house concerts and 21st century touring

… you are on the 48th floor and you see papers, office supplies, and debris flying by your window. And smoke. Lots and lots of smoke.

Sure enough, it’s time to gather your people and head for the stairs. It’s 9/11. You make it down 8 stories and on the way start helping/convincing a struggling woman to get down the stairs. Unexpectedly, the intercom instructs everyone to go back to their floors - now it seems like a blown fire drill. But this lady was leaving anyway, so you escort her to the elevator down to the lobby. And to safety.

Then the second plane hits, and you manage to get out of the building and join the others as they run from the ashes and smoke.

Meet Pat and Dolores.

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1. How did your house concerts come about?

PocoNotes is a direct result of the tragic occurrences of September 11th. In fact, we’ve been known to say that the idea for PocoNotes was conceived in Tower 2 of the World Trade Center as Pat was making his way out of the building for what we now know was the last time.

Two decisions were made that day: to continue to live our daily lives without fear…as a way of maintaining our personal freedom and to make the second half of our lives count - in a way that we could - in a way that mattered to us…and live music matters a lot.

I guess it was just one time too many seeing a sole acoustic musician struggle to gain the attention of his audience with little success - and zero support from the venue’s management - that catapulted us toward deciding that we would work to provide the “listening” environment.

So, with our personal funds, we launched PocoNotes with the intent of elevating local musician’s exposure by having them open for world-class, internationally-touring musicians.

2. What’s been the key(s) to building and maintaining your audience?

This is the struggle. We present NPR artists in totally non-NPR environments. However, from minute one, we committed to only presenting exceptional musicians that would, undoubtedly, give our audiences the experience of a lifetime. With “quality performances” as our brand, we feel that people will eventually come to our shows, even if they aren’t familiar with our performers, because “PocoNotes always puts on a great show.”

3. Please share one of your favorite house concert moments so far….

Our current season is, in reality, “house concerts…on steroids” in that they are held in a 150-seat venue that is an 80-year-old community landmark that actively pursues its vision to be an educational and cultural hub for its residents.

For us, the best moments are those when you know that your efforts to treat your musical guests exceptionally well have been noticed and that a lifelong relationship built on mutual trust and respect has been born. Having a record label contact us with their artist’s report that “Pat and Dolores are the nicest people to ever book a show for me…” is worth every moment of angst and every dollar spent.

4. A little of your personal history would also be great…

I can’t say that we’re middle-aged because I don’t fully expect to live to be 112; however, we’ll let it suffice to say that we are of the “Woodstock generation.” That’s probably why we are on a mission to re-engage our peers in the live musical experience. After all, we’re the ones that heard some of the most incredible live music that was ever created.

Sadly, most folks our age prefer to stay home and enjoy re-runs of “Law and Order.” Frankly, we felt that way, too. However, we’ve eliminated the “cattle call” environment, the excessive ticket prices and the substances and replaced with respect for the artists, the audience and the venues. As Jorma Kaukonen, our mentor, would say…”it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

We’re both veterans of Corporate America and, between us, have logged in decades with a variety of Fortune 500 companies. We still have - and need - our day jobs, especially since with the exception of a minor grant in 2008, all of our events have been funded by us personally.

—-

The stories of the 9-11 tragedy will be with us always, but now I can’t help but wonder - how many other great things came from the people who survived?

Play. Listen. Enjoy yourself. For the moment, it’s all here for you. Tomorrow, it might not be.

Fran

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House Concert Host Tip: “Instructions for Artists:”

Recommended information for your CIYH host listing… and the booking page on your dedicated website if you have one.

• What is your booking window? (2-4 months out, 3-6 months out, 6-12 months out, more than one year?)
• Are there certain months you won’t do shows?
• Do you need to see them perform live, or at least a video?
• Do you need to hear live recordings, or stripped down arrangements?
• Will you listen to all inquiries?
• Will you you respond to everyone, or just the ones who inspire you? (yes. you have that option - just be clear about it.)
• Is it important that the act have a local following?
• Is it helpful if the artist can also do a workshop, after show jam, afternoon show?

Please take a moment to review/adjust your host listing. I think you’ll be pleased with the results of doing this. And remember, 8 short answers are more likely to be read and understood than a full page of prose. If you want to be effective - write with the reader in mind!

Log in here to see your listing and/or make changes. (http://concertsinyourhome.com/host_resources.html)

Also: Promote your schedule!

Props to Bryan for the artwork.
.

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Carrick House Concerts

1. How did your house concerts come about?

The inspiration came from attending a house concert and loving the experience of seeing a favorite performer without all the noise and commotion that you experience in a typical club - that and the fact that there are so few opportunities to catch such high quality entertainment…so we thought we’d create our own…

2. What’s been the key(s) to building and maintaining your audience?

We try very hard to create a ‘vibe’ and it starts with having the very best performers you can find. We have a great sound system (donated by a folk singer tired of lugging the thing around) and a great sound guy too!! We promote like crazy, using every single resource we can find to get folks to come out and now have a regular crowd that simply will not miss a show.

I know that some folks might be able to pull off a concert with very little time, we probably have 10 to 20 hours involved for each show, and if we look like we’re going to be low, we start calling and guilting folks to come out.

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We do open our doors to the public so we tend to meet new folks all the time. Its amazing that there are music fans out there and you just need to get that network up and running and keep in touch with them. Also, and this might be the most important thing…. We go to as many shows as we can. You simply must become part of the local scene if you wish for others to attend your shows. We have a core group of volunteers that are the coolest folks in the world too, and many friendships have spawned as a result of our shows, so I think this has lots to do with our consistent audience too…

We have a relationship with a radio station from Ann Arbor. It’s cool because it really is a radio station with a really cool studio but, they dropped the broadcast tower in favor of going to a web broadcast. But they have a loyal listership and we get our shows up live. We spent a night at their studio learning what we had to do and I have a buddy that sets up the sound that also handles the live broadcast. Its cool cause its like-one two three four — “Were live at Carrick’s House Concerts”….and he plays DJ in between. Since I do the MC duties, he’s on the air making announcements and killing dead space with some quick dj work…..then at breaks, we spin local artists until we’re live. We hope to pre-record some interviews that we can do during the break because the breaks are so important for the artists to sell their stuff.

3. Please share one of your favorite house concert moments so far….

Well, we attended the coolest house concert in the world at Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble in upstate New York-it was the coolest… but, for Carrick House Concerts, each show has something special about it… like when Brian VanderArk introduced a song for the very first time to the public right here at our house and the time Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart did a sing along with The Milroys and we handed out precussion instruments to the entire audience and we were all part of the band… or even the time The Salt Miners were playing at 4:00 PM at our place and they drove all night from Savannah Georgia and parked down the street and walked through our neighborhood wearing their black suits and funky hats… I’m sure the neighbors were wondering who the gangsters were heading to our place.

There have been lots of toes tapping, lots of laughs and even some tears when an artist reveals our own hearts to us through their songs. We’ve never had a disapointment and while everyone has their favorites, I know our audience has been introduced to some outstanding artists that they may not have otherwise listened to.

4. A little of your personal history would also be great…

We are Craig and Nicki Carrick, married for 20 years and have teenage kids. We’ve been involved in music for years either as playing in a band, going to lots of shows and being a volunteer with an all volunteer music festival in Michigan.

We both work normal day jobs, we have two labs (Maggie and Lucky) and a cat named Stripes. We LOVE Michigan and spend most of our vacation time at a small cabin in the middle of noplace in Northern Michigan at our spot called Crooked Lake.

Besides music, we enjoy fishing, canoing, reading and a good cold brew …. sometimes a couple. Our favorite music tends to be something with some teeth… light fluffy folk music is not our thing, although we do listen to some. Americana/Folk/Country/Blues with some banjos and harmonicas tossed in is a favorite, but we will always enjoy a little pop music too…

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