Re: Re: house concert Saturday night, Raleigh NC

[burnett@pobox.com]

On Fri, 14 Sep 2007, Jim Goodin wrote:

> Steve I've performed in about a half dozen house concerts as a solo 
>artist
> in the last few years.  House concerts in this country in the true sense
> still seem to me to be folk and/or singer-songwriter based and my 
>successes
> getting in as an all instrumental musician have been a hard sell.  I've
> losely thought about pitching the duo I founded with Daryl [Shawn],
> Chinapainting into the house arena but have yet to as it seems too much
> saddly outside the trad arena.
>
> Seeing a house promo on this list caught my eye as I would think it a 
>rare
> thing in this community but certainly a welcome as the house 'stage' is 
>such
> a wonderful place to be.  Re your hosting is this new, do you also 
>perform
> in house shows, are they big down in the Carolina's - any particular 
>ones I
> might pitch to in the future?

Jim:

I've hosted house concerts several times over the last few years, the 
first time for a band that I opened for in another city that had the next 
night's gig fall through the night before. Since then, I have kept it up - 
if someone is coming through the area and contacts me looking for a place 
to play and the established commercial venues are unavailable, why not? 
Yes, I like house concerts: the space is generally intimate, and I have 
had some of the most attentive audiences of my life in such.

You are right about the general trend of the house concert venues towards 
acoustic singer/songwriter folk/bluegrass/country/appalachia - a largish 
website for house concert networking contacted me a few months ago 
inviting me to join. I replied to politely decline, stating I had looked 
through the artists and the venues already present and that they were 
exclusively singer/songwriter folk/bluegrass/country/appalachia. He 
replied that he frequently receives correspondence from artists who 
contact him lamenting the lack of venues outside that range on his site. 
So, I added my location to his site. Since then I have received one query 
through his house concert networking setup: from a duo that described 
themselves as acoustic guitar (and I think banjo) folk/country/rockabilly. 
:). Perfectly nice stuff, but absolutely not what I defined on that site 
as what I was interested in.

However, at least in my area there's me, there's the Philbog in Chapel 
Hill, and perhaps three or four other house concert locations that I 
routinely hear of shows at that attract experimental, improv, ambient, 
free jazz, or punk-oriented performances. While rare, they're out there, 
although rarely known outside of the immediate local scene, so "friendly 
native guide" is essential.

I would say ask around with people you correspond with in geographic 
areas you'd be headed toward, you might be pleasantly surprised.

best,
Steve Burnett   Subscape Annex   http://www.subscapeannex.com/

> Curious about Cakes of Light as I live in Brooklyn.
>
> Best with all and good weekend,
>
> Jim Goodin
> www.chinapaintingmusic.com
> www.jimgoodinmusic.com
>
>
>
> On 9/14/07, burnett@pobox.com <burnett@pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>> This Saturday night I am hosting a house concert at badgerhaus in west
>> Raleigh...