Troubadour Booking

Well, the grand reopening of the Troubadour in September was not exactly the blockbuster smash I was hoping for. In fact, it was downright disappointing. Evidently the world has become so accustomed to isolating and avoiding actual personal interaction, that people have forgotten the joy of experiencing music live and in person in the company of other live people. For the three shows in September, our average paid attendance was 23.7, (43.0 including staff, ticks, etc,), and we ran at a $1,610 loss. At all three shows, we did not have enough cash on hand to pay the Featured Act on the night of the show. So we gave them the Creel in full at the show, and paid them the Folk Project’s portion of their fee by check in the mail.

We are also experiencing some difficulty in staffing the shows, as some of our volunteers are similarly reluctant to come out. Volunteer Chair Jean Scully will report more fully on that in her report.

In the face of all this, it’s easy to forget that the shows themselves were brilliant, and gratefully and enthusiastically received by those who did venture out to see them. In particular, the show of Matt Nakoa drew the largest “crowd” of 40 paid, which dropped a whopping $470 in the Creel!

These are pretty sobering numbers, and some disheartening news. And it might be thought of as a reason to pull the plug now. But I have a plan that will allow us to continue if the Board is willing.

The money will not be a problem. First of all, we have a cushion of $3,800 in the form of the grant that Bill Henderson donated to the Troubadour earlier this year. That will be used up pretty quickly at this rate. But I have resolved to personally underwrite the Troubadour’s operational losses beyond that point, at least until August of 2022 with ongoing monthly grants of my own.* My reasoning is that I am anticipating that the country will continue to increase the proportion of its population with immunity to COVID, whether by inoculation, or from having contracted and recovered from the disease. As that happens, they will eventually climb out from under the covers, and re-enter public society. As that happens, I am confident that our attendance will grow to past levels and better. And when that happens, I want the Troubadour to be there, ongoing, and ready for them as they emerge.

There have been some teething problems with the re-start in the area of technical and administrative issues.

• • Almost before we actually started, I came to the realization that my original scheme of including the Feature Act’s online donations to count towards their guarantee was going to add complication and confusion to the process of paying that act. So I rescinded that plan, and went back to our pre-COVID payment formula. That involved notifying all of the already booked feature acts of the change (which was to their economic advantage), and went through a lot of restructuring of the Excel Tally Sheet to revise the calculations. Many thanks to John Lamb for his meticulous work in re-doing the sheet at short notice, and to Treasurer Peggy Karr for her patience in the process.

  • There were some technical problems in getting the video stream started for the Matt Nakoa show. And in fact those who tuned in missed the entire opening act, and the first 15 minutes of Matt’s first set. We are arranging recompense for those who gave up before we got the stream started. Streaming Chair Gary Pratt will report further on that.

  • We have reluctantly decided that our past practice of having the Head Sound Volunteer mix both the house sound and the video sound was inadequate to assure good sound quality for both feeds. So we will try whenever possible to have two Head Sound-qualified techs on duty so that each feed can be mixed by a qualified sound tech. Sound Chair John Mahon will report further on that

New Bookings since last month:

• • Oct. 29: FP member Kathy Moser to open for Sally Rogers

  • Nov. 26: Blues guitarist Toby Walker, with expatriate Projectile Tom Picard opening

Highlights for October:

Geez! They’re all highlights!

• • Oct 1: The newly reconstituted harmony trio, Mad Agnes, an old FP favorite

  • Oct 15: Silk City, another FP favorite featuring renowned mandolinist Barry Mitterhoff

  • Oct 22: A Special Concert with Deeper than the Skin, featuring Greg Greenway and Reggie Harris.

  • Oct. 29: The aforementioned Toby Walker

* I would like to add a few words of elaboration on my pledge to underwrite the Troubadour’s losses, which I do not want in the public record of the minutes. So I will follow this report with a personal message to the Board, and other members of the BoardPlus email list.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org