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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2020 15:12:03 GMT -5
Good luck with the acquisition of many good paying gigs amigo. I hope you and the Mrs prosper in your musical endeavors wherever you are. Best wishes!!!!!
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Post by jbone on Jan 21, 2020 22:49:51 GMT -5
Thanks DB. Today we headed to Boerne and hit 6 or 7 places. Missed some that only open Thursday through Saturday but we may hit them later. May go back to Kerrville latet tomorrow if it's not rainy.
This level of promo is much like a sales route. You hit the doors and talk to people. Usually not the right people. You send emails and FB messages and texts and see what comes back. You walk in with a calm excitement and a cocky confidence, and vids on the phone help too. When we both go in a place we do very well as a team. Either of us alone though can be effective too. The law of averages says you take a lot of no's and a few yeses. Maybes can be ok but usually they are a no that comes later or not at all. I go out after the definite no's so I know a yes is on the way. Since I'm such an extrovert I kind of dig the process. I probably missed my calling way back when. I could have done well in sales I think.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 10:30:07 GMT -5
Well jbone, you are certainly working hard to get gigs. Best of luck.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 10:31:27 GMT -5
You might do well in Austin. They have a lot of places there that do live music. I used to live there for a few years back in the mid 80's or so.
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Post by jbone on Jan 24, 2020 22:50:35 GMT -5
Austin, I suspect, is like Nashville. Every third resident is a musician trying to make it. We like the sort of fringe-y smaller towns and especially if they're near the water. That's one reason we're hitting these towns near here, within 30 miles or so. Not near water but just more manageable. I've been surprised at how many venues are in these places, about a dozen or even more each of 3 towns. We have at least dropped a biz card off at all of them but it's more work than that of course, these managers like to be maintained. Emails and phone calls are seldom enough, it's taking several visits each venue. But hey, what else have we got going? My work here is manageable and after the past 2 days projects here at the trailer are on hold for a couple of months. I painted the closet and put a new faucet in the vanity. When it warms up some I'll get on painting the bedroom when we can have windows open to facilitate drying.
Today I had a chat with a guy who runs an RV park in Vicksburg Mississippi, on a bluff over the river. I may take a gig there next winter if we can work out some details. It's on the Father of Waters and it's a gambling and tourism town. Gears turning...
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Post by whitefang on Jan 25, 2020 10:20:01 GMT -5
I don't know about how things go down there. 'Round here there's a lot of Detroit suburbs that have annual "street fairs", like the well known "Arts, Beats and Eats" street fair in Royal Oak,Mi, Wyandotte, Mi's annual street art fair, which has a few places set up for local rock bands, country bands, folk musicians and such. And my town, Lincoln Park, MI has an annual "Lincoln Park days" carnival/ fair which too sets aside space for such entertainment. If there's those kind of goings on down there, seems like a lot of work can come your way. Other than those there's a few apple orchards which offers live entertainment for those who would like more to experience than just picking apples. But all I mentioned of course(due to the climate) are seasonal. Whitefang
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Post by jbone on Jan 25, 2020 21:41:44 GMT -5
Fang, I'm in touch with all the local fests, no word yet but we hope. A lot of the hometown events like that want local talent, but you don't know if you don't ask.
Yesterday we were back in Kerrville hitting a few places that only open like Thurs-Sat. and after 4 or 5. More possibilities. On the way back from there we hit a Tequila bar here in town and it's a check back later as well. Today I checked back with one we played a few weeks ago and I have to check back later on. I get it, the season has not really started yet. We need more tourists and nice weather! It's coming and I'm hoping we'll see at least a few more dates on the books in a month or so.
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Post by jbone on Feb 24, 2020 7:42:56 GMT -5
Well we've done most of what we can as far as contacting venues. So we're backing off and it's a wait and see if anyone calls. The weather looks to be on an upturn, into busking temps, so we're looking at a couple things there.
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Post by jmuscara on Feb 24, 2020 8:14:02 GMT -5
Are you still hanging around the Austin area? I remember when I was in Wimberley a number of years ago, there was a place in town there that seemed to have acts. Smithville in the other direction has a place called Pockets that has a stage outside but I've never seen anyone play there. There's also a wine bar where they often have artists. There are lots of small towns with venues suitable for duos in the area.
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Post by jbone on Feb 24, 2020 11:44:53 GMT -5
Yeah, we're about 1 1/2 hours from Austin I think. A bit far to go promote really. Fredericksburg is an hour and there are a couple towns within 1/2 hour. We've hit all the places we can find. It's possible we'll stop at a bud's place in Wimberly on our way north in a couple of months and if so we'll probably take a jaunt or two around there.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2020 16:19:39 GMT -5
Good luck in your hunt for work jbone, Best wishes for a success.
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Post by jbone on Feb 24, 2020 20:40:56 GMT -5
Thanks again DB. I got a couple of nibbles this morning and a turn down from another.
It got into the low 70's today so after work and a bit of painting here, we got the chairs outside and did a nice little set under the tree on our site. It was fine.
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Post by jbone on Feb 29, 2020 20:59:51 GMT -5
So we hit the street today. Busked downtown. Made $3 each for an hour. Good time though, we played great!
AND. This morning I texted a gal with one place here in town and locked a date in April!
AND THEN- I had messaged back and forth with a gal in Kerrville, 30 miles north of here, and as I always do I assumed the sale and went for the close. Even by text or FB message this can get results, at least a solid no. In this case she sent back a positive and her phone # so I called and locked THE SECOND GIG in a SINGLE DAY!
The dates are a week apart. Early and mid April.
With the 2 we have in late March we gonna be a bit busy!
We'd begun to get tired of running around trying the same places over and over. I was not ready to just let go entirely so I did some electronic contact, and 2 out of 3 worked. Pretty good odds.
I had also agreed that we'd play a lil thing here at the RV park tomorrow afternoon, a tip thing. May go well, who knows? I was just kind of bored. It's an ice cream social they do every week with live acoustic music.
We also popped in a place on the edge of town here and the guy was apologetic and wants to come see us but can't book as yet. Possible we may get in there before we leave at the end of April.
At any rate we have enough coming in to replenish our supply of CD's now! We are out of one and very low on the other two.
Good stuff happens.
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Post by jbone on Mar 1, 2020 21:23:43 GMT -5
So the ice cream social event was ok today, better tips than on the street yesterday!
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Post by whitefang on Mar 2, 2020 10:25:09 GMT -5
Was that tip in cash, or your favorite flavor? Whitefang
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