Grassroots first, and built to stay that way.
We are a grassroots advocacy effort. Everything below, the state partnership, the institutions, and the people leading it, exists to support that work, so every part of the region can move forward at its own hyperlocal level.
Led by people who've done the work, not just studied it.
Stephen W. Marshall
Founder & Director
Founder and director of AMC and CMO of the ETSU Research Corporation. He teaches brand, marketing, and media strategy at ETSU, and he's a working bassist and audio engineer with more than 1,000 live performances behind him. He also helps lead Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas.
Ron Roach
Co-Director
Department chair and professor of Appalachian Studies at ETSU, home of the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies program, and director of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services.
Don Pitts
Thought Partner
Founder of Sound Music Cities, the Austin firm behind the 2024 Northeast Tennessee Music Census. He ran the Austin Music Office in the Live Music Capital of the World, and Spin named him one of the 30 most influential people in music.
Jimmy Wheeler
Thought Partner
Nashville born and raised, with a 30-year career at Sony Music spanning sales, marketing, radio promotion, and distribution, plus stops in music tech and artist management. Now Director of Business Development for the Tennessee Entertainment Commission.
"We asked the region what it needed instead of guessing. The answer was each other. Everything AMC builds starts from that."
· Steve Marshall, Founder
The partners behind the work.
Three partners carry real, ongoing roles in how AMC runs, alongside the state partnership below.
ETSU Research Corporation
AMC operates as an innovation platform inside the ETSU Research Corporation, a d.b.a. and 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the grants management and institutional backing to operate at scale from day one. That places us inside an institution built to turn regional assets into economic development.
ETSU Department of Appalachian Studies
Our academic partner is the only department of its kind in the country, home to the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies program, with alumni including Kenny Chesney and Amythyst Kiah. Its faculty carry deep expertise in Appalachian culture and history well beyond music alone.
Sound Music Cities
Sound Music Cities conducted the 2024 Northeast Tennessee Music Census, the study that gave us our founding numbers. The Austin firm has worked with music communities from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and remains our ongoing research engine for measuring what's working as the ecosystem grows.
State music policy runs through this region.
Our founding state partner is the Tennessee Entertainment Commission. TEC sponsored the 2024 Northeast Tennessee Music Census, chose this region as the first pilot in its statewide initiative, and stays focused on measuring and growing Tennessee's music economies region by region, the same work we carry on the ground.
In April 2026, Governor Bill Lee formed the Tennessee Music Advisory Council, a statewide body charged with building sustainable music advocacy across seven Tennessee regions, run through TEC. Both of our directors, Stephen Marshall and Ron Roach, were appointed to it, giving this region a direct voice in how the state shapes music policy going forward.
Census sponsor · Statewide pilot partner
Help lead a regional committee.
Regional committees are staffed by local volunteers connected through the AMC digital hub.