Troubadour Booking

Well, for a change I have something to report this month. No actual accomplishments or actions, but at least some plans for the future.

I intend to resume a full schedule of Weekly operations at the Troubadour at such a time when CDC and NJ Department of Health says we can do so at 100% capacity under no social distancing or masking restrictions, but with the provision that all attendees, staff, and performers are fully vaccinated plus two weeks. I I do not want to open earlier under restricted attendance for a couple of reasons:

• 1. Financially, we need at least 70-75 paying attendees to break even.

  2. A sparsely-filled room generates a much lower energy and excitement than a packed one.

I intend to reopen one to two months after such time as unrestricted public gatherings of vaccinated audiences are permitted. That will give us time to release publicity, and to populate our schedule. I’m assuming that live Open Stages and Member Shows will also resume along with the Troubadour. There are too many unknown factors to set the actual date of our resumption of live shows at this time. But my uneducated guess is somewhere around September or October of this year.

We intend to live-stream our shows over Facebook right from the outset. Facebook is our chosen platform because they already hold licenses with ASCAP and BMI, which we would otherwise have to purchase and pay for in order to permit the performance of copyrighted material. This should also generate an additional revenue stream for us and our performers. We hope to build on the streaming audience that the Stayaway program has developed over the past year, and have that carry over to the Troubadour shows.

Our experience with Concert Window has led me to believe that in order to provide the best audio for the webcasts, a second sound tech for the webcast, in addition to the room sound tech, would be very desirable. I would like to start recruiting and training additional Sound volunteers during the summer to have them available for the Troubadour webcasts. Sound Chair John Mahon says we have the equipment and procedures to do that. I’ve been unable to reach Volunteer Chair Jean Scully to discuss the recruitment program.

I have been in touch with Mark Schaffer, regarding his proposed program of Friday Night house concerts, which he will introduce at the upcoming meeting. Assuming the Board approves that program, we will coordinate in transitioning from Friday house concerts to Friday Troubadour concerts.

Obviously, our reopening would also be contingent upon the reopening of the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship for in-person events in the building. I have also been speaking with the management there, letting them know of our intentions. They will also be meeting next week to discuss their resumption of in-person services. We will continue to coordinate with each other. They have also promised me some sources of NJ Department of Health information that will give official conditions that must be met for live public gatherings.

I have sent emails to all acts whose performances were canceled due to the pandemic, outlining our reopening plans. I have told them that they would be given first dibs on booking dates once we reopened. I’ve also told them that if they would be on tour in our area before we settled on a reopening date, I would provisionally schedule a firm date for their return performance, provided we had reopened by that date. On the same day as the email went out, I had two inquiries from among those acts, and one “firm” provisional booking with Bill Staines on November 5.

Supplemental addition 4-6-21

In addition to the Bill Staines provisional booking, I have concluded provisional bookings with the following other previously canceled acts:

March 18, 2022: Beppe Gambetta

March 25: Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org