From WWR

If you're considering touring Alaska and you are a solo/duo acoustic singer-songwriter, this page is for you. It is a growing collection of thoughts, venues, experiences, links, etc. to help. If you are a musician who can help round out this page, please help us by editing the page!

Whole Wheat Radio House Concerts

What is a Whole Wheat Radio house concert like?

Here are various photos to give you an idea what it's like here at Whole Wheat Radio:

The sound boards/webcast console in the back of the room. Your house sound and all webcast audio is controlled from here. We do everything we can to give you a monitor sound that works for you, but during the show you may have to make minor EQ / volume adjustments yourself on a small mixer on stage.	The downstairs bathroom with shower / washer / dryer / toilet. No, Elvis did not OD in this bathroom. We hope you won't either.	There are several mattresses around the place to which you're welcome, as long as you don't mind sharing with the Red Cross babies.
There are air beds and cots all over the place. You are free to use any of them and move them anywhere you'd like. The downstairs bedroom is public. Audience members and friends often crash here after a house concert rather than driving home.	You can have the special Musician's Spare Bedroom all to yourself if you'd like.	Feel free to bring your own hot babes to sell your CDs at the show. You keep 100% of the proceeds. You keep 100% of the door. Then you'll probably have to give it all to the hot CD-sellin' babes...
The sign at the entrance. Please remember that Whole Wheat Radio is truly a homegrown and all-volunteer operation. If you have a hungry ego that needs constant feeding or have forgotten the roots of musical and human pleasure because you have been mollycoddled by big-biz-musical-internetty hype for so long (i.e., if you are a pain-in-the-ass prima donna with strict requirements to be treated like a musical prince or princess), this is definitely not a good place for you to play.	A packed house concert. Note that all shows don't have this big of a turnout, depending on weather and other activities around town. Talkeetna is small place with a limited audience of only a few hundred people from which to draw -- of which only a small percentage are into acoustic house concerts. But the webcast audience more than makes up for any lack of warm bodies in the house.	The Pilot Cracker Playboys jamming on stage. This place has a good, warm vibe that helps musicians settle into a groove that casts its magical spell everywhere.
Families with children do attend our shows. We are working on providing supervised childcare downstairs so that restless kids have a place to go when the music no longer interests them. Shows 'do not have to be "family-safe". We feel it's the parents' responsibility to choose what is appropriate for their kids to be exposed to.	There is a kitchen in the main room so food is often a part of house concerts. We suggest something like two 40-minute sets, with a 20-minute break so people can eat, drink and socialize ... and you can sell CDs.	A lot of nationally touring folks have performed at Whole Wheat Radio. You will be in some great company!
If you prefer outdoor facilities, there is a working and revered Holy Shrine of Our Father Outhouse available.	Beta, the Whole Wheat Radio house dog, will love you and treat you right even if no one else does.	We try not to take things ultra-seriously while at the same time being as homestyle competent as possible. We figure if you have fun and break down that artificial wall between performer and audience, the muses will be highly pleased. We do everything we can to facilitate.

Whole Wheat Radio House Concert Specifics For Performers

Artists take 100% of all proceeds from our house concerts -- door and CD sales. At this point, we do not have official tickets as this is still a house concert space and not an official venue. But we strongly urge folks to donate a suggested amount (usually $10) and they usually do. But some people in a rural area like Talkeetna honestly cannot afford to buy a CD and donate $10 to get in the door so we leave it to them to decide how to best support you.

We webcast live on the internet and sell the artist's CDs for whatever price they want to charge -- usually $15. We add $2 for the actual cost of shipping and subtract the fee charged by PayPal for internet sales (approx. $0.79 on a $15 sale). The artist signs the CDs after the show, we write them a check for all proceeds and provide an accounting sheet, and we ship the CDs out within two to three days. We generally cannot do quantity discounts or special pricing for multiple CD sales on the internet.

We also have an online internet "tip jar" into which listeners frequently throw a few bucks. We will also provide a tip jar in house if you'd like.

Musicians get an enormous amount of web love before, during and after the webcast. Your website(s) get linked heavily. Everyone in our little corner of the internet will know everything there is to know about you via the web. You may get additional web love from bloggers who pick up on your house concert. We are continuing to improve and develop new ways for you to get real and quality fans from the web.

If the musician arrives early enough or is staying overnight and wants to do an on-air interview, we're happy to do that, which often results in a few additional CD sales. We record the performance and, with the artist's permission, we air the tracks later on Whole Wheat Radio, which generates a never-ending, self-perpetuating buzz for the artist, as our live house concert recordings are by far the most listener-requested tracks in the music library.

Our main building has a capacity of 70 to 80 people (sitting and standing). The webcast has room for 90 listeners. Therefore, in a perfect world, your house concert would be heard live by 150+ people. But Whole Wheat Radio is far from a perfect world.

We seldom have an audience that large because Talkeetna is a small town with a limited number of warm bodies. Live audience size generally ranges from 15 to 40 depending on whether it is a weekday or weekend night and what season it is. An additional 30 to 50 people will tune in to the live webcast and be able to interact with each other and the live audience via our online chat. So, in the real world, you can expect anywhere from 25 to 80 people to hear your house concert live. Several hundred additional people will hear the recorded version on the webcast because it continues to air long after your concert is over.

Past performers (including Jack Williams, Johnsmith, Danny Schmidt, Mark Erelli, Diane Zeigler, Brooks Williams, Stephen Fearing, Peter Mulvey, Kristina Olsen, Jeffrey Foucault, Radislov Lorkovic, and many Alaskan acts) walked away with anywhere from $500 on a weekday to $1500 on a Saturday night. Please remember that the amount of money you make or CDs you sell is seldom related to your performance. The exact same performance given to the exact same people on a different night could generate twice as many sales, or half as many. If a financial guarantee is important to you, Whole Wheat Radio is not a good place for you to play. We do not make financial guarantees partly because we are not making any profit whatsoever on your house concert.

Jack Williams playing the old Wheat Hole

We generally don't do bands and prefer singles or duos. We generally don't do electric and prefer acoustic. All of these generalities have been broken in the past, but they are not our bread 'n' butter, so sometimes it causes things not to flow as perfectly as you might like. (In other words, an electric band used to cranking it up with its own amplifiers and two monitor mixes is pretty disappointed that a single amp blows the doors off this place, that there are no wedge monitors and that I generally turn all the amplification off in the house speakers because it deafens the audience. We really aren't into rocking out.)

Our current events calendar is here so you can see what we have booked. I generally cannot handle two house concerts on a single weekend so I book them at least a week apart. If you're interested in performing here, fill out this email form with the date at which you're looking. Please try to be specific, and keep your scheduling emails to a minimum. It isn't that I don't like you, but I have many, many tasks, from running the webcast to booking to doing the laundry, that keep me busy sunup to sundown. So simplicity of booking is really appreciated.

If a promoter is paying your way to Alaska, please confirm with him/her first that he/she is okay with you playing here at Whole Wheat Radio in Talkeetna. We generally do not solicit performers but only provide additional gig opportunities for those already coming to Alaska. It's not our responsibility to pay for you to get here; that's up to you. If you're using someone else's dime, please be polite and make sure it's okay with him or her if you play here. Remember -- as a house concert series, we're not making a dime off your performance so whether you play here or not makes no difference to us financially. We appreciate you and those involved with your tour recognizing that a gig at Whole Wheat Radio is a 100% free gift. If you aren't happy with that arrangement but instead feel the need to make demands of us, please book elsewhere and we'll all be happier.

We are happy to offer our "spare bedroom" downstairs for semi-private accommodations as well as whatever meals and amenities you might like to share with us. If you prefer off-site lodging, we can make B&B recommendations but we can't book it for you or otherwise be responsible for your experience.

If weather conditions make it dangerous for you to drive to Talkeetna, please do not hesitate to call and either postpone or cancel your show. The Parks Highway from either Anchorage or Fairbanks is a two-lane road with curves and distracting scenery and live moose and icy patches in winter. Please allow plenty of time to arrive and depart if you're on a tight schedule. I hope I don't need to say this to any of you, but being the partner of a traveling musician I have to say ... much as we all love live music, it is not worth risking your life in a driving situation with which you're not comfortable. I'd much rather you reschedule than spin off the road because a blizzard made it impossible for you to get here.

What we do to help promote your Whole Wheat Radio house concert

This list is a work-in-progress and serves as a general checklist template for Wheat Producers who want to put on their own event here at Whole Wheat Radio.

Find out more about Whole Wheat Radio house concerts by clicking this link, which is geared to audience members.

Step One -- Get the word out to the mainstream media (one to six weeks before the show).

Following is a list of places we/you/they help promote your Whole Wheat Radio house concert. (This is as much for our reference and the community to add to as anything else.)

• Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/play/submit_event/ Also send a copy to Melodie Wright at MWright@adn.com. She is the Mat-Su news clerk and will try to mention the event in the Mat-Su section.

• Anchorage Press: send email to calendar@anchoragepress.com.

• Wasilla Frontiersman: send email to valleylife@frontiersman.com.

• Make A Scene Magazine: send email to masmagazine@mac.com at least six weeks before the event.

• Talkeetna Chamber Of Commerce (online events posting): http://www.talkeetnachamber.org/contact.html (Whole Wheat Radio is a member of the Chamber so it's okay to have them post your event that is happening here.)

• AKRadio events: http://akradio.org/events.html

• KTNA local public radio station announcement: http://ktna.org/contact.php (Or send email to info@ktna.org.)

• Talkeetna Times newspaper. Send email to tgtnews@mtaonline.net (needs to be done about a month before the event).

• Pioneer Press newspaper. send email to editor@akpioneerpress.com.

• Art news Send email to chris@artandsolegallery.com.

Here is an example of the kind of short announcement they are looking for: Anchorage singer-songwriter Emily Kurn will perform a house concert in an intimate log cabin setting at Whole Wheat Radio in Talkeetna on Dec. 15th at 7 p.m. This special show also will be webcast at www.wholewheatradio.org. Suggested donation is $10. More information 733-xxxx or www.wholewheatradio.org.

Step Two -- Send an "early" email to listeners, Wheatsters and house concert folks (two to six weeks before the show).

This is a short email just announcing the date and time of the concert and giving a link to the wiki page where the details for the concert/performer are posted. (Example: Antje Duvekot House Concert)

Step Three -- Put up posters around town (one to four weeks before the show).

If the artist has his or her own, then use those. But it's also good to make a special Whole Wheat Radio poster because it hopefully has our special brand of "quirky warmness" to it. Less text and more images are good because people generally aren't interested in reading the details on a poster. Just inform them of who, when and where an event is taking place.

Other Alaskan Performance Opportunities

Some thoughts about touring Alaska

I would love to have some musicians help fill out this section.  :-)

• Come to Alaska to see Alaska. With any luck your gigs will pay for part or all of the trip.

• Summer is hectic in Alaska. There are more gigs available but also more people vying for them. Locals are harried (it's our big chance to work before winter returns) and may not be able to give you the same head-heart space they would in the spring, fall or winter.

• Winter can be the most "Alaskan" season in Alaska. Adventure and excitement. Danger. Stories that no other singer-songwriter can tell. Gigs canceled or not well attended because of a six-foot "minor" snow storm. Moose sharing the highway with autos. Audiences, performers and promoters all sitting down together at a table and sharing a pot of moose stew and chatting like it was still 1923. The moon rising where the sun should be. All this and more. We tend to never forget those few hearty singers who make it up here in the winter, and they tend to never forget us. :-)

• Spring and autumn are both very short (just a few weeks), but that brevity creates a special feeling. Locals are less harried in the fall but still flush with $$$ from their summer work and able to buy CDs. Spring is leaner but people are very glad to have survived another winter (those who are still left, anyway), so the mood is entirely festive and "I love you and I love your music and life is wonderfully grand and do you want to get married and the spend the rest of our lives happily ever after or can I just buy one of your CDs?"-ish.

• The two "big" cities are Anchorage and Fairbanks. Musicians often arrive in Anchorage, play in Anchorage, drive the Parks Highway to Fairbanks playing a gig or two along the way (including Whole Wheat Radio) while visiting Denali National Park and then finish/fly home from Fairbanks. But there are many other options as well, including a visit to Homer, Seldovia, Juneau, etc.

• Alaska is a huge state with many distinct regions, cultures and lifestyles, so don't expect to "see it all" or "do the Alaska thing" in a single season, or even a single lifetime. Distances are immense, so if you're responsible for your own transportation, you'll be spending a lot of time behind the wheel getting to gigs, looking at some gorgeous scenery along the way.

Helpful sites for musicians who want to tour Alaska

Before you start contacting these folks, please remember that Alaska is a bit different from the Lower 48 when it comes to musical tours, promotion and audiences. We have a very small population here compared to what you're used to. So audience sizes and capacities may be less, but the appreciation of Alaskan audiences is often overwhelming simply because we don't have a ton of choices every weekend of whom we're going to see.

Also keep in mind that professional promoters are the exception up here. You'll often be dealing with people who host musical events because they love music but aren't as business-oriented as they are in Boston or New York. Go with the flow and you may find that our rough edges are just a disguise for some truly friendly, honest and fun folks.

Small Venues

• Alaska Folk Music Gary Newman hosts this helpful site with links and information on Alaska's summer festivals, links to Alaskan musicians' websites, special events, etc.

• College Coffeehouse in Fairbanks is a good venue in the university area.

• Vagabond Blues, a small coffee house in Palmer located at 642 S. Alaska Street, Palmer. Phone (907)745-2233

• Cafe Felix, part of Metro Books in Anchorage, a small coffee house/cafe. Phone: (907)279-8622

• Jitters, a large, popular coffee house in Eagle River. Phone: (907)694-5487

• Alaska Fine Arts Academy, Eagle River, Alaska. A small formal venue with theater seating.

• Snow Goose RestaurantPlay in the bar.

Formal Productions

• Acoustic Adventures Trudy Heffernan brings great music to Fairbanks, including the summer and winter Fairbanks Folk Festivals. If you want to play in Fairbanks (you do), Trudy is your contact. You can sign up for her email Cyber Event Awareness List and she'll keep you well-informed on upcoming events. She also has a great resource list of radio stations/magazines that are folk music- and Alaska-related.

• Whistling Swan Productions Mike McCormick is a professional booking agent who brings nationally known and upcoming musicians to the Anchorage area and Mat-Su Valley. He's definitely 'the' contact person for getting a gig at any of the larger venues in Alaska's largest city.

• Crow House Concerts, a small venue in Seldovia (across the bay from Homer).

• University of Alaska, Anchorage Student Activities, various venues on campus. (907)786-2107

• Dillingham Arts Council In the southwest region, contact the Dillingham Arts Council. DILLINGHAM ARTS COUNCIL INC, PO BOX 1390, DILLINGHAM, AK 99576-1390
• Alaska State Fair - Contact Susy Crosby.

• Tanana Valley Fair (State Fair in Fairbanks)
• Snow Goose Restaurant Ground floor theater.

Music Festivals

• The Alaska Folk Festival An annual event held in Juneau early in the season.

• Anchorage Folk Festival, an annual 10-day event the last two weekends of January in Anchorage.

Of Interest

• Alaska Daily News Play magazine Find out what music is happening in Anchorage.

• Alaska Midnight Sun Songwriters Camp Four days in June, in Palmer ... great instructors and small classes.

• Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp An acoustic guitar camp held in Wasilla in late summer.

• Tom Begich, a performer who hosts open mics and knows a lot about the Anchorage music scene -- definitely a worthwhile contact if you're going to be in Anchorage.

Most of all, enjoy the trip!