20 November 6 - 12, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Keeping Live Music Alive Dallas appoints a task force to tackle questions over cover fees and future of local music. BY ERIC DIEP W hen Dallas code en- forcement officers in- formed two popular restaurants earlier this month that they could no longer charge the cover fees required to offer live music, the response from com- menters on social media was swift and an- gry: The city was threatening the livelihoods of local musicians and the future of these and similar businesses. At a news conference last week, city lead- ers made it clear that they had heard and were ready to tackle the problem — with a task force that will review city codes and of- fer suggestions for solutions. Those are due to arrive next spring, before the FIFA World Cup comes to town. Facebook posts by the owners of The Free Man in Deep Ellum and Revelers Hall in the Bishop Arts District started the small storm that led to the creation of the task force. The two restaurants had been charg- ing a cover to pay musicians for years and were blindsided when they learned early in October that their restaurant permits didn’t allow that. Code enforcement ordered them to remove their cover charges immediately. If they wanted them back, they’d have to get a different kind of permit, they say, which is less compatible with their main business — serving food and drinks, in this case, to peo- ple who like jazz. The Free Man charged $10 for live music. Revelers Hall added $6 to people’s tab, which is clearly stated on menu pages, signs in the interior and on its website. Council Member Chad West announced that the city is estab-lishing a Hospitality and Nightlife Task Force. He was joined by Quality of Life Committee Chair Zarin Gracey and task force members Jason Roberts, owner of Revelers Hall, and Abel Mulugheta, representing the Greater Dallas Chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association. “Our city should be doing everything possible to help businesses like Revelers Hall thrive,” West said. “Not make it harder for them to exist. And this isn’t an issue that is limited to Bishop Arts. It af- fects places like Free Man in Deep Ellum, the Libertine in Lower Greenville. We an- ticipate Wild Detectives just down the street and others across Dallas. And once again, to be clear, I’m not blaming code compliance here. They are doing their job. And I know that there are some bad opera- tors in Deep Ellum that really need to be held accountable.” The city’s rules needed to be updated to re- flect the realities of today’s economy and en- tertainment culture. The task force includes 14 members representing Dallas’ hospitality in- dustry and will be chaired by Terry Lowery, former director of Dallas Water Utilities. “This task force will work closely with city staff, neighborhood stakeholders and business owners to find a balanced, mod- ern approach that supports good operators while maintaining public safety and the neighborhood quality of life,” West said. “Specifically, I’ve asked the group to, one, review the music fee issue, two, re-examine the city’s noise ordinance, and three, ex- plore the creation of a new entertainment permit that supports innovation and flexi- bility. The recommendations will go before the Quality of Life Committee in the spring of 2026.” The task force is due to deliver its recom- mendations by the end of February. After vetting by staff, they are expected to appear before the City Council in March. By city standards, this is a fast timeline spurred by the arrival of World Cup matches in June. What happens until then? “Right now, we’re adding a ‘Donation to Revelers Musicians’ fund to our tabs ... which is allowed, Roberts said. “We just aren’t allowed to charge an entrance fee or anything tied to that specific evening’s per- formance. It’s a little wonky, but keeps us compliant while the city updates its codes and permitting.” Roberts outlined one model of adding a music fee to customers’ tabs. “I came from a live music background, so I loved the arts, really wanted to put to- gether a jazz venue,” Roberts said. “The trouble we found was these little spots, I mean, we’re 1,300 square feet. It’s hard to make the numbers work in order to bring the talent that we have in the city to play here. These guys, they deserve to make a living wage. And so the model we came up with we found in New Orleans. That res- taurant charged a music fee that was added to the end of your tab. That’s maybe the model that we could apply here. And it’s been working well. We paid out every year about $300,000 to the local musicians, which is amazing for a little tiny space of this size.” City Manager Kim Tolbert emphasized the importance of urgency. She said her staff is committed to working alongside the Hos- pitality and Nightlife Task Force. “ T he Night Entertainment Team will be housed under the Office of Cultural Affa irs under the directorship of Martine Philippe,” Tolbert said. “Together we will solve issues. We don’t run away from our problems; we run to the problem, and we want to make sure that we’re addressing this dead-on. I truly believe that that’s what good governance looks like. It’s about how we identify challenges, how we work to- gether and bring real solutions that strengthen our city.” ▼ NEW MUSIC QUALITY TIME GIRL MESQUITE’S HANNAH JADAGU TRADES BEDROOM POP FOR WISPY SYNTHESIZERS ON DESCRIBE. BY ERIC DIEP H annah Jadagu is going bigger and bolder on Describe, which she dropped on Friday, Oct. 24, via Sub Pop Records. The 12-song album is built on a blossom- ing relationship she had while living in New York, but had to come to terms with the dis- tance from it after moving away. Following her relocation to California for the summer, she missed the comfort and intimacy of her New York home. She had to leave New York to continue her music career, exploring new dimensions of her sound and finding new collaborators to experiment with analog synthesizers and drum machines. “I was feeling love and gratitude, but also guilt about being away for my job,” she says in press materials. “Being a musician re- quires sacrificing time. And one thing about me, I’m a quality time girlie.” On her debut album Aperture, the pri- mary instrument was the electric guitar. On Describe, she’s embracing the flow of things, figuring out how to express ideas that aren’t fully concrete. It’s a soft-synth dreamscape, with songs finding Jadagu navigating through her feelings and sing- ing some of her most brutally honest lyrics to date. On the title track, she expresses a dance with a potential fling that lost some of its spark. “Maybe it’s getting time we head back to Texas / Don’t you hate this weather?” she sings. The electro pop single “My Love” is a feel-good song about a long-distance rela- tionship, capturing young love in such a way that anyone who experiences reunit- ing with someone they missed for so long can relate to. “Normal Today,” thrumming with icy industrialism, is going to be one of those festival anthems that’ll create a col- lective experience when we’re singing “Help me so your love is found” at the top of our lungs. According to The Dallas Morning News, Jadagu’s parents moved from Zimbabwe to Texas in the late '‘90s. While she was a senior at Horn High School in Mesquite, she recorded songs on her iPhone in her bedroom during the pandemic, uploading one of her first songs on SoundCloud that took off. Then in 2021, Sub Pop released her five-song EP, What Is Going On? She’s currently on tour this fall in North America and Europe, where she’ll be doing a record release show in Brooklyn at Public Records, as well as doing the Pitchfork Mu- sic Festival in Paris and London. Stream Describe on your desired plat- forms now. courtesy Revelers Hall Dallas task force will work with business owners at venues like Revelers Hall. | B-SIDES | ▼ Music
