All posts for my Venues category

I’m so excited! It’s a new year (Happy New Year to every one of you. Hope it’s already granting your favorite wishes!) and I have two intriguing new events to tell you about that are happening during the month of January.

This month, Jim Patton and Sherry Brokus have offered me the honor of being part of their 3CMSS (Third Coast Music Songwriters Showcase) on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at the NeWorlDeli, 4101 Guadalupe, Austin, Texas. This will be the first time I’ve played my own songs in an Austin setting in quite awhile, and I get to do it amongst some of the finest writers in Austin. I want to invite you to witness the event, and I really DO want you to come (You are very important to me, and to the venue), so I have a very SPECIAL OFFER for you. The first 5 people to arrive and ask for me, will receive a signed CD with my NEWEST songs, soon to be released on my new CD which I am in the process of recording, and which I will be showcasing during the evening. Think of it as your sneak preview of an unofficial, pre-CD, pre-release party.

At the end of January, to my delight, I will be playing at the Heart of Texas House Concert, hosted by my friends, Dan and Diana Ost in Round Rock, Texas at 6 pm on the evening of Saturday, January 30, 2010. This is an intimate concert setting, which begins with a potluck dinner. Dan and Diana will provide the main part of the meal, and guests are requested to bring appetizers, side-dishes and desserts. To acquire an invitation and directions, just contact Dan and Diana at heartoftexashouseconcerts@gmail.com or music@hodgepodge-music.com.

On the horizon are a new Broadway show with Fletcher Clark on March 29th at Sun City, Texas, New York City in May (dates and times TBA), and Salt Lake City at the Magpie House Concert Series on June 12th, and other dates TBA.

Don’t worry. I’ll keep you posted!

Jan

Jan Seides

Performing Songwriter

Austin, TX

http://www.janseides.com

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Booking: 512-436-0-JAN (That’s a zero)

Thanks to my friend, Deb Barr, who was in a band with my husband when they were in high school, I have a gig here at Sunrise Creek Residence. It’s extra money, and in a very pleasant setting, so I’m delighted to do it. I’ve brought my book of Broadway tunes, and they have piano. Perfect combination!

Except that they’ve set up the audience in a room other than the one where the piano is….

So I happily do my originals instead, and everyone is either quiet and attentive, or laughs in the right places, and they all seem to enjoy the songs. Indeed, several of the residents tell me so after the show. Very sweet people, all with stories of their own to tell. All in view of snow-topped mountains. I love my work.

The weekend of June 29th – 31st, I participated for the second time in the Austin Women’s Film and Performing Arts Festival. The first time was an extremely rewarding experience, in that I met an abundance of admirable women singer/songwriters from various parts of the country, a poet who made the hair on my arms stand on end, and found myself on the six-o’clock news.

This year did not disappoint.

My first showcase was at the Green Muse in South Austin (”78704 – It’s not just a zip code, it’s a way of life”). There were a couple of standout acts:  Tiffany Christopher who sang with a Loop Station, and a lot of other little boxes, and made herself very, very present. Wonder what they’re putting in the water up there in Arkansas?  Also, Ebony Stewart, who gave a long and beautiful poem that alternately shocked and soothed. And Amber Darland, who came all the way from Bellingham, Washington to sing fine, rhythmic melodies and even finer lyrics.

I was supposed to play at the very prestigious Long Center, but it was scheduled in conflict with my students’ recital, so I had to decline.

My last showcase was at the Austin Youth Hostel. There were films on offer as well as performers. One film, “Run, Jane, Run” was a compilation of women’s stories about childhood abuse, culminating in “Jane’s” description of how she overcame her background and went on to achieve admirable goals. It was both depressing and uplifting. The act I found the most compelling was 87 Dance Productions out of North Carolina. This act consists of twin sisters, Cara and Mackenzie Hagan, and was exciting to watch. I’ve included a picture, which doesn’t at all do them justice. For one thing, you can’t hear the accompaniment, which was members of the audience, humming improvisations to the rhythm set up by the first person to jump in. Gorgeous!

Last week, as I was contemplating the Austin Women’s Film and Performing Arts festival, my students’ recital, and a 3-day trip to Kansas, an old friend called. She books musicians for corporate events, parties and others of that type.  Chris said the person she had lined up to play a University of Texas event had had to cancel at the last minute, and could I play in her place? I have wanted to be in Chris’s stable of artists since I found out what she did — so, of course, I said yes! 

It was to be 60s, 70s and 80s music, for a medical association conference, so I needed to pick some of my favorite songs, and get them ready to play for about 2 hours. I must say, that was some of the most fun and easiest money-making I’ve ever had.  The gig consisted of sitting in the corner at a 7-foot Steinway grand, facing a window looking out on the spring-green hill-country scenery surrounding the Barton Creek Country Club, playing some of my favorite music by some of my favorite songwriters. (Oh woe is me!) They even wanted me to sing too. How could you beat that? And they paid me handsomely for it!

So, here’s a sampling: You’ve Got a Friend (Carole King), Sweet Baby James (James Taylor), Walk, Don’t Run (Johnny Smith), Sound of Silence (Paul Simon), River (Joni Mitchell), Walk of Life  -and- So Far Away From Me (Mark Knoffler), Fields of Gold (Sting) and Beatles, Beatles and more Beatles.

Needless to say, I had a ball, and people walked up and thanked me for it afterward.

This quilt was made by one of the residents at the Windsor Place Nursing Home in Coffeyville. The award on the corner is First Place in a nationwide competition!

This week I’m playing various venues in a very small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town in Kansas called Coffeyville. There is a Wal-Mart here, a string of fast-food places (I have to bring my own food – there is nothing I can eat here), lots of railroad activity, and a small art center which once hosted a quilt show of which there are pictures in my website gallery.  I’m told there is an Amazon.com warehouse here too, but I’ve never seen it. There may be some oil production activity too, because I can smell it in the air. The weather is unpredictable at best, and the last time I was here, I spent most of the week watching the weather channel and waiting to be wafted away by the next tornado. I know how all this sounds, but I’m developing a certain fondness for Coffeyville. This is my fourth time to visit. You wouldn’t think adventure would be on the menu in a place like that, but it is.

First I’ll give you the bare-bones backdrop of my situation.  During the school-year, the Coffeyville Community College offers a course in the humanities that includes bringing performance artists to the town for the better part of a week.  Each performer does a show for the College, a full day at the high school in a neighboring town (Caney, KS) which caters to the students both of Coffeyville and Caney.  The rest of the week is devoted to performances at the local retirement communities and nursing homes. The reason most of the performers do it, I suspect, is because it pays better than average wages. I’ve done my Yiddish songs here, and also my Broadway show, both of which were developed for Coffeyville and went on to other venues.

The college students do an evaluation of the performances for their grade, and often, if they are allowed a Q&A session, they ask pretty thoughtful questions. The high school students are somewhat less attentive, but this was explained to me the first time I came here. The teacher in charge told me that more than a few of them had been up helping with various efforts on their parents’ farms, and they couldn’t help falling asleep every time the lights were dim enough. All of the students I talked with seemed very bright, and well-brought-up, so I took that as truth. The nursing homes/retirement communities are all receptive and welcoming. The residents range from incoherent to very sharp, and none are as spry as they once were.  My favorite one is a place called Medicalodge, where the residents are fun-loving and cheerful participants.

During the summer months, the trip consists of three days, all spent in the nursing homes and assisted living condos, as the college and high school are not in session from June to September. This trip, I’m doing original music, and though I had misgivings about that, it’s been a lot of fun. I was worried that the residents wouldn’t be interested in the music, but the folks at Medicalodge sang along as if they already knew the words, the folks who usually doze off did so, and most folks have been attentive and laughed in the right places and clapped just like they always do. What more could I ask.

The best thing that happened this trip is that there was another performer here this week. During the summer the performers can stay in the College dorm for free.  The other performer, a woman named Marianne from Lawrence, Kansas, was my suite-mate (a word I haven’t used since before I was 20). In other words, she and I are in separate bedrooms in the same suite. I had brought my recording equipment with me to complete sketches of the songs I want on my next CD, and at one point, when I’d stopped playing, there was a knock at the door.  Marianne had heard me through our shared wall, and asked if I was interested in jamming with her that evening. She plays guitar and violin, both extremely well, and has a beautiful voice. So beautiful, in fact, if we’d had time, I would have asked her to put down some tracks on one of my songs. But she had to leave today, since her gig was M-T-W, and mine is T-W-Th. Her normal gig is with a Celtic/anything band called Rowan. We traded contact info, talked about potential gigs together in Lawrence and Austin, and I told her she was welcome at my house any time. So I have a new friend, and I really do hope she takes me up on that. And I have a new appreciation for Coffeyville.