Musicians vie for folk-club attention spans

NERFA One-Day Mini Conference

Bethesda, MD, Sat, May 5, 2012

© 2012 by Ken Lelen — All Rights Reserved
Comments posted in FEEDBACK

Billed as a business meeting for traditional, multi-cultural and contemporary folk musicians, a one-day conference on Sat., May 5, 2012 should have been called the Go-Getter's Gig-Getting Guide.

Sponsored by Northeast Regional Folk Alliance, the Bethesda, MD event drew musicians, radio DJs, club managers, promoters, producers and recording execs. Most hailed from Washington and Baltimore, and a few from Nashville, New York and Philadelphia. About 140 people paid $35 each to attend the event at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, a mid-rise government office with conference rooms, dropped ceilings, fluorescent lights and a homeless man in the main stairwell.

Judging by the tenor of six workshops, informal lunch meetings and ten musical showcases, the event was a tight-run affair by and for the gatekeepers of small-club, festival, coffeehouse, folk society and house-concert venues, which today total some 300 establishments across the Northeast. Because few traditional or ethnic acts can draw paying customers to clubs in reliable numbers, the NERFA event sought to expose new and young musicians to the eyes and ears of venue operators.

Venues seek brand-name musicians

What did presenters look for? Established or brand-name musicians and singer-songwriters who escaped the unpaid fishbowl of open-mic soirees at bistros, bars and baristas. They also wanted feisty performers who can exploit social media contacts to attract young and affluent audiences to a sponsor's club.

     
NERFA's Bethesda meeting, like a similar event held June 2 in Boston, MA and four-day confab held each November in the Poconos, serve as a folkie's farm system. So booking gigs was the focus of performers, while screening new or unknown artists the goal of presenters and DJs. Just to spice things up, several participants trolled the sessions for freelance booking, producing, consulting, recording or promo projects.

     
The opening speaker alerted folks on how the day might go. "How you conduct yourself today may win you some gigs," said event coordinator Scott Moore, a Rockville, MD presenter. "Or it could lose you some gigs."

     
During the nine-hour event participants were often reminded that bookers and presenters are pissed off by unsolicited communiqués — phone calls, emails, press kits, friendings, etc. One sure way to get a folk-club gig is for bookers to see and hear you play at another folk venue or a NERFA event, presenters said. Also, if you're lucky, you just may be referred by someone bookers know and trust.

     
In short, who you know or what people think of you are decisive factors in landing folk-club gigs. This notion was repeated in workshops and showcases, boosting the view that NERFA events support a commoditized musical genre.

Workshops spark industry interactions

The first 60 seconds of 20 screened recordings by attendees were aired for the "On The Griddle" panel, which consisted of a booker, presenter, radio promoter and two DJs. Each gave a thumbs up or thumbs down to tell if a song might receive consideration for airplay or concert booking.

     
Early on, a panelist said a cut reminded him of a song by a well-known artist in a positive way. Moments later another panelist said the cut reminded him of the same work, but in a negative way. Neither explained his musical standards for liking or disliking the song they reviewed.

    
Afterwards, I asked panelist Michael Jaworek, booker for the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, to describe his criteria for reviewing a CD or hiring a performer.

Yea or Nay from "On The Griddle" panelists (l to r): DJ Gene Shay, DJ Mary Sue

Twohy, songwriter Erik Balkey, booker Michael Jaworek, presenter Scott Moore.

"Artistic merit," he explained. "But if a CD is from an agent of a big-name act, then it's important for me to listen to the less well-known act he's pushing," he said. "Turning down an unknown artist can limit my access to the big fish I want to hook or hamper current [negotiations]."

     
In the late morning, as "How To Get Noticed" panelists dwelt on how performers can grab presenter attention, one message struck a nerve with all the performers in the room.

     
"Give presenters a unique reason to pay attention to you," said musician Brian Gundersdorf of the duo We're About 9 of Columbia, MD, who recently launched an open mic. After a while he rented a hall and staged a ticketed showcase of the artists he liked from the open mic.
     
Some of his success with the showcase came by shifting the task of attracting an audience to his musical partners. But he also generated good will in the folk community by encouraging presenters to attend the special show.
     
"My invitations for the show were less about 'Come see me' and more about 'Come see the community of emerging musicians right here in your town,' " said Gundersdorf, who calls some of the people he courted "my close friends."

     
In addition to sparking performer comments, Gundersdorf's experience piqued the interest of music executive and panelist Art Menius, executive director of the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC.

     
"The music scene has shifted away from us [presenters] as gatekeepers who book acts that send out emails and postcards to people on their mailing lists to draw an audience," said Menius, formerly of the Folk Alliance and International Bluegrass Music Assn.

     
"Now, with social media, we're seeing a way to bring an act's following to the presenter's doorstep," he said, and alter the dynamics and economics of presenting musical acts.

     
Moments later, at a lunch meeting drummed to order by event organizer Cheryl Kagan, performers and others cast doubts on the value of social media. Managing a Twitter or Facebook account, they said, has grown routine, complex and time consuming.

Event organizer Cheryl Kagan keeps in touch.

In response, Kagan, a Rockville, MD presenter, challenged the idea by boasting she has 4,100 friends on Facebook. Such connections are not as effective as touted, performers and others replied, because of how personal, business and musical contacts are jumbled together on Facebook. What's more, they're hard to unravel into discrete groups for gig marketing, CD promotion or audience support, several lunchtime participants said.

    
After lunch, panelists at "Follow The Money" revealed paths they've followed in recent years. For instance, singer-songwriter Erik Balkey of Haddon Heights, NJ described his ancillary incomes: radio promotion, in which he markets musicians' CDs to radio DJs; writing custom songs; and a part-time house-painting business.

     
"I'll always be a songwriter. I'm clear about that," he said. "I'll do the other jobs to pay my bills."

     
Presenter David Eisner described his struggles to turn House of Music Traditions, a foundering folk venue in Takoma Park, MD into a nonprofit music education and retail center, and Siobhan Quinn, director of Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center in Silver Spring, MD and former grants administrator in New York, suggested nonprofits and performers could work with state and regional arts councils to obtain funding for music and arts programs.

"Follow the Money" panelists (l to r): arts administrator Siobhan Quinn,
musician Cathy Fink, presenter David Eisner, musician Erik Balkey.

     
"The key is to write an application a grant maker wants to fill," she said.

     
When it was pointed out that the nonprofits, not individual musicians, typically apply for grants, that nonprofits usually sponsor the artists who receive money, and that musicians often must be residents of the states where such funds are granted, the room broke into a tumult. The panelists disagreed, but did not offer clarification or advice.
     
"Stop whining," said Cathy Fink of the Kensington, MD duo Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer. "Get over it."

     
After the event one event organizer commented on the issue of grant applications by individual artists. "In Montgomery County, MD, and likely elsewhere, artists can apply for individual grants," said presenter Cheryl Kagan, who previously worked for the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
     
Indeed, for fiscal year 2012 the state awarded $11 million in operational funds to 244 nonprofit organizations and 23 county arts councils and Baltimore City. The arts councils in turn awarded $252,000 to 100 individual artists for work in non-classical music composition, solo music performance, playwriting, crafts and photography.
     
All 100 artists are Maryland residents, including Cathy Fink's partner, Marcy Marxer, who snagged a $3,000 individual artist award this year as well as placement on the state's Touring Artist Roster, a rare and coveted status meant "to increase paid performance opportunities for Maryland performing artists."

Showcases offer muddy melodies

At day's end ten musical acts each played three songs to an audience of about 100 conference participants. Chosen from a field of 60 hopefuls by four NERFA nabobs, the showcases revealed the genetic composition of the acts venues want today: singers of hand-made, inner-focused, pop-style tunes. In my view several performances were notable as well for dubious emotional depth and rudimentary guitar work.

     
Performers gamely offered songs on an array of themes, with personal memories and heartaches leading the pack. Though none of these folk acts explored the obscenity of war and soldiery (not a PC topic for this crew), a few offered homage to the nation's military veterans. One act gave a lively round of blues covers in the Piedmont style, while another offered cloying contemporary country songs.

     
One musician even performed a set of recreational therapy songs with stand-at-your-seat body movements ordinarily found in an elementary school gym or skilled-nursing facility. I was unable to fathom the folk in this musical act.

     
Finally, most performers were happy to chord along on shiny acoustic-electric guitars, including an indie folk-rock trio that brought an electric cello and new-growth graphite-bodied guitar. Notwithstanding the blurred lyrics, muddy melodies or amplified patois, these electrically enhanced, rubberized tones slaked the crowd's thirst for contemporary folk music.

Why did I attend NERFA?

I wanted to expand the types of venues at which I perform Vintage Music Concerts and learn how folk venues audition, book, promote and pay their musical acts.

     
For the record, in 12 years I've booked and performed about 1,000 paid concerts in solo, duo or trio formats. I sing jazz and swing and play vintage guitars at retirement villages, libraries, social clubs, museums, galleries, restaurants, churches and on radio. Audiences have ranged in size from 35 to 350 people and in age from 15 to 105 years.

     
Touring 100 days a year, I seldom play open-mic nights or unpaid showcases. However, I've played a few folk clubs, including headlining at the Fine Arts Council in Milford, CT and opening gigs at three New Jersey venues: for singer-songwriter Lynn Miles of Ottawa, Canada; bluegrass singer Beth Coleman of Galax, VA; and jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli of Saddle River, NJ.

     
I've drawn good-sized audiences (75 to 225 people) to these events. I've sent out publicity releases, email announcements and did the legwork that leads to profiles in big-city media. But these concerts offered paltry pay and scant chance to build a relationship with a venue's sponsor, let alone earn a return engagement.

     
Long ago I learned that openers, regional and specialty acts, even those in niche markets like mine, are considered superfluous outsiders by club owners. "We pay openers $100 and always have," said one NERFA presenter. "It's a great way of offering exposure to performers."
     
At the Bethesda meeting I discovered an outsider mentality is shared by many musicians because several performers asked me about my concerts for seniors. Each made a point to ask me how much the venues paid.

     
"My fees are modest and the venues I play are not nursing homes," I said. "Fees at retirement villages reflect a venue's budget, audience whim and the attention span of a program director. It rarely depends on program quality, performing experience or working relationships."

     
"No matter," one female folksinger said. "The songs you play are just covers and I want to know what I can charge."

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© 2012 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved

A journalist for 27 years before launching Vintage Music Concerts in 1999, Ken Lelen sings ragtime, jazz and swing, and plays vintage acoustic guitars for diverse groups, niche markets and sundry venues on the East Coast. He has played acoustic guitar since the summer of 1963.

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FEEDBACK

Sorry it wasn't your cup o' tea, but appreciate the honesty.  —  Scott Moore, Moore Music Concerts, Rockville, MD
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And then there's the people who went to connect with old friends, make new friends, talk about their passion, share experience, be a contributing part of the folk scene, and generally surround themselves in a setting where they feel connected to a community that they identify with. But, perhaps it's all what you make of it.  —  Erik Balkey, Hudson Harding Music, Haddon Heights, NJ

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A good and honest report on yr blogspot ken. tnx and good luck.  —  Michael Jaworek, Birchmere, Alexandria, VA

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I found your write-up very refreshing in that it was not just a "puff piece."  You are admittedly an outsider to the core audience of performers and venues for which the event was intended. From reading your blog, I got a very good sense of what the nine hours of the event was like.  Your candidness about the less-than-stellar quality of some of the performances seemed pretty consistent with my experience at such events.  Of course, it's the small handful of very fine performers and good relationships that make these events worthwhile. Thanks for writing up your thoughts and posting a link on folkvenu.  —  Paul Heller, musician, Dallas, TX

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This reads like something out of the nyt or wsj, very well done! As a full-time "folk" performer, I have to say I agreed with most of what you said — tho' I run my dulcimer through all sorts of electronic nonsense.  —  Butch Ross, dulcimerist, Chattanooga, TN

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