Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Floyd Country Store celebrates 100th Birthday

I was showing a friend around Floyd Saturday and just happened to hear this familiar trio finishing up a set at the Floyd Country Store.

Bernie Coveney, Rob Neukirch, and Chris Luster were performing Americana instead of their usual Bluegrass, Jazz or Gypsy music and it was pure delight!

The way Rob's vocals meld with the effortless instrumental stylings of Bernie and Chris creates an effect which has to be heard to be believed. They enjoy themselves and it shows. It always leaves me wanting more.

First Friday in Floyd VA is a winning combination

The Friday Night Jamboree may have been the original attraction that drew musicians and cloggers to Floyd  from all over Virginia and North Carolina, but the entire Floyd community now puts on a show that entertains hundreds of visitors every Friday night, especially on the first Friday of every month.
 

These Friday night celebrations have become a major "photo opportunity" for visiting photographers. You see them everywhere capturing images of joyful celebration. These images appear on the Internet every week and bring more visitors from far places looking for a night of music and family fun.

Floyd has created a truly hospitable small town environment that offers good food, lodging, shopping, and entertainment for visitors and encourages them to return and bring friends.

Floyd attracts talented people and visitors are made welcome, especially those who bring their own musical instruments.

Last Friday was the First Friday in September and almost every shop and gallery in town was open and there were artists receptions and live music everywhere.

Watching kids choosing penny candy from the barrels in the Floyd Country Store is a show in itself. Woody and Jackie Crenshaw have created a family venue in the Floyd Country Store that has something for almost everyone.

On Locust Street, you will find enthusiastic audiences cheering musicians as they play everything from gospel music and Bluegrass to Jimmy Buffett tunes. In the coffee shops and downstairs at Wildfire Pots, you will hear Blues, Celtic music, Jazz, Flamenco music, and tunes written by local singer/songwriters.

It is a common sight to see crowds of spectators gathered around musicians jamming on the sidewalk, with visitors waiting with instruments in hand for a tune that they can join in on.

It is almost impossible to hear and see everything during a single Friday night, so you end up returning and then you find that there are even more interesting places you have missed.

 

This recent First Friday, The Blue Ridge Art Connection at the Station on Locust featured a reception for visiting artist James Underwood, a prize-winning pastel artist from Bedford, VA. His work can be seen at www.underwoodart.com

They also exhibited work by students who have taken classes from the artists of the Art Connection. This group was admiring an oil painting by one of the students. The Art Connection encourages and supports beginning artists as well as promoting their own art.

  

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts featured a Breezeway Gallery Exhibit that showcased members of the Jacksonville Center. Live music and refreshments created a party mood. The Jacksonville Center for the Arts has trained many of the local artists who are now professionals.

The overall effect is that the presence of so much talent and a willingness to share with newcomers has created a steady increase in the number of artists who are contributing to the local economy.

It is not just the art community and musicians that attract visitors to Floyd, it is the concerted effort by most business establishments to welcome visitors and make them feel at home.

The town is so small that visitors are easy to identify and most people in town will go out of their way to be helpful. As a fairly recent transplant of five years, I can still remember the pleasant shock I experienced coming to Floyd for the first time. People made us feel welcome from day one.

Many of the visitors I spoke to this weekend mentioned being pleased with their accommodations at the Hotel Floyd and local Bed and Breakfasts. More than half of the visitors I met Friday were planning to returning to Floyd for another visit.

Scott Perry is teaching at the Jacksonville Center

Scott Perry's Pickin' Porch has moved to Studio 125 at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd VA. He has made the transformation from a music store that gave music lessons to a music studio that sells instruments.

He started teaching Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, and Ukulele lessons two years ago with about 25 students.  He now teaches almost 50 students a week. When I visited him yesterday, he was teaching Alexandra Cox to play Clair de Lune.

Scott's lessons enliven the Center, staff members provide sales support when Scott is out of the studio, and Scott's students are exposed to the many wonders and services available at the Center. It looks like a win-win situation to me.

A few weeks ago his students were performing Blues and Country music on the streets of Floyd. After they played a couple of tunes, other musicians on the street began to join in. They were one of many groups jamming on the street in front of the Friday Night Jamboree.

Scott has a web site where he writes about acoustic blues and roots music and musicians. Take time to visit http://ohpapamusings.blogspot.com. Here is one of his articles where he shares his feelings about teaching music:

Scott performs traditional and original acoustic blues and roots music, and conducts educational workshops on blues music. He also has his own promotion company and record label Oh Papa Music.

He and his wife Lisa live on a 40 acre farm in Floyd County, VA, with their two sons.

Only in Floyd - music with your groceries

John Houston's Sweet Providence Farm Market & Bakery in Floyd, Virginia, offers fine live music along with locally raised meats and produce.

Martin Scudder and Bernie Coveney entertained a group of fans yesterday on the timber frame verandah overlooking Route 221 far below.

Martin's red violin sounds like no other and makes a perfect counterpart to Bernie's inspired guitar stylings.

Bernie has recently recorded his new CD, Whispering Pines and Martin had copies of his new CD on hand, Chapter IX Stepping Forward.

Rumor has it that they are recording a new CD together. It should be quite popular. Bernie and Martin are pros and they make great music.

Sweet Providence Farm is presenting live music every Saturday afternoon all through the summer. Check their website for a schedule of performers.

Doing what you love may require another way to pay the bills

 Doug Thompson's article, Opinions Vary, about Floyd musicians applies equally well to artists and artisans all over the world.

He points out that Floyd, Virginia, is not a town where those who do what they love can always make a living out of that love. Most artists, musicians, craftsmen, etc., have other jobs or resources to pay the bills. Those day jobs or deep pockets allow them to do what they love and let other things pay the bills.

I say this is not unique to Floyd. It is a worldwide phenomena.

Being a fantastic musician or a highly skilled artist is no guarantee that you can use that skill to keep food on the table. You have to be able to attract paying customers and you have to be willing to do what those customers need and want before they will pay you for your services.

One of the things you will learn early on is that there is no entitlement in a free market. Nobody owes you a living.  You must make people want to pay for your products or services and that takes more than artistic skill.

Does this begin to sound like work? It IS work and it takes a great deal of good business sense to generate income on a regular basis.

So, if there is something you really enjoy doing, but it doesn't pay well, then you need to find out what it will take to make a living doing what you are doing.

If you can't see your way to making a living in the near future, then you need to take on additional work doing something that people will pay for.

If you are doing something that you really enjoy and it has the possibility of generating an income that you can support your family on, then it is worth all of the effort that you have to put into it to get really good at it. Most people I know who have their own business are working more than 50 hours a week, but they would not consider any other career to be a satisfactory alternative.

Running a small business successfully is a real challenge. It can also provide incredible job satisfaction even when you are still learning the ropes.

Just don't expect people to give you money. You need to figure out how to earn it by doing things people need and want. This is true whether you are a musician, an artist, or a craftsperson.

Indianapolis bluegrass musicians enjoy Floyd sunshine and hospitality

Mark Conway and Craig Stinson were entertaining us in downtown Floyd, Virginia today because they had read in a book that if you came to Virginia, you had to visit Floyd.

They are just two more of the many musicians that have been drawn to Floyd from all over the world to perform for the receptive audiences that can be found here. The streets of Floyd are definitely not paved with gold, but Floydians have good hearts and they appreciate good music.

Floyd did not disappoint them as they found a ready audience on the newly constructed South Locust sidewalk. Customers of the Floyd Country Store were enjoying their ice cream treats to the toe-tapping bluegrass music when I stopped to interview them.

Popular local musician Bernie Coveney made them feel right at home when he stopped by for a brief discussion of their music and of the musicians they knew.

Conway and Stinson plan on being in town for a few days and hope to join in the Friday Night Jamboree jam sessions at the Floyd Country Store.

These young musicians are personable and I found their  music appealing. I will buy a copy of their CD "Legal Grass" before they move on.

You can learn more about them from their MYSpace page Legal Grass

UPDATE:

On Friday night, Mark and Craig were jamming with local musicians in the alley next to the Floyd Country Store. This was just one of several sessions they joined .

It should be noted that there were many visiting musicians this particular night. I counted at least 40 musicians playing on the sidewalks of Floyd and probably half of them were from out of the county.

The Leningrad Cowboys - nothing succeeds like excess

Finland's answers to the Blues Brothers are still alive and rocking today.

With their extreme hair styles, bizarre glasses and pointy shoes, the Finnish rock group, the Leningrad Cowboys make a splendid contrast to the Red Army Choir as they performed together recently in a rousing rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" to the enthusiastic applause of Russian teen-agers.

This is a seriously off-the-wall group and if you are into truly bizarre musicians, you may enjoy this video. I definitely want a pair of the glasses they are wearing.

Like the Blues Brothers, the Leningrad Cowboys are a product of a movie, in this case, "Leningrad Cowboys Go America", in which the world's worst polka band comes to America to find fame and fortune. Their dead-pan humor and relentless pursuit of success at all costs made them a cult favorite for all 10 of us who watched the movie.

Now the group is world renown. If you Google "Leningrad Cowboys images", you will find hundreds of images from their CDs and concert tours.

Thanks to old friend Gunter Leonhart for the link to http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3114/85/  and to gonza.techno for the image.

UPDATE: Sippican Cottage, another woodworker/blogger has posted more performances by the Leningrad Cowboys. Visit his site for two fine videos.

House Concerts and 21st Century Touring

In response to my last post, Fran Snyder, a singer-songwriter based in Lawrence, KS, sent me a link to his website ConcertsInYourHome.com which is a resource for musicians and house concert hosts alike.

He also has a blog, house concerts and 21st century touring where he discusses the growing "house concert" movement  which creates meaningful and financially rewarding opportunities for artists and which brings neighborhoods and music lovers together in a common cause.

The music industry is changing and the old business models need to be re-examined if musicians are to thrive in a world where labels no longer control distribution and the economics of playing noisy clubs for tips is increasingly less rewarding.

Perhaps musicians can take a lesson from writers who have turned to self publishing in order to reach audiences and have successfully bypassed the traditional publishing industry and its insider network. Very few get rich, but most of the writers I know who have done this have managed to sell books and generate some income.

More and more musicians seem to be self publishing also, but what if they really got behind a grassroots effort to augment their income with performances in house concert venues?

One musician friend feels that playing for tips is demeaning for a professional musician. How about working for donations?  Working for a living always involves having to make choices and being able to draw an audience.

Providing background music in a club means that you are always interrupting someone's conversation. If you are good enough to command the attention of the crowd and willing to overlook the screamers in the front table, you may pull in enough tips and applause to make the day worth while.

How about setting up a few house concerts with congenial hosts?  Donations are understood to be the price of entry and you get an attentive audience. Your only problem as an entertainer is drawing a crowd through reputation and promotional activity.

I would be interested in hearing if there is a down side to house concerts from the musician's standpoint.

Let's have some discussion on the 21st Century touring model.

House Concerts are a time for coming together

It was a fine way of starting off the new year. People from all over Floyd County were greeting friends and making new ones at Mac and Jenny Traynham's farmhouse in Willis.

Mac and Jenny were hosting a house concert by the Hushpuppies, a Greensboro, NC, old-time music revival band.

It was an evening to remember, a full house of music lovers, lively tunes, and a bountiful spread of pot-luck refreshments.

The Hushpuppies entertained the packed house with old-time and gospel music they have learned from elderly fiddle and banjo players throughout the South. All four musicians sing and play several instruments. They are talented and likable entertainers.

From left to right in the photo, they are Molly Stouten, Jon Newlin, Amy Davis, and Steve Terrill. You can find out more about them and their music here.

They have a refreshing naturalness about them and they manage to integrate tunes from many sources into a style that is very much their own. From rousing dance tunes to wry musical commentaries on life, this talented quartet held the audience spellbound from their opening notes to the final flourish.

They shared the histories of the songs and told us about the musicians they had learned them from. They also invited the audience to sing along with them and there were many who joined in on the old time songs. People were happily singing along to tunes I had never heard before!

House concerts are becoming an increasingly popular venue for musicians and audiences alike. House concerts are hosted by fans in someone's house or private space. Donations are requested and go directly to the performers. CD sales are an important part of the evening for performers and the audience alike.

Everyone benefits. The audience gets to hear music performed in an intimate environment and can actually chat with the performers on a personal basis. In a house concert, the musicians get an attentive audience that is there to hear the music and they find house concerts to be more financially rewarding than playing cafes.

If you would like to find out more about house concerts, perhaps to put on one of your own, talk to Mac and Jenny Traynham or Google "house concerts". There is a lot more information available on this do-it-yourself concert phenomena.

Complaining to music - now a worldwide phenomenon

Complaining to music  is a performance art with a growing audience. Lyrical and funny, these choirs captivate listeners with lyrics that strike to the heart of our everyday lives.

If you listen to these choirs perform in their own languages and read the English subtitles, you will see an amazing commonality of complaints. We seem to have the same dreams and we are frustrated in trying to achieve them, even if it is only trying to live a quiet life and be loved.

It all got started by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen in Helsinki. They discussed the possibility of transforming the huge energy people put into complaining into something powerful like music. They have created an amazing outpouring of creativity in many different countries.

I wrote an article about this last November, but now they've gone worldwide. Everything you ever wanted to know about Complaints Choirs, including how to organize one can be found on this site. There are now 10 operational Complaints Choirs and the number keeps on growing.

I think the Hamburg Complaints Choir is one of the most enjoyable, although the Complaints Choir of the Poikkilaakson Elementary School is a close second. 

Even the Mayor of Bodø in Northern Norway is performing with their Complaints Choir! Check out his ceremonial necklace.

The St Petersburg Choir is truly the saddest, although their singers have their bright and cheerful moments as you can see in the picture at the beginning of this article.

Complaints Choirs are currently forming in London, Pittsburgh, Juneau, Gabriola Island off Vancouver Island, and at Penn State University.

Tired of not being heard? Form a Complaints Choir and get on YouTube!