House Concerts

My wife and I became converts and complete fans of a relatively new phenomena started just a few years ago called "House Concerts". I wanted to take the time to introduce all of you to this new very cool musical venue. This is a new venue idea that the musicians and the audience both love because of the intimacy and realness of seeing great acts on such an up close and personal level. Instead of watching your favorite acts with binoculars from hundreds of feet away, you're now just 10-20 feet away.

What is a House Concert?

It’s an invitation-only concert in someone’s home, presented by a host who does not profit from the event.

Also, house concerts are usually…

Held indoors and on weekends.
Attended by 20-100 people.
Paid for by a $10-20 donation per guests, the entire amount goes to the performer (s).
Known to include light snacks, beverages or in some cases, a pot-luck dinner.
Attended by the host’s friends, neighbors, co-workers, and maybe a few fans of the artist.
Attended by a 25-60 age group.
Performed by solo, duos and small groups.
Performed with little to no amplification.
Very intimate - the audiences sit close and are attentive.
Performed in 2, 40-minute sets with a 15-20 minute break.
Almost always has the artist Cd's for sale. Plus the wonderful chance to personally talk to them.
Then there's the chance to socially network with others of like interests.
The host often are known to house and feed the artist for the night.
They usually are scheduled about once a month, sometimes more often.

We are always completely blown away with the quality, perfectionism, intimacy and great story telling abilities of these traveling minstrels. My wife and I are complete Jazz nut cases and I never thought we would enjoy these Singer/Songwriter types. What I found is all artists of this caliber and talent are far and away in the same creativity realm, no matter the type of music they play. In fact, I personally made a choice that we would go back until we were disappointed with a concert, then just stop going.

Well, it's never happened and we've been attending one in our area for over a year now. We've seen some of the best guitar players, best incredibly unique singers, best creatively written songs imaginable in that year. We leave every concert with a smile on our face that lasts for days and our souls more than amply fed.

With the house concert series we attend, we were invited to be put on the concert e-mail list. Then the incredibly talented and giving host (Thank you Kevin from the bottom of our hearts for inviting us) e-mails you a notice with who's coming and when and you simple RSVP them back that your coming. They are almost always sold out performances, so you need to respond back immediately. We enjoy ourselves so much that we asked to be put on the list of always coming, so we don't miss out on any of the sold out performances.

I read a piece in the newspaper the other day that these House Concerts are the rage now across the United States and beyond. I'll bet if you do a net search for your area, you will very likely find one or several to pick from. In our area, there are at least two that I know of and maybe more. I've heard that there are several up in Grass Valley. Most of them are Folk type singer/songwriter types but heard that one of them in Grass Valley is a Classical venue. Also in San Francisco, I know of one which presents Jazz.

Personaly, I would love to have a Jazz House Concert to attend also. Hell, maybe I'll just take that on myself in the future........who knows........




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Time to think outside the box.....

I actually thought about this years ago, when I heard young people moan and groan about it being so hard to get a job. When I asked them what they were doing to find one, they would say things like "Well, I ran around all day long one day filling out applications". "And then?" I would say. "Well, that was two weeks ago and no one called me to come in for an interview yet".

Then I would give them my humble (suuuuuuure) advise that their method was not going to get them anywhere. They would need to first off show up dressed to the hilt. Clean cloths, shined shoes, hair combed. Act with some class and complete confidence. Try to find and ask to please speak to the manager or owner and introduce yourself to him personally while handing him the application.

Then go back a couple of days later and ask to talk to him/her again. Reintroduce yourself as the one he met just a couple of days ago and ask if he might have any openings yet. Then repeat that process at least every week until he/she hires you or tells you to get the hell out and quit bugging them. You want them to remember you as the person who is doing everything they can to get a job. Not just some name on a piece of paper stuck inside the big stack of papers on their desk. You want to stand out in their minds. That way when an opportunity does come up in their business, they might very well think of you.

Ok now there is my normal advice to young folks in normal economic times. As we know though, these are NOT normal times and each applicant to any job nowadays are competing with a hell of a lot more people. People probably far more qualified than average. So now the trick would be to stand out as much as possible from the masses. Stand out like the blazing sun for Christ's sake.

So now the trick is to start thinking outside the proverbial box as they say. WAY OUTSIDE the damn thing. Ok, how about this idea?

Work out some way to involve the media. The local newspaper of your town, a News radio station, the local Television News station or all the above any way you can think of. Lets see here.......how about having a friend stand by with his cell phone and call them all, yelling and screaming that there is a person doing something dangerous and they need to get this on film or tape quick before their competitors get there first. In fact tell them you heard the other station, newspaper or whatever were on their way over right now to cover this wild fast breaking local story. You could even arrange to have a group of friends pretend to be just passerbys who happen to see this happening and start a crowd of lookyloos, pointing up at you in wonderment and amazement.

You find something very high to climb up on. Like a power pole, a high building, a bridge. Anywhere where it's going to take the authorities quite a bit of hassle to get you down. Dressed to the hilt as stated above . As soon as the media show up, start yelling down that you ARE NOT COMING DOWN until someone offers you a chance at a job. All you want is a chance! YOU NEED A JOB! I'M NOT COMING DOWN UNTIL I AT LEAST GET A CHANCE TO GET A JOB! Then absolutely refuse all pleas from the law or fire department to come down. All this of course is becoming quite the scene with the media and the crowd that's starting to gather to watch this crazy person.

Ok ok, the truth as we all know is you ARE going to get in some trouble with the law for causing this uproar but I guarantee even they are going to admire your creativity and initiative. In the end, you come down peacefully with the help of the rescue people and thank them profusely for their kind and professional help.

In the meantime this news will be watched by business owners or people who know business owners. This crazy story on the news about this guy who so wanted a job that he did this wild, potentially dangerous stunt to draw attention to his jobless plight. Now within the next week or so, you WILL be getting offers for jobs. In this instant news world we find outselves in, this is just a fact.

Now.....if I, just one guy can set here at my compuker and think up this one out of the normal box idea to get everyone's attention and get a job, how many more super cool "out of the box" ideas are out there just waiting to be discovered?

How about I ask all my blog readers out there to use the "comments" link at the bottom of this piece (Thanks for the comment about the i and e being out of place) to give their "out of the box", creative ideas on this?




READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!

Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".

Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".

I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.

Come on.......DO IT!