We did our first house concert tour last Fall, and got hooked immediately, and felt we'd found 'our thing.' They are intimate, lively evenings that promise the musician a devoted, listening audience, and the audience, a closer connection with live music and musicians than they can get in a bar. The whole thing adds up to a memorable experience for all.
If you are not familiar with house concerts...they are just what they sound like...concerts in living rooms. Traveling musicians are hosted by folks who value live music and who want to share it with their friends and neighbours. The admission is generally somewhere between $10 and $20, as arranged with each host ahead of time. Attendance is anywhere between a dozen people to 50+, depending on the size of the living room! We have played all kinds of living rooms, large and small, with hosts ranging from novice to old hats. Some hosts, we are meeting for the first time, while others are old friends, like Ann. We've known her for years, but suddenly she had a wild hair and decided she wanted to try it out. This was the first concert she'd ever hosted in her home. Now she can't figure out how or why she waited so long! We all had a truly magical evening.
Then there's Ruth, who hosted us last year for the first time, after 20+ years of friendship, and as we hugged goodbye, she said, "I can't wait for the next one!" And we just performed it a couple weeks ago, on May 29/10. She is planning next year's! So it can be among friends, or it can be from a seed that gets planted online. We had one fellow query us about a booking, which was very nice for a change! We'd love that to become a trend! ;) He was a great host, who we now count as a friend. That's the thing, music fosters such warmth among folks, and seems to draw like-kinds together. Music and living rooms were made for each other.
Another concert was on a farm in Alberta. This host, Dorothy, had never met us before, and took us in, fed us the most amazing dinner, and the next morning, breakfast, and treated us like her long-lost children; what a Doll. We had booked one date with her, had such a great time, that later in the week when we were miles on down the road, she called and asked if we'd please consider doing a show on our return leg at her cottage a few miles away, for all her friends there. Oh my, would we ever! It was wonderful, and most welcomed financially, which is always a touring consideration. In any case, the relationship we have developed with Dorothy reaches beyond house concerts now, and she will be coming to visit us here in Vancouver in the next while!
The general outline for an event like this is two 40 minute sets followed by an intermission where musicians and audience mingle, usually in the kitchen, like any good party. This is where most of the CD sales and CD signing happens. And of course when all the copious amounts of food gets consumed. Some hosts do it pot-luck style, where family and friends bring a dish, others might just have lots of munchies, and yet others will cater the affair. The food is always amazing, and the camaraderie beyond compare.
So how do ya go about booking one of these magical gigs?
Well, there are several sites that give you just that answer, and I'll list the links. What I've found is that unlike a booking in a bar or coffeehouse, house concert hosts like to get to know their artists before booking them. This can take weeks or months of emails beyond the preliminary inquiry. After all, you'll be in their living rooms, and they will be charging their friends to come over! Like anything else, it's about building relationships. We've made great friends out of concert hosts by hitting it off and letting things unfold, and we've hit brick walls with others. It's just life.
House concert hosts tend to book maybe 3 to 5 acts per year, give or take, and usually have their year sewn up well ahead of time, so if you're going out on tour next year, you'd best start putting out feelers now.
All the proceeds from the admission and CD sales go directly to the Artists. The house concert host does it for the love of sharing music in their home with their friends. It's a lucrative way to gig, which helps with gas money on the road, but beyond that, it's just a warm fuzzy way to gig, and everybody wins.
All the best,
Lucie Walker
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