house concerts and 21st century touring

Here’s the link if you have trouble with the embedded video.

There is more opportunity than ever to connect with audiences, you just have to unleash a little creativity with the new tools at your disposal. Joe Crookston is going to do A LOT of house concerts this year, and this is one way he found some new opportunities. You have his permission to adapt it to your needs. — fran

– this is an email he sent to his friends and mailing list fans [9 hcs booked for March as of 12/19]

Nov 2008

Today I had a crazy idea, and I wondered if you’d like to be involved.

While doing my music work at home, I was gazing out my window overlooking the hills of Ithaca… the view stretches for many miles. The rooftops were all covered with snow; and I imagined all the warm people inside.

I started thinking…I would REALLY love for these people to know my music. There are millions of good people in New York State, and I’m sure they would enjoy my music if they actually heard it. I know it’s true. I got all fired up…

I had this idea of setting up a “House Concert Tour”, exclusively in New York State. The idea was that I would perform 15 house concerts in New York State during the month of March, 2009. Call it “The Ides of March Tour”. Friends and music fans like yourself would host a concert in your home…a simple concert. Each host would invite 15, 20, 35 friends/family to their home, and I would come over and play. The event wouldn’t need to be fancy, just a comfortable place for people to relax, and a space for me to stand and sing my heart out, and introduce my music to new people. We might have a little food, we’d gather in your coziest room, and I’d create some musical magic, with you and your friends. I’d set out a basket for a suggested donation: ($10-15 you choose), and I’d sell a few CD’s. People would leave glad they came, having a great experience.

What do you think? Would you be interested in hosting one of these concerts? Sometime during March 2009. Pick at date, we’ll see if it works. Concerts could be on Monday- Sunday (early evening or afternoons, whatever works best for you). I know house concerts happen all the time. It’s not that unusual. I LOVE doing them. But the idea of setting aside a full month, and playing locally 3-4 nights a week sounds like a dream, and would be a great way for me to grow my audience, meet new people, hear interesting stories, build community, and bring music into your home.

People say all the time, “it’s hard to get audiences to go out for live music”. I say, let me bring the music to you! Why travel to Colorado, Seattle, or Maryland, to perform when millions of people right here in NY still haven’t heard my music?

So, would you like to be a host? If so, I’ll help with any details or questions. If you’ve never hosted a house concert, please visit: http://concertsinyourhome.com/beahostintro.html

It’s a short video introduction to hosting house concerts. I’ll help in any way I can. We’ll make it a great night!

If you’re interested/willing please hit reply, let me know, and we’ll work out the details.

Thanks so much!

Joe Crookston
www.joecrookston.com
Ithaca, NY

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Last month I sent out an email to our CIYH hosts, to ask them to recommend their favorites, out of the many artists they have hosted.

There were no limits. Some hosts recommended 2 artists, some recommended 20. The full list is a bit long, so I thought I’d share the top recommendations with you.

This was NOT a scientific poll, but I found it interesting.

Artists who received 3 or more recommendations. (in alphabetical order)

Audio tracks appear next to CIYH members. Play the first song, and the rest will follow.

Adrianne Avalanche
Anne Heaton
Berkley Hart
Beth Wood
Bob Sima Periphery
Cliff Eberhardt
Danny Schmidt
David Roth
Freebo It Goes By Fast
Gove Scrivenor Shine On
Greg Greenway
Harvey Reid
Jack Williams Mama Lou
Jeff Black
Jim Photoglo
Joe Crookston The Logical Song
John Batdorf (and sometimes Rodney) Can’t Be Trusted
John Flynn
Johnsmith
Jonathan Byrd
Jud Caswell Blackberry Time
Kyler England
Mary McCaslin
Pat Wictor
Red Molly
Rod MacDonald After the War
Sara Hickman
Small Potatoes
Stevie Coyle Petrified Man
Tom Kimmel
Willson & McKee

If you are new to hosting house concerts, you could hardly go wrong starting with one of these acts. 8^)

Fran

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I have no idea how well attended this house concert was - but the picture makes me feel glad all over.

Thanks Jan and Del.

And I’m sure Del made everyone there glad all over too.

Find out more about Del Rey.

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