So you want to come up and perform as part of our series. Great, we’re honored, but please read this entire web page, we’ve done our best to explain what we’re doing, who we are looking for and how we’re selecting artists.

Our Booking: We are only doing about 6 or 7 concerts a year, so we cannot make any promises we will be able to fit you in. We are also booking some shows almost a year in advance at this time, and we receive (really) dozens of unsolicited requests from artists to play as part of series, so we’ve become rather selective and harsh in our old age.
The ‘truth hurts’ section - Here’s the deal, if none of our organizers, regular attendees or friends have seen you perform live and/or are requesting you to come and play, or your CD/press kit doesn’t WOW us, then we probably wont invite you to play. If you send us something and don’t hear back from us either we haven’t had a chance to listen to you yet, or it just didn’t do it for us. You are welcome to send a followup e-mail or two but please don’t start stalking us if we didn’t get back to you because :
We know:

  • We know you’re an amazing performer who has alot to say.
  • We know it’s hard for independent musicians to get their ‘foot in the door’ in venues.
  • We know there aren’t many venues up this way.
  • We know that weeknight concerts would be preferable.

However, You Should Know:

  • There just isn’t that big a pool of people that attend shows, let alone shows of people they probably haven’t heard of, no matter how much we sing your praises and beg.
  • We only do one show a month. On rare occasions we might put two shows 3 weeks apart. We only do shows Sept - May. This area is INSANE in the summer, we can’t compete with the big venues during that time, plus most of our organizers are on vacation then.
  • We book pretty far in advance, don’t contact us saying ‘we’re going to be in Maine next month, can we do a show with you?’. Sorry, but no, unless your someone we’ve been courting already. If we’ve been sending you notes saying ‘Whenever you’re in this area let us know and we’ll make it happen’ then you might be able to do that kind of notice, but even then it’s not likely. Your requests should be ‘Can we send you a press kit so we can talk about dates 6 months or longer out’.
  • We’re getting kinda burnt out, repetitive requests and phone calls don’t help.

A note from Matt - I’m basically the ‘front door’ of our series for all unsolicited artist correspondance and CD review. I appreciate receiving your music, and I do try to give every CD I receive several listens just in case my mood at any given time doesn’t affect my judgement. If I think your music is worth sharing then I pass it on to some others in the group and if they like you two then we’ll invite you. But if we don’t call you, sorry, you just aren’t what we were looking for right now.What are we looking for? First off you can look at who we’ve booked so far and that might give you an idea. We tend to be more focused on good lyrics and stories in your songs more than solo instrument playing. We might make exceptions to this rule, it’s certainly not a policy. Humorous &/or political songs tend to get our attention too. If you can give us references from other musicians we really like that helps, but is no guarantee of any response.

Community Radio WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, ME - If you are considering touring up this way you should definitely be sending your recordings to our local community radio station, WERU 89.9 FM, if they don’t already have a copy. They have a bunch of shows that feature folk/acoustic music (I even host one), so get yourself on the air up here, that’s always a good first step to building a fan base. If I hear your stuff getting airplay, or the phone rings in the studio when I’m playing your music with the wonderful ‘Whence comes these wonderous sounds?’ type call, then that might push me over the edge in booking you. WERU also does benefit concerts throughout the year, so if you want to build a fan base drop them a note and let them know you’d be willing to do a benefit concert or perhaps take part in their Full Circle Summer Fair in Blue Hill, ME every July (which I also help do the booking for). Also other hosts at WERU organize and advise other coffee houses and venues up this way, so getting your music there and making friends with WERU is a great way to get your ‘foot in the door’ up here.

Other Venues - Also, see our page on other folk venues in New England to other leads. I’ve done my best to include a list there of all the other venues I’ve heard about in New England that book the same genre of artists we do. I’ve included links & phone numbers whereever possible. Here’s a secret to getting a foot in the door for our series, get booked by one of these venues (not any TOO close to our area) and get the person doing the booking their to call/e-mail me asking about partnering on bringing you & future artists up this way. We’re very interested in partnering on shows with other venues so if you can get someone else asking us a favor, then that just might push us over the edge. FYI - We’ve already partnered one or more shows with the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts in Unity, ME and the Camden Library Coffee House. Slates Restaurant in Hallowell and the Kennebunk Coffeehouse have also hosted artists that we’ve hosted.
Still Interested? - We didn’t scare you off eh? Ok extra points for being determined. If you think you’re a good match then send us a CD. Yes.. a CD.. I’m sure you have tracks on your website, great, but if you want to get heard then sending a CD is the way to go.

Recordings - We particularly want to know how you sound in a live solo perfomence so therefore an overproduced orchestrated recording featuring all your important musician friends won’t impress us as much as low quality live mono recording that shows off how amazing you are live and in person. If you send us a cassette tape it’s not going to get heard. A home burned CD that includes your interaction with the audience between songs even if it includes a few minor mistakes is just fine. We just want to know what to expect to hear if we were to book you. Some folks have started sending us DVDs, which is neat but they often don’t get watched.
Press Kits - If you’ve got a really cool press kit or really feel that sending it is going to help you catch our attention, send it along, but to be honest they usually end up in a stack separate from the CDs and only get read after you have caught our attention. So what I’m trying to say is, I wont be offended if you just mail a CD with a post-it note on it, if I need your press kit I can visit your website or contact you to send it along. If we book you then there’s a whole other set of information and needs we’ll compile for you. If you must, send me a press kit with a review from Sing Out! or Dirty Linen and some other quotes from folks saying your amazing, that’ll get my attention more than a list of the venues you’ve played and a long list of the 2 dozen amazing performers you’ve opened for.

Determined performers still interested in participating in our house concert series should contact us via our web contact form or you can mail your press kit and cd to:

Downeast Concert Collective
Attn - Matthew Baya
PMB 101
216 High Street
Ellsworth, ME 04605

I prefer to correspond via e-mail but if you’re a phone person you can call me at (207) 667-4892. Note - This is my home phone, please don’t call at ridiculous hours expecting an answering machine, and please don’t bug my wife or son about our series, just leave a message. If I don’t call you back, um.. it’s nothing personal, I heard your message and if I was really interested I would have contacted you.
-Matt

Webmaster/Booking Agent/Folk Geek