What the @#$% is a House Concert?

A friend of mine and I were having lunch the other day when he inquired about the house concert series. I said it was going great and why the heck hadn't he ever been to one?

Sheepishly he replied, "well, i didn't really know what it was all about." I realized I had been following a "if you build it they will come" mentality. Book good acts and people will show up. It never occurred to me that someone might not come because they didn't know what it was all about.

To that end, I’ve put together something that tries to explain what we are going for. The delicately titled….

What the *$%& is a House Concert?

I know what you are thinking. “Jimbo, isn’t it just a concert in someone’s house?”

You’d be right, of course, but it’s really so much more.

If you are reading this, you probably:

1) are a fan of live music
2) are over the age of 30
3) have a real job
4) have children still living at home
5) don’t like smoky places
6) can’t stay out until 3 a.m. just to hear a band because of all the reasons listed above.

Music is visceral and is best experienced live. Goose bumps, hairs standing on end, whole hearted belly laughs, crying in front of strangers – that’s live music. You just can’t get the same experience listening to a CD or the radio.

If you’ve ever been to the Bluebird Café in Nashville or watched the TV show “Live from the Bluebird Café” you know what kind of experience you can expect at a house concert.

There is a very good chance you haven’t heard of the artist playing our series on any given night. But if you’ve been to the Bluebird, you didn’t know who was playing that night until you walked in, sat down, and saw a great show.. You just knew, or trusted someone’s opinion, that whomever was playing there had to be good.

A house concert is probably the most intimate musical experience you will ever attend. We’ve had performers whose has songs have hit number one. You’ve heard those songs on the radio. We’ve also had performers, who may never write a number one song, make an entire room full of adults cry their eyes out and laugh out loud.

Artists who play house concerts often comment on how attentive the audiences are. I’m sure it can be intimidating to have a room full of people, five feet away, hanging on your every breath.

House concerts give the audience a chance to interact with the artist too. Hanging out in the kitchen, drinking a cold beer with someone you’re a fan of is much different that being told to “stop stalking the artist” by security.

Bars focus on selling beer; concert halls focus on selling tickets; house concerts focus on the music.

This is music in the buff/raw – personal and real. If you love live music, you won’t get any closer than a house concert. “Listening environment” or “listening room”, call it what you want, but as the THX intro says….the audience is listening.

Unlike the typical music venue, house concerts tend to start at a decent hour so you can get home before midnight…if you want to.

My lovely wife Susan had the following to add:

“There are words that haven’t been used here. They are good words. They should be used. But I don’t know what they are.”

Yes, I love her anyway and no she is not mentally handicapped….maybe it was the wine.

You can also check out some of our videos to get a feel for what a house concert is like.

Here's some of the press we've had: 

Live Music In The Parlor- Memphis Commercial Appeal Nov. 11, 2007 
Hush Y'all - Concerts in Your Home  March 6th, 2008 
Banker Invites Performers in Home - Memphis Commercial Appeal July 13, 2007 
Facebook - Memphis House Concerts