‘Music unites us all’: El Paso musicians take talents online

EL PASO, Texas -- The pandemic may be pushing apart, but for some, the connections are more alive than ever. Some El Paso musicians are taking their talents online to bring people together for virtual concerts.

Those musicians include Borderland nightlife staple DJ Johnny Kage. When the pandemic forced his fans to stay home, Kage invited them into his, virtually.

"I felt helpless," said Kage, a 104.3 Hit FM morning show host and Sirius XM resident. "I want to do something to help our community."

For the last two weeks, Kage has performed live for shows on Facebook.

"It feels like you're in a virtual party, well actually, you are in a virtual party," Kage said. "A lot of people feel like, 'I need to escape this.' We all want to feel normal and it's normal to be feeling like that right now, that we feel alone."

As Kage mixes tracks in his home, fans dance along in theirs and send him pictures and videos.

His songs have been heard around the world -- literally.

"I've had people writing to me from Germany," Kage said. "I've had people write to me from Japan, overseas, Australia."

On Kage's most recent 'Noche De Juarez' livestream, Kage had more than 130,000 views.

"It just shows that this isn't about cities, states, countries. This is affecting everyone, but it shows the true spirit of El Paso," Kage said. "How we're open to everything here. We love everyone and people don't forget us for that."

He's not the only local musician bringing people together online. Pianist Billy Townes has been streaming too. Most recently, he performed in piano duel on Facebook, which raked in thousands of views.

"People like to be entertained and something to break the monotony because, you know, all things considered, it's like Groundhog day, we're doing the same thing over and over and over." Townes said. "We're musicians and we love to play. We love to play for people."

The music is bringing people together, even when it feels like we're worlds apart.

"Music unites us all. It doesn't matter what race, what background, what color, what religion you are," Kage said. "It brings happiness. It brings tears. A lot of the music that I'm playing brings back memories. We get online and we can all talk and maybe reminisce about better times. It's going to be better one day, but we're going to look back and say, you know what? I'm a better person now. And, you know, I coped through this situation with music."

Kage will be performing on Facebook Friday and Saturday night. Townes is planning another show at some point in May online.