HEY.. Heres the Scoop!  I know.. its a long one......

HOW TO GET BOOKED!

We prefer to book through SONIC BIDS.. its a cleaner format and easy for me to keep track of.   If you are a performer and you dont have an account yet with them.. think about it.  We guarantee through Sonic bids that your submission will be dealt with either a yeah or a neah  within two months...BUT we really do them right way on that site..mostly within two weeks of submission!

If you send by myspace it sometimes gets thrown out with the days influx of Myspace messages..events..bulletins and such so you take the Chance of not getting heard.

If you send by SNAIL MAIL.. well its a big pile here and its growing larger.

We use Sonic Bids as performers ourselves to book many of our own gigs and usually its cheaper then a hard mailing and the Venues tend to sort through the sonic bid submissions before they dig through the Snail MAIL!

If you absolutely dont want to do Sonic bids then send us your myspace with sound clips on them.  "also a note, If you are booking as a solo or duo please consider loading a couple of tunes on your space that is representative of what you will be doing in person.  Very often I do not book in Perfromers because they claim to be acoustic solos but all of their recorded pieces are anything but that.

WHO we book!

WE are an acoustic- Listening room, non alcoholic and non smoking. That is not to say that we dont want you plugged in.. we do.  We just limit the use of Electric Guitars, electric Basses, keyboards, drum kits, and techno additions.  There is a wonderful sound system here so there is no need to pack one...If you are attached to your own mic, bring it.  We have had some performers want to perform totally unplugged and we are happy to accomodate that as well. We book in peformers of all Genres, mostly roots based music. Blues, Bluegrass, Celtic, Cajun, Gospel, Old timey, Folk, Singer songwriters, all world music and instrumentalists. We also book in some Jazz and Classical. We bring in bands from all over the world and we also offer evenings for regional and Local bands as well!

WHAT do when YOU are Booked!

Well... if you have a date with us then you know we are thrilled also!  We want you to draw the largest crowd available that evening and this is how you can help ensure that.

Send us at least 4 CDs.. One to be used as a sample in the shop. Two to leave on the shelf for consignment and One extra as so often I run into Radio folks and PR opportunities.. Other musicians will vouch that I carry many performers CDs with us when we are on the road.. I sometimes sell them for you at our own gigs But many times I leave them in the hands of Radio folks across the Midwest and The East Coast. Im happy to help promote you as much as you will let me.

YOU can mail a copy of your CD to area radio stations. I will supply you contact info on request. 

You can contact our local newspapers.. if you send them something and we send them something they tend to pay more attention!

You can be certain to help promote your own show here by:

Announcing your date here at previous gigs, 

Posting it on your websites,

Send out eflyers to your fan base, or postcards to your mailing list.

Send us flyers and posters and each time you come back to the Crow be certain to gather emails of those interested in knowing where you are!

Also a good way to help bring crowds in is....

AFTER YOUR gig and you are back out on the Road.. talk about your experience here and others will want to come and check it out as well.   We as musicians should try and cultivate a desire in our audience to come out and see the next guy coming in!   When we do that we help to create a community that CRAVES great live music and your next night will be fuller here as well.  This also will help venues such as The CROW stay in business long enough for you to come back for another gig!

If you have had a night with us previously and your crowd was light PLEASE consider the list above and make an effort to cover these points if you want a returning Date!

SOUND SYSTEM

WE do not allow others to set our sound unless you have been personally invited to do such.  You and your band will be in the capable hands of Zig Zeitler who has been doing sound for the last thirty years. If he is not available we will have someone here that we Trust.  If you are not comfortable with that then stop here.  The reason being is that our reputation as a venue also rides on the experience of our audience and too many times this last season we have had folks want to do their own sound or even worse have brought their own "sound engineers" who frankly did a less then poor job in setting up.

We know our equipment certainly better then someone coming in for the first time and our goal is to make the Performer feel as though they have never sounded better!

Performers pay and CD sales!

Another goal we have is to make the Performer feel Appreciated and Respected and we instill that attitude in our audience on a regular basis here!  Our crowd is apprecciative and will purchase CDS if they enjoy the evenings music so be sure to come stocked.  Your CD sales are all yours and we usually have someone here who is Happy to help take care sales for you if you wish.  Also once you perform here we will be happy to Consign your CDs year round in the Shop at a 60/40 split.

We have very rarley given guarantees.  Your cut is 70% of the door. Our ticketed evenings range from $8 to $15 dollars.  We have occasionally asked up to $22 and we have donation evenings as well that run at a Minimum $5 at the door!

You can help yourself to whatever you would like to drink throughout the evening and many nights we have baked treats as well.

WHEN to get here!

We expect performers to be here no later the 6pm for a sound check and be off the stage by 6:45.   Our first set traditionally starts 10 minutes late at 7:10pm.  There is one break so that you can meet the folks relax and sell CDs and such. Back up for one more set that runs till 9 but many nights our audience has to be shot at to get them to leave so dont be surprised if they keep sitting there hoping for more!  We stay later quite often.

IN CLOSE

We want to do everything we can to make your evening here one of the best performing experiences you can have.  If you have any questions or concerns or special needs ie.. Early arrival, Place needed for overnight stay and so on...

Please contact me and we will try our best to address whatever we need to...

There is a wonderful non Denominational Church service on Sunday mornings here.. We have had many Saturday night performers stay over and share their music the next morning at Service.  If you feel you would like to be a part of the following morning.. LET US KNOW and we will keep you overnight and even feed you the next morning!

THANKYOU for reading this entire POST!