I’ve been touring for years, and it’s a hard thing to get going. It takes building on each connection you make.
It’s a real blessing, especially for instrumental acts, when a venue like Jim comes along, (see below) opening the door for you to play on the road. This sounds like a great gig en route to Nashville, Atlanta, Louisville, Durham, et al. If you’re looking to tour down south, give him a call and tell him I sent you. (Seriously!)
You might be thinking, “but it’s just a gig for tips”. But I’ll bet you might be able to convince Jim to charge something small at the door, and if you advertise to local teachers and players, you might pull off a clinic. Maybe a couch to stay on…. It all adds up. Touring isn’t easy, but it’s one way independent musicians do it, and you have start at A to get to B.
See Jim’s note, and offer, below:
“Christian,
I recently joined the Creative String Players group on Linkedin. I wanted to briefly introduce myself to you because I own a venue in Tennessee called The Acoustic Coffeehouse where we host live music every night. I do all of the booking and typically our groups are small touring acts who play for tips, a meal, and merch sales. We stay booked a couple of months in advance. If you have any groups that are trying to get out and find places to play they should contact me.
I also play the cello, and sit in with a lot of the people who play at the Coffeehouse.
Our schedule is listed on our website, www.acousticcoffeehouse.net. My email address is there as well. Take a look at the “cellos rule” tab while you’re there. I’m sure you know some of the people in the videos.
Stop in if you’re in the neighborhood. We’re conveniently located on the way to Nashville. Also, our university here, East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City, Tennessee, has a bluegrass music department, so we’ve got lots of hot bluegrass players around.
Thanks,
Jim Benelisha”
Jim – Awesome stuff! I’ll get the word out for sure and let’s stay connected.
I’m forwarding this to a few of my favorite grass roots touring artists in this email as well, so if you hear from them, you’ll know they came highly recommended by me.
