DesertSong Productions

FREE Shanty Day in San Pedro

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:49:01 +0000

Cast off all mooring lines and set a course for Point Fermin Park in San Pedro this weekend!

Come all you sailors, wenches and sandcrabs alike!

If you’d be interested in CARPOOLING, email waynesl@waynesl.com

Telephone system trial ends, system closed.

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:55:10 +0000

In our never-ending quest to reach all the people who will benefit from our services, DSP opened an account with Phone.com last year. They provide a very flexible and powerful telephone answering, forwarding and response system at a very reasonable cost: LINK

I spent a year configuring the system with forwarding to me, our Tech. Director and Volunteer Co-ordinator, producing monthly messages about our activities, and carefully monitoring the hits we got. It didn’t produce more than a few calls. I guess the Internet age is really upon us, and anyone who is ready and able to call in to a ‘phone system is more willing to browse to our web site or send an email. At the end of our year trial I closed the system down, because it was costing us money and not producing results.

Now if you want to call me (Chief Cook & Bottle Washer,) it’s (661) 478-9039
for Dave (Tech. Director) it’s (661) 236-6266
and for Mike (Volunteer Co-ordinator) call (661) 733-1316

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:47:14 +0000

Antelope Valley Song Circle

Songcircle every 1^st Sunday of the month in West Lancaster, From 2 to 6pm.

All skill levels, styles, instruments, and ages
Singer/songwriters, instrumentalists, group songs, solos and backup.
No drums or amps, acoustic only.
Come try out your “stuff” in a relaxed casual atmosphere
Go to http://desertsong.net/main/ or e-mail Doug at trainsong@folk-blues.com for details.

Getting the Word Out

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:40:14 +0000

DesertSong has struggled– and continues to struggle –with how to get people to our events. We’ve seen the smiles, heard the applause and enjoyed the amazed comments on how good some of our artists are from our audiences. Yet we know that for every person actually AT our events, there are several others who would have been there and enjoyed themselves far more than they did watching TV or surfing the ‘Net, if only they had known what they were missing. We work tirelessly to keep the quality of our shows high, but that is not where we feel the greatest need to improve. It does no good to put on a great event if there’s no-one there, and indeed our events could be far better if we could get more people out to them. I just booked a house concert for June 27th, with a wonderful musician from South Florida, and his agent asked me about promotional materials. I sent her this response:

What seems to be working best here is 8½ x 11 flyers/posters and 5½ x 4¼ (4-up) buckslips (also known as handbills or invitations)
With the advent of the Internet, a whole new medium and area of effort has opened up for enterepreneurs, established businesses and the ever-resourceful shysters as well. It seems that every person dissatisfied with their present circumstance now has even more “opportunities” being thrust in their face, and a large portion of them have been persuaded that the Internet is the new magic bullet that will facilitate their getting rich quickly in their spare time. This appears (anecdotally from several friends who promote things professionally or semi-professionally) to have created a flood of individuals wishing to post business cards and flyers trying to drive traffic to their web sites, inundating supermarket and music store bulletin boards, and all the places we used to put posters and flyers and literature racks. In the LA area and the Bay Area of California, this has resulted in a majority of those formerly very fruitful posting locations either becoming so cluttered as to be useless, or closed by the proprietor. Now, we feel more confident of the effect of smaller (letter size and even 4-up) postings where they are still allowed, 4-up buckslips stacked on a Music Store or Coffee Shop counter or lit. rack, or -stronger still- a 4-up invitation passed from hand to hand with a personal recommendation like, “Hey, check out this cool Open Mike I’m going to Friday night!” It works for raves, so we’re hoping it will work for us. That’s what I’m developing my street team to do. We don’t yet have enough of a budget to have the buckslips printed commercially on heavy glossy stock, but anyone with an inkjet printer and a paper cutter can make paper invitations and spread them around, so I provide the PDF in hopes they will do that. It’s developing slowly, but we have high hopes.

Here are a few examples:

NEXT SHOWCASE FLYER NEXT SHOWCASE HANDBILL

NEXT HOUSE CONCERT FLYER NEXT HOUSE CONCERT HANDBILL

So, all you fans of live up-close-and-personal music, please jump on THIS bandwagon and support your local (and not-so-local) troubadors by spreading the word. Go get the PDF’s of flyers and handbills and pass them around. And if you post one somewhere, go back after the show and remove it, while posting something about the NEXT great even you want your neighbors to enjoy with you. That way, the store or office will be happy to let us keep posting there, because they know we will not just trash up their counter or bulletin board, but are actively working to promote love, joy, peace, prosperity and the American Way! (Glorious martial music fades in and you march off inspired to spread the joy)—WayneSL

PS- if this has inspired you to join our street team and promote live independent music, here’s the easy way:

2009 FAR-West Conference

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:04:46 +0000

Last weekend I attended the annual conference of the Folk Alliance Region, West. I had worked sound at one several years ago, but never had a chance to experience the event as a participant. It was a life-changing experience- a paradigm shifter.

To radically distill a summary of this amazing affair, I can say that its essence is a gigantic audition orgy. Artists mingling produces a tremendous wave of creative energy, allows cross-pollination and spawns new partnerships. There is a wonderful awards brunch with speeches and fun, and there are some great-sounding workshops which I firmly intend to make it to next year, but the main upshot of this event is that artists get to meet, begin to know (or renew and deepen relationships with) the presenters, promoters, hosts and venue operators who connect them to their audiences.

I don’t believe any mortal being could possibly have experienced even a tenth of what they would like to have experienced at the Irvine FAR-Wrest conference. 1500 guerilla showcases, and I made it to ONE. 73 Premiere showcases, and it was simply not physically possible to cover more than about 30, unless one spent more time and energy jumping back and forth than listening. In such a ‘target-rich environment’ I found myself frequently on oveload and opting for whatever was closest. Got in a refreshing jam session with some kids from Washington State, met Pete Steinberger who teaches guitar at McCabe’s, and learned some really important methods of teaching and talking about chord and progression theory for string players. Got face time with some wonderful people in the Exhibit Hall, and got hugs from some of my favorite folks as we passed in the halls. As I told Bev Barnett (FAR-West Vice President) , ‘The conference was espresso to the usual folk fests’s drip.’ Now I must consider making DesertSong Productions a member of the Folk Alliance, and begin scheming on how I can manage transport, lodging, and perhaps even our own guerilla showcase series in San Jose next year. In the meantime, of course, there’s the November showcase to promote, and the Christmas show to plan…….

—WayneSL

Join the team- Help live music flourish.

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:14:26 +0000

Signing up is quick, easy and FREE, and you’ll feel really good about yourself, too!

DesertSong really needs volunteers! Won’t you help?

Butler’s Java Jam Friday, Sept. 11th, 7PM

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:57:00 +0000

There’s been a surprise change in the lineup for Butler’s Friday night show. Wayne Slater-Lunsford will replace some folks who suddenly had to cancel. That means he’ll be opening at 7PM for Tony and Tom. Here’s Kevin’s pitch:

On Friday, September 11, we’re bringing back the JAVA JAM. This time out, we’re only having three acts, but it’s definitely a good mix; the most thematically consistent Jam we’ve had yet. All three performers — TONY VICE, TOM RENAUD and WAYNE SLATER-LUNSFORD (who he?) work the Acoustic Americana vein, sifting through the various threads of our musical heritage for valuable nuggets of folk, blues and country. Whether they’re traditional, covers or eye-popping originals, these three amigos know what American music is all about.

Kev in even made a nice flyer: Print a few and give them to friends… strangers… passing wildlife…

Butlers JavaJam 2009-09-11
Drop on by, or the terrorists win.

DesertSong is:

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:25:44 +0000

A nexus for information about live acoustic music
Nurturing up-close and personal performances
in and around the Antelope Valley on the High Desert
North of Los Angeles, California.