house concerts and 21st century touring

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it’s pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you live too long
Days drip slowly on the page
You catch yourself
Pacing the cage

–Bruce Cockburn

Yeah. Me neither. I should work on that.

Fran

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He was born with a midnight-black Gibson, double-neck guitar in his hand. In the afterbirth, they found a set of D’addario custom-wounds and a pack of steel fingerpics. His mother… didn’t make it.

While this intro would certainly turn off some people, if you’re the guitarist in a hard rock band, it would certainly turn off the right people. More importantly, those thirteen year-old, pimple-faced kids would be grinning with delight.

If your artist bio starts with “Jennifer first picked up the guitar at 9 years of age…”
or “Brad is a singer-songwriter from Tennessee…” - you are missing an opportunity.

People do read your biography - at least the opening line. Make them remember it. Make them want to read more. Make them want to check out a song.

I probably wrote this because of something Seth Godin said.
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Vicki Genfan of Fairview, NJ, was voted 2008 “Guitar Superstar” by Guitar Player Magazine in a competition held in San Francisco’s historic Great American Music Hall, beating out nine other contestants and becoming the first woman to win the honor.

Celebrity judges included Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Elliott Easton (The Cars) and others. Genfan used a variety of techniques including finger picking, use of chords, alternating between octaves and harmonics and a two-handed use of the fret board - seemingly all at the same time.

In addition to her trophy and an article in Guitar Player Magazine, Genfan will receive a prize package valued more than $12,000. See clips from her performance at www.youtube.com/vickigenfan.

We know now that at least two of the worlds best female guitar players do house concerts... don’t forget Jennifer Batten!

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