Tim Peacock, an Athens music-scene staple who has long booked shows for Stuart’s Opera House and Nelsonville Music Festival, will move on to new projects as he ends his tenure as booking agent at Casa Nueva.
“I started booking at Casa about five and a half years ago when they asked me to help for the summer, and the summer turned into about five and a half years,” Peacock said. “It was time for me to stop and focus more on Stuart’s Opera House and the Nelsonville Music Festival.”
Though Peacock will no longer be booking at Casa Nueva, 4 W. State St., he said he has other ideas in the pipeline that he plans on announcing later. He said booking at Casa consumes a lot of time, and that someone else will be more inspired to do it than him.
Josh Brown, partial owner of Casa, will be Peacock’s replacement as the booker for the Mexican restaurant, assuming the board of directors for Casa approves his application, which is uncontested.
“Casa has a tendency to do everything in-house,” said Junebug, operator of the Open Stage at Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, 24 W. Union St., as well as a friend and colleague of both Brown and Peacock. “(Brown) knows local musicians. He will probably trend the local music a little heavier.”
Brown currently plays in the band Dune, which performed at the Athens Halloween Block Party the past two years; Junebug added that he will be interested to see what style changes are made to the music at Casa.
In the past, Junebug, Peacock and Scott Winland, booking agent at The Union, have worked together to coordinate shows among venues, Junebug said. With multiple bands booked to play on any given night, the three of them never wanted to become too competitive with one another, so they set up a Google calendar to post all bookings to avoid overlapping genres.
“We tried best we could to stay off of each other’s gigs,” Junebug said. “Eventually it worked out so we could see each other’s calendars. We all had a heads-up, so it’s not competitive in this scene.”
Brown said he intends to continue Casa’s tradition of having a diverse lineup of musical acts and continuing to expand the relationship with the other Uptown bars.
“One of my near-term goals is to get Andie Walla a part of (the calendar) so we can see what the Skull is booking,” Brown said. “Especially what we found problematic is there will be a dance night in three of the places at the same time, and that just splits the crowd and everyone suffers.”
His relationship is already strong with the other Uptown establishments, but Brown said his biggest obstacle will be working with Casa’s social media more often.
“He’s well-known and well-liked by everybody in town, so he’ll do just fine,” Junebug said.
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