Gov. Bob McDonnell can talk about a good business climate. But can he riff on our music scene?

This isn’t strictly political, but there might be some politics in here somewhere, so bear with us, OK?

The Roanoke Times had a story a few days ago about how the Sierra Nevada brewery is looking for an eastern location – and its basically down to a choice between a site near Christiansburg and one near Knoxville.

I was intrigued by this passage in Matt Chittum’s story:

The list of nuts-and-bolts issues the company is looking at — good water, access to rail and shipping — is actually shorter than its list of intangibles, like a nice community, low crime rate, good music scene and proximity to the outdoors.

Hmmm. Governors like to talk a lot about bringing jobs to the state. Usually they’re pretty adept at talking up things like tax rates and a “good business climate” and maybe sometimes even putting some incentives on the table.

But what about a case like this where the company is looking for, among other things, a “good music scene”?

Do we think the governor is down with what’s happening music-wise in this part of the state? Can he pitch the virtues of FloydFest as smoothly as he can pitch our tax policy? What if the Crooked Road is as important here as those other kind of roads? Just wondering, you know? What should the governor be saying here to company officials?

In any case, maybe the governor isn’t the key deal-maker here, anyway? Maybe it’s us.

There’s now a Facebook page set up in hopes of luring the company to the region. You can find it here.

– Dwayne Yancey