will people still come out?

“All we can do now is to try to give people a sense of normalcy through music.”

Information: www.kendalconrad.com

In next week’s Focus: Gigless in the Valley, Part 2: Singer-songwriters-musicians Dave Fry and Steve Brosky and concert producer Daniel Benedict