INFORMATION FOR MUSICIANS:
As The Blacksheep Ranch is quickly gaining an infamous status as one of thee New England's premier acoustic venues since it's inaugural show in May of 2007 the wanting by many musicians to perform here has become very overwhelming. Many incredible and talented artists have been emailing and calling, as well as managers and promoters wanting to know how they can get a gig here.
Well, let us say that we WANT you here as well.
Suzanne and I listen to a lot of independent music of many different genres an I mean A LOT. As a professional music photographer, I myself meet many new and exciting artists almost everyday. I am frequently surfing myspace.com's music area introducing myself to many such talented music makers.
Suzanne and I enjoy when we can introduce others to a wider range of musical territory. We don't have any specific genre of music that we have perform here, other than it must be an acoustic set. We would like to limit each performance to one solo artist, singer songwriter and each performance must be done using a PA sound system.
We do not have a preference to what level you are at as a musician. Be it that you are on a major label, a subsidiary to a major label, speaking with a major label, a seasoned performer who's traveled the world or just a beginner whose just recorded your first demo.
We at The Blacksheep Ranch acknowledge the importance and believing that supporting and nurturing young talented artist is where it all begins. We certainly welcome new artists, young and old to use the stage at The Blacksheep Ranch to hone their skills and polish their rough edges.
There are no 'headliners' or 'opening' acts here, all artist are regarded as equal whether your Bob Dylan or Peter Lucibelli.
The performers can discuss with each other in what order the line up will be or if a singer songwriter circle is something that would want to do which has been successful in the past.
We hold six shows each year, one show per month beginning in May and running through to October. The first four shows(May, June, July, & August) will be held at 5pm and the last two(September & October) will be held at 12pm due to the chilly evenings.
AUDITIONING:
As there is an infinite number of talented independent singer songwriters and musicians around the world, we here at The Blacksheep Ranch will not be able to accommodate all artist that want to perform here. As we mention before, we only hold six shows per year and have up to three artist per show.
As we are gaining popularity, we are usually fully booked for the following season one year in advance and taking names for the season after.
As I mentioned earlier, we WANT you to perform here as much as YOU want to perform here!
As I mentioned before, there are many incredibly talented artist out there and only a limited number of opportunities for artists to perform here. In order to accommodate as many musicians as we possibly can, we will be focusing on inviting only artists who have not performed here unless circumstances call for an alumni to return.
If you are a singer songwriter or involved in a full band project which normally records and performs fully electric and enjoys performing stripped down acoustic versions, we would love for you to send us a demo of your acoustic work.
You can email us at
werock@snet.net or message us at www.myspace.com/theblacksheepranch , send us a link to your website or myspace site.
AGENTS, MANAGERS AND PROMOTERS:
As a professional music photographer I have found working(dealing) with managers, agents and promoters to be an absolute nightmare. I have found that the artists have their own ideas of how they want thing to work…..the managers and agents have *their* own idea. Speaking of the latter, I usually find that *they* haven't mentioned *their* ideas to the musicians. So with that said, We would surely love to speak with management, though will not move forward unless we speak directly with the artist(s) themselves. We will cater to *their* wants and needs.
PERFORMERS SET AND TIMES:
It's a very relaxed atmosphere here at The Blacksheep Ranch, we really don't have any regulations on set time lengths. Though the norm is approximately 45 minutes for each artist if you prefer to cut it shorter or run a bit over…no worries. All that we ask is that you be respectful to the other artist on the bill
As we mentioned earlier, all the artists on the bill can decide the running order of the musicians and or do a singer songwriters circle.
WORDS AND LYRICS:
We may all know how they reacted to Elvis, The Rolling Stones and The Doors back in the day on the Ed Sullivan Show. We here at The Blacksheep Ranch support and understand that your lyrics and your music is your art and is filled with the utmost passion. We will not ever ask you to change any inappropriate, or adult themed words and lyrics, we will just remind you that there may be young children among the audience so all we ask is that you use your best judgment.
COVER BANDS/COVER SONGS:
If you would like to incorporate a cover song or two or three into your set list(the more obscure the better…..my opinion) that is fine, we would just rather showcase your OWN original material so please no full cover bands or artists.
THE PAYOUT:
As you may know The Blacksheep Ranch is not a business there for we can not charge a cover admission, we do ask for a voluntary suggested donation of $10.00 per person over the age of 16. It is stated to the people in attendance that it is only a 'voluntary suggested donation', though we come very close to stressing how mandatory it is.
We do also stress to those financially challenged to not let the suggested donation fee be the reason for not attending. We are sure that you, the musician would really like to take home a lot of money after the show but we also understand that you would also enjoy to exhibit and expose your work to as many people that you can.
So as you may see that there may be a lot of people at the show, doesn't(sadly) mean that the payout will be to great, though we do hope for the best.
%100 of all the money that is thrown in the donation jar will be divided up between each musician on the bill. If an artist has other musicians accompanying him or her, that artist will have to share his payout with his or her band mates.
MERCHANDISE:
We very much encourage all artists to bring any merchandise they have to sell(CD's, T-shirts, stickers, buttons, etc.). There will be tables for you to set up your merchandise.
Reminder:
Please do not set up you merchandise anywhere next to the donation jar. An attendee may pick up YOU CD and throw the money into the donation jar that will later get divided up between all the artists.
SPECIAL INFORMATIONFOR MUSICIANS ON THE ROAD:
If you are a musician out on the road or will be heading out onto the road durring the winter months and know that you will be in the area of Clinton, CT(New Haven, Hartford, New London areas) please contact us, we may be able to throw together a last minute gig for you(we can certainly find another musician or two to share the bill). It may be a smaller more intamate gig, but if you're jonesing to play, make a couple extra bucks and a place to stay warm please give us a call.