house concerts and 21st century touring

Can a blog post be a hit? Yes it can.

For more than a year now, I’ve been doing quite a bit more than preaching the gospel of house concerts. To be sure, the spread of house concert experiences and opportunities is an important thing. But the quality of these events and experiences is also at the heart of concertsinyourhome.com, and this blog.

I’m doing my best to share the best of what’s going on in this community - great experiences, lessons learned, and memorable performers, presenters and shows.

Today I’m asking you to do the same.

Think of this blog as kindling, or a tall stalk of dandelion, both just waiting for the wind to help it burn what isn’t alive anymore, and to scatter new seeds in the ripe new earth.

Here’s what you can do:

At the bottom of every post on this blog there is a “share this” button, that allows you email, bookmark, or promote what you see on what they call “social bookmarking sites.”

For any post that strikes a chord with you, please help spread the word. For now, here are three stories I’d suggest:

What do artists get paid?
Revealing house concert survey?
House Concerts article in Present Magazine

If you aren’t familiar with social bookmarking sites like Digg or Stumbleupon, it’s a tool for you to give a “thumbs up” on an article. Just register with any one of these sites (it’s quick and easy) and you help shape which stories make it to the top of the global internet heap.

It only takes a few dozen people to get the ball rolling, and for a story to start zooming up the charts.

House concerts are the past, present, and glorious future of live music. That budding field of house concerts can bloom next year, or tomorrow. It’s up to you.

Fran Snyder of concertsinyourhome.com on NBC

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Would you let a hit songwriter into your house?

I’m the last guy to worship hit songs, or writers just because they’ve had hits. However, sometimes a hit song IS a great song, and it would be bad form to show a songwriter the door just because he’s had some major successes. In fact, we have a bunch of hit songwriters at ConcertsInYourHome, but this one is a real stand-out. – fran

His songwriting credits read like a Who’s Who of the music industry. Ray Charles, B. B. King, Johnny Cash, The Judds, Trisha Yearwood, Allison Krauss, Anne Murray, Art Garfunkel, Poco, David Wilcox, Kathy Mattea, Willie Nelson, Van Zant, Baillie And The Boys, Vince Gill, and Martina McBride are just some of the many luminaries who have recorded songs written or co-written by Craig Bickhardt. A discography like that would be the envy of most songwriters, but the covers are only part of the story. “I never set out to write hits for other artists,” Bickhardt says. “But I always got a kick out of hearing what happened to the songs in ‘translation’.”

“Craig Bickhardt has spent a lifetime crafting intelligently lean, but meaningful songs… meticulously shaped, with a keen literary and narrative approach. Most crucially; he is a communicator, capable of touching the heart of his listeners.”
- John Brindle, Maverick Magazine (UK)

His first break as an artist came when he was asked to write and sing the closing theme for Robert Duvall’s Academy Award winning movie TENDER MERCIES. The success of that film led to a move to Nashville, where Craig hooked up with fellow songwriters Thom Schuyler, Fred Knobloch and Don Schlitz to establish THE WRITERS IN THE ROUND. Their laid back “living room” style of performing at The Bluebird Café became the hottest ticket in town. These days it’s hard to find a city where songwriters haven’t adopted the genial in-the-round presentation pioneered by the foursome in the late 1980s.

“…the real surprise is that Craig hasn’t scored a hit himself. His… finely finessed visions tread in that warm, humane, Americana territory…”
- Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Daily News

Eventually Craig, Thom, and Fred took their smooth blend of harmonies into the studio to record their commercially successful CD, NO EASY HORSES. The disk spawned three top twenty singles including Craig and Thom’s song THIS OLD HOUSE, which has since become a standard in the traditional bluegrass genre. The trio, dubbed SKB, disbanded after making an unreleased second album, but not before they helped transform the country music scene, opening the door for a wave of singer-songwriter acts that exploded onto the country charts in the 1990s.

“What really makes his work click is the emotional depth in his voice and his presentation. He puts a lump in a listener’s throat and a thought in a listener’s head, frequently at the same time.”
- Mark Gould, Sound Waves Magazine

Craig cemented his reputation on Music Row when he racked up a succession of chart topping hits, writing the number one songs “Turn It Loose”, “I Know Where I’m Going”, “In Between Dances” (co-written with Barry Alfonso), and “It Must Be Love” (co-written with Jack Sundrud of Poco). His self-penned CD, EASY FIRES, is a collection of some of the strongest material garnered from this period. Bickhardt and Sundrud have also released a CD of their collaborations titled IDLEWHEEL.

Bickhardt’s performing style has often been called “soulful folk”. Craig credits his Philadelphia roots for the influence. “I was lucky to grow up in a town that was a melting pot for musicians. I got to hear lots of R&B as well as the great folk performers of the late 60s, early 70s. It taught me that nothing moves people like a great song sung with some passion,” he says.

Craig’s years in the studio as an A-team picker helped to polish his signature finger picking guitar style, which can be heard on CDs by The Judds, Kathy Mattea, Jonathan Edwards, Suzy Bogguss, and others who invited him to sit in.

Bickhardt now regularly appears in concert around the country traveling with his percussionist and friend Tommy Geddes, often sharing the bill with Livingston Taylor, Maura O’Connell, Billie Joe Shaver, Poco, Suzy Bogguss and others. Among the thousands of troubadours on the scene today, few can outshine him in a concert setting.

—-

Craig has written four #1 hits, nine top ten hits and is the most in-demand songwriting teacher at www.songu.com. He’s a recent First Place Winner in the 4th International Acoustic Music Awards, and also writes a (fantastic) blog at http://ninetymilewind.blogspot.com

Here’s one of my favorite bits from Craig’s blog:

“We paid a premium for our dependence on record labels, and as it turns out, their jobs weren’t so damn hard. Most of us manage to make our music, update our My Space pages, book a few gigs, print up the posters, submit our CDs to indie radio, ship the CDs that sell on our websites, and still have time to write a blog, answer email, and get to sound check.”

Craig Bickhardt - from his blog http://ninetymilewind.blogspot.com/

Consider booking Craig for a concert in your home. I think your friends will be seriously impressed - even if he is a hit songwriter.

www.craigbickhardt.com

www.myspace.com/craigbickhardt
Craig Bickhardt performance on the YouTube

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I can’t be the first guy to do a survey on this, but I can’t seem to find any other sources.

This turned out really interesting, with over 800 responses so far.

How much does a solo act make when performing at a coffeehouse?
How much do bands make at festivals?
How does your pay compare?

You’ll find the answers revealing.

http://www.squidoo.com/whatartistsgetpaid

This survey is for music acts that perform primarily original music, and it compares/contrasts coffeehouses, clubs, house concerts, festivals, and colleges.

Enjoy!

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