Kentucky is proud of its musical heritage from icon such as Bill Monroe and Loretta Lynn and current hitmakers like Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers.

Now there's a new office to promote that legacy.

Last week, Governor Andy Beshear announced the creation of the new Governor's Office of Music.

Marvin Bartlett talked to the man who will head up the new office.

I'm here with Sebastian Kitchen, the deputy secretary of the tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet and now the executive director of the newly formed Governor's Office of Music.

Thanks for coming in and congratulations on your new role.

Thank you very much and thanks for having me.

And let me come on and talk about the new office, which we're really excited about.

Yeah.

When this was announced last week, what was the immediate reaction?

The response is been great.

The governor announced it on stage at Bourbon and beyond, in front of the tens of thousands of people in between two of the bands, and Danny Wimmer, who runs those two festivals, which over those two weekends in Louisville brought 400,000 people to Kentucky.

And the response from the crowd there was really good.

And the response since then has been really good.

We, as part of the office, are going to have a music industry directory where artists can go on venues, festivals, music businesses, and they can go on and enter their information.

We've already had more than 130 come on and enter their information, so communities can also become certified as a music friendly community.

We've already had a couple of counties that have submitted their information to do that in a couple more who've gotten more information.

So the response has been really good and overwhelmingly positive.

They're really excited about the governor and the governor's actions and his announcement.

Yeah, we've always been proud of our music heritage and promoted.

How's this different from efforts in the past?

We are proud of our musical heritage and Bill Monroe and Loretta Lynn to Tyler Childers and Chris Stapleton and Simpson and some of those artists today, and all different types of John to Bryson Tiller and Jack Harlow and what this is seeking to do.

And and I think, you know, there are very few states that are doing this in the way in Kentucky.

Did so, so so there's a lot of leadership by Governor Beshear, who's very, very supportive of the arts and especially of music.

But it brings in several aspects that the governor did this to connect the music industry, to bring in all aspects of the music industry.

This directory, as I talked about, will allow people to register again.

A lot of artists have already reached out and really, really excited about that.

The music friendly designation I was talking about a license plate sounds like home license plate that we've designed that will be available in Clark's offices soon.

And so we want to work with communities and we, you know, and with artists to do all that we can to support them.

Because not only is it a big part of our cultural heritage, but it's also an economic engine and helps support a lot of jobs and economic activity.

The arts, including music, have a $6.9 billion annual economic impact and support over 51,000 jobs.

If you look at information from the Kentucky chapter of the National Independent Venue Association there, those independent venues have an economic impact of $570 million a year, in support over 4400 jobs, and they serve over 2.1 million people, which, if you think of the population of Kentucky as a pretty remarkable number that those venues welcome and support.

Yeah.

If you're a musician, it's all about getting noticed.

It's about finding places to play and practice your skills.

How is this directory going to help these up and coming songwriters and musicians in our state?

I think that's one of the great parts, is you can go on there and you.

We haven't uploaded that part yet.

We want to get a good number on there and then we'll upload that.

And you also, when you allow people to submit information, you also want to make sure that you have good actors, that they're submitting good accurate information.

So we want to verify that and be responsible.

But then once this information is up, it will allow you whether your venue looking for an artist or whether you're looking for a recording studio, if you know, if you know, if you're an artist and you're wanting to contact a venue or if you're, you know.

So depending on which part of the industry that you're in, you can go on there and you can look for that information.

You're doing the job.

So I don't know how many figures you have yet, but do you have any idea how many music festivals and music related events we have every year?

I don't know, it's a great question, but we have a lot of great festivals.

I know you all have them close to here.

You have Rail Bird and I mentioned a couple of the big ones, you know, Louder Than Life and Bourbon and Beyond.

They bring a lot of people, but you have great festivals in every corner of the state.

You have Romp and Owensboro, the Master Musicians Festival in Somerset, you have healing.

Appalachia was taken this year off, but you came to Kentucky for the first time last year, was in Boyd County and had a lot of people out there.

And so, you know, just so many great festivals.

You have Laurel Cove Festival, which is at one of our state parks out in eastern Kentucky.

And so that's a great impact all the way around.

So you have so many festivals in so many different parts of the state.

And so we think sometimes about the big ones.

But for those communities, for Bell County, for some of these other Pulaski County, those are huge economic drivers for their local economy as well.

You talk about cities being able to be designated as music friendly communities.

How did they get that designation and what benefit would there be in that?

Well, they can go on to the website music gov.

There's a tab on there that will give you information about how you go through that process, but it allows a local official or local entity, city government, county government or a tourism director, because we know in a lot of communities that Sue's at the forefront of marketing their communities and their venues and their festivals, and they know all these assets that they have, but they'll they'll reach out.

They'll fill out a form.

They'll designate somebody to work with us through that process and just let us know what those, those musical assets are that, that either support our artists or that bring tourists and guests into their community.

And you mentioned the license plate you're working on.

We talk a little bit more about that.

I suspect that will be a fairly popular plate.

The response that's been great is not available quite yet, but it will be available very, very soon.

So those who are interested check in with your local clerk or go to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet website.

It was designed by a graphic artist in our cabinet who does a lot of great work, and she did a great job.

And the response has been good to a person, everyone I've talked to.

In fact, when I went through the process to get this approved, one of the committee members on there said, it makes me want to pick up a guitar.

It makes me want to learn the guitar.

And so it's been a really exciting, positive response to that.

And so yeah, I encourage people of your music lover, music supporter to go on there and, and pick up those license plates when they're available here in the near future.

Do you expect some well-known musicians to help promote this office?

We want to talk to them and do that.

We've this point we've heard from dozens of musicians, which is great.

And I know, you know, when the governor walked out on on Friday, he walked out to when he walked out to me, he went out to Universal Sound by Tyler Childers, which is a great Kentucky artist who has far reaching impact, and the governor has a great relationship with him.

But that's just conversations that will have moving forward as we get the office up and off the ground.

But Michael Johnson, who does wood songs on Wkyt, I was on Michael's program on Monday night and we talked about it, and he's incredibly supportive, and he has a huge reach through the dozens of of PBS stations and NPR stations where his program is aired.

And Michael supportive and talking about it.

So I think you'll have a lot of our Kentucky artists who want to be on board and be supportive.

They're they're proud to be from Kentucky.

For sure.

Well, we want people to go to your website to get more information.

And we know that's still a work in progress as well.

But let's mention that we'll show it on screen k y music dot dot gov.

And that is going to be a good resource for folks right.

Yes sir.

Got a lot of information on there about all of these pieces that we're talking about.

The directory and the designation and the license plates.

Got some great photos too.

So it shows some of the great musicians that we have here in Kentucky.

Well, we appreciate you coming in.

And thanks for telling us about the newly formed Kentucky's Office of Music.

Thanks for having me.

And thanks for letting me talk about the office.

The other stay with a similar music office is Texas, which served as a model for the Kentucky program.