house concerts and 21st century touring

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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Almost everything you wanted to know about house concerts.

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Here it is. http://squidoo.com/houseconcertfastfacts

Wow. More than 100 responses in less than 24 hours. Very interesting results too.

• What day of the week sees the most house concerts?
• How much do hosts spend to put on these events?
• How do they find or book acts?

Here’s a sample:

I knew that most house concerts happen on Saturdays… but more than half? Add in a healthy percentage of the two “varies” responses, and I would bet that Saturday accounts for more than 70% of house concert dates.

The sample is from April 8th, so things may change a bit since the survey will remain open for a while.

Have a look, and please participate if you are a host. I’ve also added more questions thanks to many suggestions from the hosts who participated early. You can go back and finish it now…

I received a lot of follow up questions that don’t easily fit into this format, like:

• How do you publicize?
• What’s the most effective way of growing your audience?
• Who are your favorite artists?

I’m working on a way to present these questions, but please use the comment section of the survey if you have questions or comments you’d like to share.

Thanks everyone!

Fran

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House concerts, thought they are largely private events, are subject to local codes and ordinances, no matter how archaic they might be. I’d say 99% or more of these events go off without a hitch, but occasionally, some neighbor raises a stink. Granted, this stuff can happen whether you are rebuilding an engine in your driveway, parking a boat in the backyard, or throwing a hell of a party while your parents are away. I digress (…just like I did in high school)

One of the primary purposes of this website is to encourage smart and safe practices for artists and hosts who fall in love with this way of entertaining.

So here’s the brief low-down on a recent case that finally wrapped up in Colorado.

Home Events Amended Into Land Use Code

By Kathy Raczkowski
KathyR@lhvc.com

“It’s finally over,” said Greg Ching. “The music is coming back to the house.”

After a year and a half of battling the Boulder County Land Use Department over the allegedly illegal commercial use of his foothills home to host a series of house concerts, Ching achieved a measure of victory on March 13.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. that Thursday evening. the Boulder Board of County Commissioners voted 2-1 to amend the Land Use Code to permit house concerts and other commercial gatherings on private property within certain parameters.

An audible sigh of both relief and frustration filled the hearing room as Commissioner Ben Pearlman pronounced the amendment into law.
During the hearing, 15 citizens spoke their minds on the issue of whether or not home events, such as house concerts, should be regulated at all, and, if so, how. Each of them spoke favorably of Ching’s efforts to bring quality, live music to his mountain neighbors, even the few who had come to fight for strong ordinances against live music concerts on rural land.

“We’re hearing that most cases are reasonable,” said Dave Wartburg, who lives on N. 63rd St. near IBM. “In our case, it’s not.”

Wartburg said that he and his neighbors have endured massive, festival-type concerts for years on the property next door. He showed slides of the dozens and dozens of cars and buses parked on the property adjacent to his during such events.

Wartburg spoke of the excessive noise of the crowd and the amplified music that went on for hours, until 11 p.m. He said in years past, the festivities often lasted until 5 a.m.

He was hoping the commissioners would ban such events, or at least strongly restrict them.

The new amendment gives the sheriff a stronger tool to use when acting on a complaint against these neighbors, but violators will still only be assessed a small fine.

As for events like the Aspen Meadows House Concert Series that Ching hosts, which started the entire argument and precipitated the amendment regulating and permitting them, it seems they were never a real problem to begin with. Even the commissioners voiced their overwhelming support of them.

“We’re convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt of the value of House Concerts,” said Pearlman. “But the world’s changing and I don’t think the current Land Use Code properly addresses it.”

As for Ching’s opinion of the amendment set before the council, he said, “I think it’s unnecessary, unenforceable and unconstitutional. Someone will challenge the ruling and take Boulder County to court.”

Many others echoed his sentiments.

Paul Rennix called it “a waste of time, waste of money, and overall, an embarrassment for Boulder County.”

“I wonder if Boulder County needs a time out?” said Ed Byrne, urging the board to “simply announce your belief that it’s already covered” and dismiss the amendment.

Commissioner Will Toor agreed with them, but he was outvoted, and the measure was passed with just a few revisions to the proposed draft:

Home Events, where there is an exchange of money for entertainment or product sales, will now be permitted under the LUC if: the gatherings consist of 26-99 people on the host’s private property; they occur between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. and for no more than six consecutive hours; they afford sufficient legal parking for all attendees; they comply with the Boulder County noise ordinance, and they occur no more than 12 times per year at any single residence.

Pearlman suggested that people get a neighbor to host a concert if they want to book more than 12 in a year. He then made an offer: “If you can’t find a neighbor, you can use my house every once in a while.”

Photo by Kathy Raczkowski
Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor apologized to Greg Ching for the board having passed an amendment regulating house concerts, but Ching was just excited that the battle was finally over and he could resume his house concert series legally.

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