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The End of a Very Short Era About a year and a half ago, I received a phone call from one of the booking agents at House of Blues. The agent asked me if I thought a weekly songwriter’s night would work for the downstairs restaurant stage, and would I be interested in playing it. I told him that yes I though it would work and not only would I be interested in playing it, if he wanted, I would book and host the show. Seventeen months, more than fifty shows, and thousands of phone calls and emails later, my Monday nights are officially free for the first time since September of 2005. Most of you know that HoB is under new management. Of course, with new management come changes, and one of the changes, unfortunately, resulted in the end of the songwriter’s night. In retrospect, it really couldn’t have worked out any better. Don’t get me wrong, I loved hosting the songwriter-in-the-round night; I got to meet and share the stage with some of the Chicago area’s finest singer-songwriters and play in front of a room full of new people every week, all while I drank beer for free. That’s a pretty good gig. But, at the same time, it was a bit of a grind. Every week, by 8:00pm on Monday night, I had to be sure to have three or four new singer-songwriters ready and willing to play for the price of a meal and drinks. Though initially, it sounded like it would be easy enough, it wasn’t long before I started feeling the pressures of a real booking agent. Oh sure, the first few weeks were easy, I just booked my songwriting friends and people that I knew from years of working in the Chicago music scene. But after a month or two, I was out of singer-songwriter friends and desperate for new players. It was then that I learned what any booking agent worth his salt could have told me from the beginning. It’s not difficult to find people to play, it’s difficult to find good people to play. So, I had to put my time in. Out of fear of being over whelmed with crappy press kits, I never posted an address to which aspiring artist could send their material in order to be booked. Instead, I surfed the web. I spent hours behind the computer looking for singer-songwriters with great music and that looked to have their shit together. Between the discoveries that I made and the referrals that I received from trusted colleagues, I believe I managed to find and book some of the very best songwriters in Chicago. I have written and said many times before that the number and quality of the songwriters that I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with during my time down at HoB was staggering. I could never have imagined that so many talented singer-songwriters were out there in Chicago, flying under my radar. I feel incredibly lucky to have finally been exposed to the prolific body of creative talent here in that exists here in Chicago. It has made all of the work that I put into the show well worth the effort. Still, meeting these fantastic new artists and hearing their wonderful songs was not the most valuable thing that I will take away from this whole experience. In the days after the show was cancelled, I sent out an email to most of the people that had played the Round. In it, I explained to everyone that the Songwriter-in-the-Round was no more and why. I thanked everyone for helping me out by coming down and playing and wished everyone the best of luck. Over the next few days, I became aware of what I had really gained through my work over the last year and a half. Over the next week or so, I received dozens of emails. Most of them were from the people that participated by playing the Round and a few from people that had simply gone to see it. Some were as simple as one brief sentence, some were quite a bit more substantial, but they all basically said the same thing; thanks and good luck. Those emails served to illustrate the real beauty of those two hours on stage every Monday night down at House of Blues. It was different from any other gig that you’re likely to play in this town. It was a chance for a handful of Chicago songwriters, often times complete strangers, to sit down together and get to know each other a little through their own songs. It created connections between the artists that are much more substantial that what you would generally achieve by playing just before or after someone at a bar or through even through something like myspace. I feel fortunate to have been a part of it. Of all the emails that I received about the end of the Round, nearly all of them contained something to the effect of “It was good while it lasted.” I think that little piece of wisdom applies here perfectly. Though sometimes it seemed like a lot of work, every time I left the House of Blues after a show, I left energized. Yes, it was good while it lasted, but with the quality of the connection I was able to take away with so many great people, it’s still pretty good even now. All I that’s left for me to do is figure out what I’m going to do with my Monday nights. |
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