In the midst of quarantine, you’ve likely found yourself on Facebook a little (or a lot) more than usual.

While scrolling, you might also have noticed some of your favorite local musicians popping up more than usual, too.

To keep the music going, many area musicians have turned to performing concerts from the comfort, and safety, of their own homes through Facebook Live.

Here’s a look at how three area musicians – Sammy Eubanks, Justin James and Fiddlin’ Sarah Jean – are using Facebook Live to bring music to the community.

Sammy Eubanks

Sometimes when he’s playing a solo show, local blues favorite Sammy Eubanks will go on Facebook Live, just for a song or two, to give fans who couldn’t make the show a chance to enjoy his music.

But performing a concert from his home was a new one for Eubanks.

Even after the coronavirus stay-home orders went into effect, effectively canceling his only source of income, Eubanks wasn’t planning on playing a virtual concert. His wife is a hygienist whose office had yet to be shut down, so he figured, “We’ll be OK.”

But when Eubanks’ wife’s office was closed, he realized he could work from home via Facebook Live.

“This made me the sole breadwinner, and when you’re a full-time musician, that’s usually not the case,” he said.

Eubanks’ first live show, which he dubbed “Quarantine Schmorantine,” came about the day after the musician thought he needed to do a concert and simply see how things went.

“I don’t ask for help well,” he said. “But people all over the world are helping people all over the world.”

So Eubanks posted up in his living room on March 28 and performed for about an hour and a half, holding an audience of about 200 viewers throughout the show. Eubanks posted his PayPal link, paypal.me/sammyeubanks, for anyone wanting to leave a tip.

A friend from Seattle left a tip, half of which Eubanks went on to give to a musician friend in Amsterdam during his live stream.

“People all over the world helping people all over the world,” Eubanks said. “What I did learn is that people want to help.”

Eubanks recently did a second livestream, this time from his basement, which acted as a fundraiser for the Post Falls Food Bank. Two more “Quarantine Schmorantine” concerts have followed, most recently on Wednesday.

Eubanks anticipates performing these concerts once or twice a week, calling it his Plan B. He would bet money on continuing to perform concerts from his home perhaps once or twice a month even after the quarantine is over.

“Not everybody goes out every night, but they still enjoy music,” he said. “It’s funny, the interaction that happens. During the set I did on Saturday, everybody that was watching was commenting and saying hi and saying hi to everybody they knew.”

Eubanks can see the benefits of livestream concerts from both sides of the screen: He gets to perform the music he loves to perform, and his fans get to hear the music they love to hear.

“It’s great to see people coming together without coming together and helping each other as much as they can without any contact,” he said. “It’s great to see that, and, like I said, I don’t ask for help very well, but, with what’s going on, it’s very welcome.”

Visit facebook.com/sammyeubanksmusic to listen to Eubanks’ concerts.

Justin James

Like Eubanks, Justin James, a nationally recognized fiddle player who also plays guitar and mandolin, regularly goes live at his concerts, but before the coronavirus pandemic, he had never performed live from his home.

“The reason I like (performing in a venue) is that connection with the crowd and the joy from other people,” James said. “When you transfer that to a screen, it’s different.”

Because of that, James, admittedly, was reluctant about performing on Facebook Live once the quarantine took effect. But after enough prodding from friends and family and seeing other musicians perform live, he figured he had nothing to lose by giving livestreaming a shot.

James hosted “Quaran-Tunes” on March 30 and had a better time than he thought he would.

“You’ve got to find joy in different things at this time,” he said. “That was the driving force. It wasn’t money … I really wanted to do it to give my people a little bit of positivity and happiness during this weird time.”

James often bases his live show setlists on the crowd. The setlist for the concert he was supposed to perform at Washington State University Mom’s Weekend would be different than the setlist for one of his regular Arbor Crest gigs, for example.

For “Quaran-Tunes,” James realized his audience wouldn’t be separated by venue and focused on playing a variety of songs, plus requests commenters left as he performed.

After the quarantine is over, James is think about using Facebook Live to ask for requests he can play in real time at live shows.

For the time being, James is considering going live about once a week, perhaps on Monday evenings. And even after regular concerts resume, he wouldn’t be surprised if livestream concerts continued to be popular.

“I see the entertainment industry as a whole being disrupted,” he said. “Basically, the biggest concern is consumer confidence in the months and years to come, so I really could see having a weekly and biweekly livestream for musicians who do this full time and national, huge acts as something they have to turn to. You can’t take this time and be all doom and gloom, you have to find a way to innovate.”

For James, innovating means using Facebook Live to bring a bit of positivity to his audience.

“Music is the great connector and an outlet for people and communities, so, even in this time when we can’t be face to face, I still believe that’s true,” he said.

Visit facebook.com/justinjameslive to listen to James’ concerts.

Fiddlin’ Sarah Jean

For Fiddlin’ Sarah Jean, quarantine has put a pause on the three to four live shows she has performed each week since she was 15.

Because she performed so often, Facebook Live wasn’t on her radar as Jean treats her nights off like, well, nights off.

But with venues closed during quarantine, Jean, along with musician Joel Haugen, with whom Jean performs as part of the band Okay, Honey, decided it was the next best thing to a live show.

“It’s not only financially devastating, but it’s emotionally devastating because it’s an expression,” she said. “It’s not just this ego trip where you have to get your ego fed, it’s going out and experiencing the connection between you and your audience.”

Though it wasn’t the same, Okay, Honey’s first Facebook Live concert, which was on March 27, helped rebuild some of that connection.

Jean and Haugen, though open to the idea of taking requests, decided to pack their first virtual concert with originals to show people what Okay, Honey, which formed in November, was all about.

“We came up with a setlist of songs we wanted to show people because we intended on leaving the video up after the livestream so people could go back or share it after,” Jean said.

They debated mentioning their Venmo and Cashapp accounts, as Jean and Haugen have other sources of income besides music, but eventually decided to post them in the comment section after multiple people asked how they could leave them a tip.

For a band that has only been together for a few months, the livestream was a success, getting 1,100 views overnight.

“For us being a brand new band, we were able to reach to more people than would have actually come to our show,” Jean said. “A lot of people are at home, they have kids, they’re not able to go out … I got a lot of feedback from people saying, ‘It was awesome. We got to see you, and we wouldn’t have normally gone to your show.’ ”

Jean and Haugen wore sweatshirts and jeans during that livestream to give viewers a glimpse of who they are off stage, but during their next live concert, scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, the pair will be dressed to the nines as the show is a fundraiser for Cat Tales and a contest. Viewers who post photos of themselves watching the concert in their formal clothes will be entered in a drawing for a free house concert from Okay, Honey – post-quarantine, of course.

“I want to give people a reason to dress up,” Jean said. “I know when I’m at home, I’m like, ‘When’s the last time I took a shower?’ And when you look good, you feel good, so I want to inspire people to have a date night, send your kids upstairs to play and hang out with us.”

Jean, who also performs in the bands Perfect Mess and the Powers, said she and Haugen plan to go live every other weekend or so. They want to take advantage of the fact that people are spending more time online while in quarantine, but they don’t want their concerts to get lost in what is quickly becoming an oversaturated market or take the opportunity to earn money away from musicians who rely solely on their income from live gigs.

They wouldn’t be opposed to continuing these periodic livestreams after quarantine because they’re convenient, with hardly any setup or tear down required, accessible even after the stream is over and give musicians, who are often performing at the same time on the same days but in different venues, a chance to listen to and support the friends they don’t usually get to see live.

But, of course, Jean can’t wait until she can once again play in front of a crowd.

“There’s a connection between you and your audience, and, even doing a Facebook Live, you don’t achieve that connection where you can hear people laughing or seeing people talking or drinking or dancing,” she said. “Making people dance is this huge drive for me.”

Visit facebook.com/fiddlinsarah to listen to Jean’s concerts.