Real Country Bands

[David Evans]

CAN A BAND THAT PLAYS PRIMARILY TRADITIONAL COUNTRY FIND PLACES TO PLAY THESE DAYS.DOES IT DEPEND ON THE AREA?

[Roger Edgington]

You can in Texas. We only play old country and western swing and we stay very busy. There are other bands here doing the same thing. This is a shuffle and waltz part of the country and that's the main reason I moved back here. Tonight and tomorrow we will play at the Junction,Texas rodeo.

[Jim Harper]

You can here in Southern Okla. We play 2 and some time,s 3 night,s a week.We play mostly senior citizen,s dance,s.Okla.has been having several town,s around here with their 100 year anniv and we are playing festival,s for them.==Jim Harper

[Dave Mudgett]

I think it depends heavily on the area. In this large university town in the Northeast, traditional country is a pretty tough sell. Alt-country and Americana is more the norm - not the "flavor of the month", but there is a specialized market for it. But outside of town in the more rural areas of Pennsylvania, one can gig. I'm playing in Mingoville tonight - traditional country all the way.

I was in Boston for a week last month. Good luck finding a truly traditional country gig in the City of Boston. But there are clearly some country bands working in other parts of Massachusetts and New England in general.

[Johan Jansen]

Only when your band name is TIMEJUMPERS

JJ

[Jack Ritter]

Both bands I play with are classic country all the way with a little 50's rock. i get to play every wednesday nite at the American Legion for a seniors dance and had 72 there nite B4 last and brother , they come to dance. first downbeat and the floor is full. just played my 829th gig with the Ridgerunners. this dance thing started about 1939, and still going. we play for the Okla #1 polka club here occasionally, do about 6 polkas and they like the rest "country". play this at the Enid Moose lodge and will be at the Moose on the 23rd this month for a regular classic country dance.
Really not many places to play here any more--used to be several.

[Johan Jansen]

I hope the time comes back for the classical country music, also for the classical jazz, hard-rock, disco, etc.
Maybe in 30 years people ask for the classical rap and hip-hop?

[Kevin Hatton]

I really think that it depends on how good the band is. I've seen some God aweful players giving traditional country music a bad name. If you sing on key, play in tune, and have good arrangements I think that you can literally play anywhere.

[Roger Edgington]

Kevin..I totaly agree with you. Most of the traditional classic country bands around here are well rehearsed and present themselves in a professional manor and are worth going to see. I believe you can sell most brands of music if it's done well.

[chris ivey]

i think any band (country to original to americana) can work as long as they are musically prepared and ready to go with a good friendly attitude and willing to try their best to entertain, engaging the audience, got their equipment and transportation together, etc. private functions snowball and pay well if you do a good job!!

of course. if you're just plain bad, this might not be so!!

[Joe Drivdahl]

I've been thinking about starting a country band because it seems the people in this town are pretty starved for entertainment, but I don't know if country of any kind will go here. This is an old time rock and roll town.

I think though that like Chris and others have said that if the music is good, people will come.

Joe

[Ted Nesbitt]

Move to Ireland. Country Music 7 nights a week at country dances and concerts. George Jones, Gene Watson and Ricky Skaggs were here last week-end at a Country Music Festival. Plenty of steel guitar too!

[Jack Stoner]

All our band does is "traditional country". But, 99% of our audiences are retirees. Here in Florida there is not much in the Summer as everything is focused around the winter "snowbirds". Winter is the exact opposite and I work quite a bit. I work a weekly Tuesday afternoon show from November to April, along with the other gigs.

We do the "RV Park Tours" with some of the traditional Nashville singers in the winter. Last winter we toured with George Hamilton IV in January and in February with Tommy Cash. So far, we have about 6 or 7 bookings with Tommy Cash for 2009.

Our New Years gig this year will be at a Golf Club, that is primarily retirees.

[Paul Wade]

david,

i play in a classic country band in Wisconsin. plenty
of work around la cross Wisconsin mostly v.f.w's
some bars, private party's all classic country

p.w

www.countyoutlaws.com

www.zip-country.com

[Curtis Alford]

In the Austin area, not nearly as much country as I would have beleived. Mostly progressive or alt country, blues, and tons of screaming ultra-loud playing bands.
Meomories of the good old days,1948-1972 still seem so nice.

[Lonnie Zsigray]

I think Chris Ivey has a good point in that attitude has a lot to do with your performance.I know of people who have this "well let's get it over with" attitude if they don't see a packed house.Put on a good show and play what THEY want to hear not what it says on your piece of paper.Who is paying for the band? The people who walk through the door,that's who.If some guy wants to hear Steel Guitar Rag again then play it again.Keeping a positive attitude and enjoying what you are doing for the folks that do come in will keep them coming back.

[Sam Lewis]

Very interesting. I play steel for the sstaff band at Houston Country, a family show/dance just outside Conway, AR on Hwy 60. The music we play is almost pure OLD country and the folks love it. There are 5 of us doing what we love best. For those of you who have attended some of the steel shows around this area, you will recognize the name, Gary Atkinson. Gary is our lead singer and does an outstanding job on the great stuff from Ray Price and many others. From my standpoint, PURE Country Music is alive and well. I'll be 78 in a few days and if God will grant me the time, I'll play PURE country for another 65 years (started when I was 12). Long live "Good 'ole Country"

[Lonnie Zsigray]

Keep up the good work and keep playing that good ole country music.God loves that stuff.Why else would he have called Hank Williams home so soon.

[Brad Malone]

to about 35 club owners...that way you can get a feel of what the people in your area are listening to. The next thing to do when forming a band is try to get people that play and understand music close to your level of understanding and playing ability and also like some of the stuff you do. A band with a low level of enthusiasm will fall apart..also they must have time to devote to making practice sessions and play dates...hard to do in this day's world.

[Mike Ester]

Kevin..I totaly agree with you. Most of the traditional classic country bands around here are well rehearsed and present themselves in a professional manor and are worth going to see. I believe you can sell most brands of music if it's done well.

Gotta agree with Roger, here. But then again, we ARE talking about Texas.

[Theresa Galbraith]

You can find them here in Nashville Tn.

[George Kimery]

I am not near any large populated area and live in the country in East TN. We have a good band and a good singer. Most of the time, we just have fiddle and steel as lead instruments. We don't work any bars or clubs, only family places. We find plenty of places to play. We have one place that we play twice a month and another one, once a month. We get other dates to fill iin. Most of the dates we get from people that are at our regular gigs. We have a good following and work on a percentage of the door most of the time. We make better money that way and the sponsors of the venue don't have to worry about loosing money. I have made as much as $200.00 for a Friday and Saturday night show. I never made that much playing clubs. Plus, we don't work late hours, usually 7 til 10 or 10:30. We just did a two hour concert of all Jim Reaves music at a restaurant. The owner is from Britain and is a HUGE Jim Reaves fan and even named his restaurant Gentleman Jims. This one, we charged a flat rate since there was no admission charge. So, to make a long story short, which is impossible by now, If we can do it in the middle of nowhere, you can to. The type of music you play and the type of place you play will determine the type of people that will attend. If the music is good, people will find you, spread the word, and come back. There are tons of people sitting home watching TV instead of going to hear live bands. Once these people find out that your band is doing the type of stuff they like and are doing a good job, they will come out and spread the word. We do get an older crowd, but they are reliable and have money and time on their hands and are looking for things to do.

[Roger Edgington]

George.. That's pretty much how it works around here too except you are more likely to play 9 to 1:00.