Holding House Concerts in Carmel Valley

Now that Juliet and I are living out in Carmel Valley, we think we have to make a few changes to how we hold a house concert.

Since 2003 and until we closed in 2007, we always had them at night and on any day of the week.

Now that we live 11 miles further from our target audience of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel, we're not sure you'll want to see a show that starts in the evening, because of the long drive home.

SATURDAY HOUSE CONCERTS

Starting with Keith Greeninger's house concert on May 23rd, we're only going to book a house concert on Saturdays. Between work and a young daughter, it's just too much to have to set up and tear down the house in the middle of the week, even though that's when most artists would be available.

We're also going to start earlier. Much earlier. 3 p.m. start, with two 45-minute sets.

Then at 5 p.m., we'll have a potluck. Many of you in the audience have said great things about the mingle time, especially with the artist, so we think this will be a plus.

Then sometime between 6-7 p.m. I'll set up the microphone to do a live "in studio" interview with the artist, something that will last no more than 15 minutes and might include another performance by the artist. This is something I always did after you all left for the evening, and then I put it up later as a podcast.

WEEKNIGHT INTERVIEW/PODCAST

During the week, if an artist still wants to come by, I would just do the interview/performance for 15-30 minutes between 7-8 p.m.

It's a weeknight, so we don't want to be up late, and we don't want you to have to drive home in the dark. You can come out, but we don't expect anyone to show up after dinner for a 15 minute show.

So there would be no expectation of a studio audience, but we'll throw out the invitation anyways. We won't go to too much trouble setting things up, because we have to work the next day, but we'll make you comfortable.

Afterwards, we'll let you mingle and I will put up the podcast for everyone to listen to that night.

THOUGHTS

Does that work for you? Leave a comment below or write to us. And thank you for the years of music experiences we've shared!