Information for performers and their representatives
(from the presenters point of view).

I stole this from another concert venue and it is so excellent.  I don't want to discourage anyone, but, its important to know and understand how many submissions we receive.  Since each concert costs us about 100 to 200 bucks, we look at it like we just spent a night out-even though we are at home.  But, ask youself this...would I pay 100 bucks to see me play?  We seriously can say that about all performers that have been here in the past (we love this stuff).

First of all, this is a house concert located north of Detroit in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We can seat about 60 people comfortably and have a good sound system and lighting. When we started presenting concerts, we had no clue how much time this monthly event would take from the rest of our lives. It's been incredibly rewarding, we've met wonderful people, and had wonderful music performed in our home. It really doesn't get much better.

We've  receive daily phone calls and e-mails about booking dates for our series. You might have been referred to this page as a result of an e-mail you may have sent. Since we do relatively few shows each year, we mostly have to tell people that we can't accommodate them. We really don't enjoy saying "no" to people, so we thought we'd try an informational page about how we generally book our acts.

Many of the artists who perform here are handled by booking agents with whom we have ongoing relationships. While we like to support new acts, if the series is to remain successful, we must fill our seats. The Detroit area has other acoustic music venues, so we have to be concerned about the performers ability to attract an audience in a crowded market. We wish our audience would just come to see whomever we'd like to have, but it just doesn't work that way. We have to build our schedule around proven performers and then figure out appropriate openers (who are frequently just as talented as the headliners, but may not be known)  Openers are booked localliy if they are a fit with the headliner and if they are able to bring us some of their fans so we are more likely to fill the seats.  We are asking a relatively small group of acoustic music fans to choose us over the many music and non-music options they might have on a Sunday afternoon. 

We try to see an artist live before booking-it doesn't always work, but, that's the preference.   We need to get a sense of how performers interact with the audience.  Hard press kits are preferred but, before sending them, please try shooting us your sonic bids page first and we'll follow up once we feel like it is a fit.   Since we attend many concerts, conferences, and festivals and since we have only one concert per month, we already have a fairly long list of performers we've seen and would like to have play here.
We usually look for something other than solo singer/songwriters.  Duos and groups are always preferred over a solo acoustic act unless the artist is incredible.  Again, ask yourself if you'd pay a hundred bucks to see your performance.  We are not traditional folkies although we do enjoy much of that music and also do not limit ourselves to acoustic only music.  We very much enjoy Americana and Roots music and  there is a simple formula for success at our concert series:

1.  Great original songs.

2.  Great singing and harmony

3.  Great picking (guitar, mando, fiddle, trombone...some lead instrument)

 Check our list of past performers to get a sense of what we like. We do try to see people we have heard good things about, but there are a lot of you out there. Since this concert series is just one part of our lives, we do not go to every show in our area; we usually have to be motivated by the buzz we hear from friends and other presenters.

We also realize that when you call or write us about booking, you are just doing your job, but unless we've told you specifically that we want to have you play at Carrick House Concerts a quick e-mail to follow up is ok, but remember-we only have so many slots...

(NB: If you are representing James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, Alison Krauss, or are another major artist who longs to return to the days of small, attentive audiences, by all means ignore the previous sentence -- you can even call us collect.)

If you've read this far, I can summarize by explaining it is so very difficult to turn talented people down that want to perform here.  You've worked hard on your music and want your music to get out to people-But we just cannot do it every week.   We love musicians and the audience that comes out to support roots music.   But please understand that we just can't book everyone and it doesn't mean we are trying to be cruel or even that we don't like your music. 

Thanks,
Craig Carrick