Troubadour

From: The Troubadour <mike.agranoff@folkproject.org>

Sent: Saturday, February 1, 2020 12:01 PM

To: 'Folk Project' <fullboard@folkproject.org>

Subject: Troubadour Booking Report: January 2020

Performance

Well! A good start to the decade for the Troubadour. Of the four shows we held, three did considerably better than I expected, and the fourth, Adam Agee and John Sousa did only a little poorer than I expected. Which I expected. They are complete unknowns in this area, even though they are tearing up the Celtic scene out West. We averaged 110.3 paid (134.8 total) attendance for the month, and netted a healthy $811 profit for the month. Which are also our YTD figures, this being January. Over the past 12 months, we’ve averaged 93.2 paid (113.3 total) attendance with a net profit of $3,845. The comparisons between our current performance, and that of the previous year may suffer over the course of 2020, because last year I was underwriting any guarantee makeups. But things are looking reasonably good for 2020.

I was particularly surprised by the unexpected sellout crowd for the Loose Canons on January 24. That was helped in no small way by about 20 – 25 folks who came to see the opener, Jesse Ruben, which I had not anticipated. He did such a good job, and impressed the Loose Canon crowd so well, that I immediately booked him as a Feature act to fill a hole I had in the schedule on May 22, and announced that booking on the spot. Hopefully the Loose Canon crowd will come back for him in May.

Video streaming Troubadour shows

I’ve done nothing to replace Concert Window as a video streaming service. And I’ve lost my enthusiasm for that service because of the added difficulties it posed for the Sound crew. Unless there’s a groundswell of support to resume webcasting, I think I’m going to drop the plan for now.

First-timers

We had a lot of first-timers at the Troubadour in January, particularly for the Loose Canons/Jesse Ruben show and the Joe Jencks show. That bodes well. One of those first-timers left their phone at the Troubadour on January 31st. So I sent out an email to all the Troubadour Tidings signup sheet asking if anyone lost the phone. And I got a call from the phone’s owner the following morning. She came and picked it up.

From time to time I get phone calls from patrons who try to purchase advance tickets on the day of the show, and are confused by the message they see that “Registration is closed”. (We end sales at midnight Thursday.) They interpret the message as the show’s being sold out. I’ve asked Gary to ask Constant Contact if there’s some way we can present a more informative message to would-be advance purchacers on day of sale.

New bookings since last month

• March 6: Moss Henry and the Bryophytes Old time cowboy and western music, opening for Beppe Gambetta

• April 24: Bill Staines with The Greystone Singers (Trio of youngsters headed by FP member Hal Lindsay) opening

• May 22: The aforementioned Jesse Ruben opening for Beppe Gambetta

• November 27th (Thanksgiving Friday) Matt Nakoa An exciting young singer-songwriter, who I think is on a par with Susan Werner in musical skills and stage presence. This one may be a big one.

Highlight for February:

• February 28: Poor Man’s Gambit An exciting Celtic trio I first saw at Old Songs last year.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

(Formerly the Minstrel Acoustic Concert Series)

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org