And now for some shameless self-promotion.
For those looking for incisive political commentary, you can skip this one. This post is all about what the disturbed commentariat on Reddit like to call "self-promotion." For those of you who aren't on Reddit (which is most of you), whichever forum on the platform you may be posting on, whether it's one directly related to the type of music you play or not, if you post anything letting people know about a new recording you just made that they can listen to for free on the web, or letting folks know about upcoming tour plans you may have wherever they live, there will inevitably be someone accusing you of engaging in something called "self-promotion," which we are to understand as very negative.
Anyway, back to the self-promotion. Or, to give this endeavor a more sympathetic label, back to crowdsourcing these tours.
Very briefly, what am I doing, why am I doing it, and how does it work?
I'm playing mostly original music about current events and history, for live audiences on several continents. The reason I do it is because I love how live music can impact people, how it can help build and sustain community, and bring people together. I also love how you can, in a good year, pay the rent by traveling around and doing concerts.
As to how it works, first a few words on how it doesn't work. It doesn't work by me contacting my booking agent or manager, and them organizing a tour. There is no booking agent or manager. About 97% of the time it also doesn't work for me to just contact venues where I'd like to play, and have them organize a concert. The vast majority of venues have no capacity for promoting the gigs that happen in them -- and this is not to say anything negative about these venues, just to point out how it is.
It can seem a bit confusing from outside the indy music biz, because most people don't need to know how these things work, they just show up to the gigs they want to go to. But in the little corner of the acoustic music scene I occupy, it's the folk clubs, sponsoring organizations, or concert promoters that need to be part of the equation, if enough people are going to find out about a gig, such that you stand to have a few dozen of them come to it. The venues themselves don't generally do that, unless the venue is inseparable from the folk club or the sponsoring organization. And anybody can be a concert promoter! But someone needs to play that role, for each gig.
So the way I have always crowdsourced my tours is like this: I try in various ways to let people out there know that I'm planning some tours, and I wait to hear back from people who might be inclined to be the local concert promoter for a gig in their town. Then I correspond with these wonderful folks who are willing to do this, basically to organize a local gig, and I string together a bunch of tours this way. When they're successful, it's pretty much entirely due to the efforts of a collection of individuals in different towns who have volunteered to join me in this crowdsourced touring effort.
So after that hopefully interesting and informative introduction to crowdsourced touring, I'll get into some specifics of what I'm planning for 2023, and how people can collaborate with me in this project. Regardless of whether you might be willing and able to take on the role of local gig organizer, everyone can, by whatever means, let other folks know about a gig happening in their area, or otherwise spread the word about a gig, or a tour, by word of mouth, by email, or by posting on various platforms.
Hawaii and the west coast: for the last half of January I'm in Kona working on a new album with a stellar international cast of musicians. This will involve at least one public performance. During the second week of February I've got six gigs lined up between Eugene, Oregon and southern California. There are still a couple of dates free when I could do a gig in between San Francisco and LA, or somewhere else in northern California. Also lots of spring or summer dates free for other potential shows in the PNW, including BC!
Australia: from March 20th until April 12th I'm in Australia. I'll definitely be in Brisbane, Sydney, and lots of points in between, traveling by car. So far confirmed are a couple of dates in the Sydney area. I'd love to hear from more folks in Australia about house concerts or other gigs, especially in southern Queensland or anywhere in NSW or ACT.
Denmark: I'll be there for the last week of May, playing in Aarhus and at an acoustic music festival in Roskilde. I won't be in the country for very long, but I have a couple of dates free for other potential gigs if anyone can organize anything in other towns.
England, Scotland, and Ireland: Throughout June I'm on one of those two main islands. Specifically, for the first week of June doing gigs in London and elsewhere in southern England. Then up towards the north, with one gig confirmed so far in Wakefield on June 10th. Then further north, taking a ferry to Ireland for gigs there around the weekend of the 17th. Then back to Scotland for a gig in Glasgow on June 22nd. Then back down south to the Glastonbury Festival for the last weekend of June, then back home to Oregon. If you followed this geography you can see that I'll be most everywhere, and as you may imagine, I have dates free for potential gigs anywhere in England, Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, if you're flexible with the date and the day of the week.
Midwestern US: I'm in touch with friends in the midwest about visiting there in October. Plans are afoot for house concerts in Michigan and potentially elsewhere in the region, depending on interest.
Hope to see you on the road and in the streets!
