SPECIAL CONCERTS

Hi Kids,

I just put Julie to bed with a nasty headache (borderline migraine) so I won't be joining you tonight.

All is well in the land of Special Concerts.

All systems are go for the Joni Mitchell: Blue concert this Friday, I spoke with Carolann this morning and the Chicks will all send out final e-blasts today. 33 advance tickets sold through paypal (not sure how many sold at Minstrel) for $495 in sales so far. We obviously expect plenty of walk-ins so I'm sure we'll do just fine.

We have a workshop happening with Ronstadt Generations the day after their Minstrel gig (details in the newsletter and on the web) and 1 or 2 workshops by Ukulele artist L'il Rev the day after his Minstrel gig in February (kudos to Mike who broke from his own tradition and booked L'il Rev entirely on my recommendation, thanks Mike).

We're also trying out a new, smaller venue for House Concerts. I was contacted by FP members Nancy Gable and John Holt about Special Concerts getting involved in a House Concert they were planning for Bryan Bowers on Saturday, Nov 16th and I agreed to make it a Folk Project House Concert and slipped an ad into the October newsletter. We'll put another one in the November issue as well.

I believe I have found someone to write grants for us. She's in the middle of moving right now (it being the 1st of the month) so I will likely introduce her to the Board at the November meeting. She has written grants for a living in the past.

I have been actively cultivating our relationship with Morris Arts and we have ideas about some joint ventures, including some free concerts to raise awareness about both of our organizations.

One offshoot of this, MA President Tom McMillian gave my info to Kadie Dempsey who in turn hooked me up with David Daniel from FDU who wants us to participate in an event they're having on October 30th. We will essentially do some sort of song swap on stage at the end of their program that evening. I met with him last week and will be talking to him some more tomorrow. We may or may not have time to make this happen but I'm going to give it my best shot.

No matter what, David and I got along very well and he hopes we'll be able to collaborate on future events.

This is an email David sent to Morris Arts and FDU personnel following a MA Board meeting he attended:

Subject: Re: followup from meeting on WamFest with Morris Arts

Thanks so much, everyone, for the wonderful meeting. I'm terribly sorry it didn't work out for Thursday's meeting, but I found out at 8:20 in the morning that the NEA requires that our entire line up be set for approval on Monday! So I was (and am) scrambling like mad--although things are looking very, very good.

I had a thought yesterday that was born out of our conversation, and I'm very excited by it. I wonder if the people from The Folk Project would be interested in organizing a kind of hootenany as part of the last day of our events on October 30? We'll have Rosanne Cash that day along with the Lunsford family (a famous folk/mountain music family) and John Wesley Harding and they, along with our other guests, will be invited to join it. But what I'd like to do is to ask The Folk Project people to sort of set up a traditional, West Virginia-style barn or backporch thing, having their people play or do story-telling or whatever they like along with students and whomever else was interested. I thought it would be a lot of fun for everyone and would really provide an opportunity to get the community involved.

I wonder what you all think?

Meanwhile, thanks again. It was delightful and very exciting to speak with you!

All best wishes,

David

Sorry I won't be there. If anyone has any questions, I'll be available by phone after 9:00.

Thanks,

Scooter