Getting Ready For Three Days of Full Concerts
Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 08:36AM I am on the road in North Carolina this week, about to do three shows in a row, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. As I am the headliner, I’ll be singing at least two hours a night plus whatever banter the world inspires.
To do that many full concerts in a row, there are some things that I must do first.
Primarily, I must get plenty of rest. To that end, I came to North Carolina three days early. Remember that travel is a days work. I got plenty of rest the first night and even last night, I let myself sleep til I got up.
Secondly, I’m doing an hour or two of exercise every day; eating right, no drinking (glass of wine or glass of beer with dinner, but only one), no drugs and plenty of water. You need to realy hydrate yourself before this much singing. Drinking water is a big deal.
Thirdly, I’m practicing for at least two hours every day, the tricky licks, vocalizing, and just singing the songs so that they actually move me as I perform them.
Next I start thinking about the shows and which songs I’m going to do in which order.
On this tour, I’ve brought the CD’s: New Traces of the Old Road, The Eternal Contradiction and Backstage At The Resurrection (the brand new cd—all of which you can see and hear and read about at www.jamesleestanley.com).
And one of the things that I have learned to do for concerts is to only sing songs that are on the CD’s I’ve brought with me. If I don’t follow that dictum, invariably someone comes up to me and asks for the one song I did that is not on a CD that I brought with me. When I say it’s not on a CD that I have with me, they always thank me and walk away…with out one of my CD’s.
Regarding the CD sales, I’ve told you this before, but in a nutshell, I only make one pitch for CD’s and it is before the last song. The pitch is funny and self deprecating and when I do it, I always sell half the room. When I don’t do it, the sales are considerably less.
And finally, I have begun to tell folks that it is important for me that they take my music home with them. I tell the the price of the CD and then I say that because it’s important to me that they take my music with them, I tell them that if they cannot pay what I ask, then pay what they can and please take a CD anyway. And if they can’t pay anything, then take a CD for free.
I know this sounds insane, but so far, I’ve never given away more than one free cd an evening. I don’t know why it works but it works and almost everyone pays full price. Strange, isn’t it? I can only attribute it to the idea that the only folks that get what I do are intelligent, sensitive and spiritually aware.
I know it sounds like kiss-ass, but that’s what I believe. The folks that get what I do and like it, just would not take advantage of me, or probably anyone for that matter.
So think about all this next time you are getting ready to do a show.
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