Usa Gig Tour /speakeasy

[Lakeman]

Hi all, I'm the English guy who performed on Crane duet at the NE Squeeze-in.Sorry I have been too busy recently to post any messages. Kind remarks made to me at the Squeeze-in encouraged me to think I may be able to arrange a mini tour for my jazz/folk trio, Speakeasy to the N. East of the USA in March/April.We would need at least half a dozen gigs paying 250 to 300 dollars each to help cover our costs - or as many as we can fit in over a 2-week period.My two fellow musicians have not been to the USA before so it would be a big thrill for them to see it and play with American musicians.(They are, incidentally v. talented guys and have a big repeprtoire of folk and other music as well as the 20's/ 3o's -style jazz we play in Speakeasy.

Can anyone advise me how to post attachments on this site?

I have a poster pic of the trio, plus an information sheet and - of particular interest to 'tina players - MP 3- type files taken from a five-track CD demo we have.

Can anyone help arrange gigs, put us in touch with promoters/ arts centres, music groups/ coffee houses, music shops....whatever?Especially anyone particularly interested in concertina ( used in jazz and folk), guitar and fiddle (Steve Potter is a good Irish-style player)

If anyone can help I can send the above package as an e-mail to them, or even post a package, including the CD. We are thinking of Mass. Connect. New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhodes I, even New York State- whoever will have us!

Certainly , I fouind the Boston and west Mass. areas very musical and would love to perform there.

Let the music keep your spirits high.

Geoff Lakeman ( lakers@cix,co.uk)

[Chris Timson]

Hi Geoff. We met some years back, I don't know if you remember. I can possibly help with advice, since several years ago I organised three performing trips to the US for me and Anne, basically along the lines you have in mind. The area you are looking at is spot-on. Add Washington DC to the list as well. The FSGW people are great! Send me a message with your email address if you think I can help.

 

Chris

[David Barnert]

Hey, Geoff.

 

I'd love to see you guys at Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY ("America's oldest, continuously operating, folk music venue/coffeehouse"). On the web page, be sure to click the "booking info" link near the bottom.

 

Sorry, I have no connections there.

Edited November 19, 2004 by David Barnert

[Ken_Coles]

Maybe Rich Morse will chime in with suggestions in western Mass.

 

Geoff is awesome, definitely find him a venue in your area!

 

Ken

(likely too far west in Pittsburgh)

[Mark Evans]

Hello Geoff!

 

I run a performance series at Framingham State College (just outside Boston). As luck would have it, I'm booking for my Spring Semester and the faculty member who presents the Jazz program announced he'll be on Sabatical. I'm now looking.

 

Would love to see your stuff and hear the mp3...soon.

 

Regards,

Mark

[Animaterra]

Hi, Geoff! See my email. I hope we can have you here in Nelson!

[malcolm clapp]

Hi, Geoff,

 

You must surely be the same Geoff Lakeman who bought a nice little Wheatstone Crane from me about 20 years ago. Good to hear you're still with the Crane system.

 

Same instrument?

 

Can't help you with any gigs I'm afraid, though if you want a trip down-under I can probably let you have a few contact addresses.

 

Best wishes,

Malcolm

[bellowbelle]

I've just returned from the opening reception for the members' winter exhibit at ARTSWorcester, and I got a second or two to ask Ann if she'd received my e-mail, Geoff, about your pending trip to this area.

 

She did receive my e-mail (but has been very busy) and wondered if there are any sound bytes she can hear and/or send to a contact(s).

 

I told her that I thought you could possibly e-mail some to her.(?)

 

So....if you want to send any (I am assuming that you did get MY e-mail to YOU about my having contacted ArtWorcester) -- you'll find the e-mail address at the website: http://www.artsworcester.org/

 

It's info@artsworcester.org, and that would be to Ann McTigue.

[David Barnert]

Geoff-

 

I just tried responding to the e-mail you sent me, but it bounced. The mailer-daemon message contained language like:

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<lakers(at)cix.co.uk>

  ----- Transcript of session follows -----
procmail: No space left to finish writing "/var/spool/mail/pop.cix/l/a/lakers/tmp/_0fG.LKVoBB.mta04.mx"
550 5.0.0 <lakers(at)cix.co.uk>... Can't create output

It was essentially a thanks for the mp3 and a little interesting bit about Lena (of Caffe Lena).

 

Edited to doctor the e-mail address in the above code, changing "@" to "(at)" hopefully making it less harvestable by spamware.

Edited November 22, 2004 by David Barnert

[Richard Morse]

Maybe Rich Morse will chime in with suggestions in western Mass.

There's the Iron Horse in Northampton, the People's Pint in Greenfield, the Black Sheep in Amherst as well as other smaller venues.

 

We (the Button Box) also sponsor folk like you to perform in a more informal setting (usually a grange dance hall) which tends to draw a very dedicated crowd. This type of venue is usually more informal and interactive (workshops in the afternoon, potluck, and then your concert). You can Contact Doug at our shop for more information.

 

I'd very much love to see you again in our area! Please keep me posted on your tour - and be assured that you're welcome to hang out at my place anytime!

[Richard Morse]

Oh, and I almost forgot - there's also NEFFA about that time, the biggest folk festival in this part of our country - something you may want to partake of even if it may be too late to get hired by them to perform?

[bellowbelle]

Hi, Geoff,

 

Just a bit more news from me, I did e-mail Gary Dusoe at WAG -- (See http://wormtown.org/article.php?story=20041114203544390 and

http://www.socialweb.net/Places/2678.lasso and I got this reply back:

 

hi wendy,

thanks for thinking about us.

tell geoff he is more than welcome to come to the WAG

and play this spring........let me know if i can be of

any assistance in helping to make it happen.

 

I don't know exactly how they arrange their shows, and I've mostly been to art exhibits there, not a lot of concerts. I don't know for sure, but I think they take donations for their performers, but not specifically pay them a set price.

 

Anyway, just letting you know!

Gary's e-mail addy is given in the first link, I think.

[Chris Timson]

Geoff,

 

Sorry I did not get back to you before. Here is my advice about performing in the States. Hope it's useful.

 

No-one's mentioned visas yet, and this is something you have to know about. In brief, if you want to perform in the States for money, you have to have a visa. Sadly, obtaining such a visa is very difficult - intentionally so. For a start, the application has to be made by someone in the US, secondly it is pretty time-consuming - I have been told that it can take upwards of a day of the applicant's time. Finally, you have to be a peformer with a significant national reputation or a figure of cultural importance - being the Copper family should do it, or Martin Carthy.

 

This of course is outrageous, and what makes it worse is that I understand it is just as bad for American performers who want to perform in the UK. It is a form of protectionism that serves no-one's interests.

 

So what do you do about it? The answer is to do what generations of English and American performers have done and ignore the requirement. Just travel over on the normal tourist visa waiver. But for goodnesss sake keep your head down when going through immigration. If you tell them that the reason you are there is to perform at paid gigs you will be on the next flight back to the UK. It never happened to us, but I know of people it has happened to. Don't make your instruments too obvious, and consider posting your CDs etc over in advance.

 

The next thing I can recommend is consider leaving yourself more time to organise your trip. Prior to the Internet it was impossible for someone to organise a trip from this side of the Pond, with the Internet it is possible, but it will take time.

 

The advice to sign up for NEFFA is very good. It doesn't pay, but you can make contacts with lots of really useful people, as well as having a good time. The organisers will, if they accept you and you ask, sort out accommodation for you of the spare bedroom variety (the best sort). We never performed at NOMAD in Connecticut, but I understand this is a similar type of festival.

 

The other thing to be aware of is the differences between the American and English folk scenes. There really are very few events that are directly equivalent to the English folk club. Basically you have two types of events: the coffeehouse, which happens on weekends almost always and is usually a pretty formal concert, with the main guest and szometimes a support act who does a short opener.

 

The other type of event is the house concert. These happen usually on weekdays, so that performers on tour have things they can do during the week. These are great! Laid-back, friendly, informal events actually in the homes of the organisers, they are so much fun to do. They are the chief reason you need to allow time to organise your trip. Finding out about coffeehouses is relatively easy, house concert organisers are much more difficult to locate. You will meet quite a few at NEFFA.

 

Best of luck with it. You will only make money out of performing in the States if yopu approach it with single-minded determination. If all you want to do is defray your costs, this is much more achievable, and performing in the States is thoroughly rewarding in lots of way other than the financial.

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

 

Edited to add PS: Everything is dry in the States. This comes as a great shock to the English performer. If you like a pint while you're playing, well, it ain't gonna happen. We played at a pub at Maine once, and as we stood up someone grabbed our drinks and moved them out of reach. Apparently this was the law, and was to prevent us getting drunk on stage and molesting the audience. Coffeehouses and house concerts (and NEFFA) don't have any sort of bar, so get used to drinking coffee (or Adam's Ale!).

Edited November 29, 2004 by Chris Timson

[Animaterra]

Great advice, Chris. Geoff, I think any one of us would be willing to be the postal drop for cds, instruments, anything you'd care to post ahead of time. And I would be delighted to host a house concert here in Nelson- I could even guarantee you a small but enthusiastic audience!

 

Another difficulty for an unknown group is getting a venue to give you a guaranteed fee. The venue can't always be sure they'll make the minimum. If you can be brave and agree to a percentage (or in the case of some house concerts, total take minus any PR expenses!), you should get more gigs.

 

So, how's the planning?

 

Allison

[Mark Evans]

Just wanted to let folks in the Boston Area know that Speakeasy will be performing at Framingham State College on April 11th, 2005 as part of our Spring Performance Series. Free and open to the public, our little concerts are at 1:30 in a beautiful turn of the century stone chapel turned Cultural Center.

 

Anyone interested, just let me know and I'll see that you get directions and a place to park!

 

Mark

[bellowbelle]

YAY!!!! I'll be there. (I can probably find it okay, talk to you later, Mark, if I need to.)

 

Great!

[David Barnert]

I'm very impressed with Chris's advice.

 

I wonder whether it would be reasonable to consider Speakeasy to have a similar degree of "national reputation" as the vocal trio, Artisan:

 

http://www.artifact.demon.co.uk/index.htm

 

and:

 

http://www.singers.com/world/artisan.html

 

I have heard them perform at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY rather recently. If you know any of them, perhaps they could share some tips.

 

Mark Evans wrote:

Just wanted to let folks in the Boston Area know that Speakeasy will be performing at Framingham State College on April 11th, 2005 as part of our Spring Performance Series.

Is that definite? The date is a Monday. Is that right?

 

This suggests their travel arrangements are moving along.

[Mark Evans]

Yes, the date is definite David. Chris' comments were spot on and a sad commentary on the current state of affairs. Perhaps it is the intervention of St. Cecilia or the fact that I have a new purchasing director wise in these murky, twisted ways, but Speakeasy will perform at Framingham State College on our Spring Performance Series on April 11, 2005 at 1:30 p.m.

 

I'm looking into a relaxed club date for them in the Boston Area for that evening since our little concert will be mid day and Geoff expressed an interest in letting hair down and free-reed talk. Update soon to follow. Any folks with suggestions? My contacts are here in the "burbs". Perhaps someone from the Cambridge area might chime in.

 

Wendy, I'll send you directions and arrange parking. Bring your Albion.