Hi Folks,

Here's the first outline for travel dates for the 2005 Just Plain Folks Roadtrips. As you'll see below, there are a LOT of dates, cities and states included and there will inevitably be a lot of changes. However, I wanted to start the work on piecing it all together and the more notice we can give folks the better. Obviously the first 1/3 is more critical right now than the last 2/3rds.

We'll be planning Showcases in all cities as long as we have at least 20 interested performers. If we have at least 10 active members interested, we'll still visit locations for a dinner/meeting to get the ball rolling with the local chapter. If we have overwhelming interest (i.e. more than 60 performers) we'll likely add a second, third or fourth show. (We did 29 events in So. Cal a few years back with an average of 25 performers at every show, but I doubt we'll need to do that for this tour). This schedule has us visiting the entire Easter 2/3rds of the US, Southern California and parts of Canada. We'll hit the Western 1/3 in 2006.

If you live in or near one of these cities and can offer support getting an appropriate venue or if you can offer to host Brian in your home for a night (I usually stay with members along the way) please let us know. Don't sign up to perform just yet. Let us finalize the dates, set the venues and lock it all in before we start taking names for performance slots. In cities with active chapters, we may try to have a 1 hour Q&A session before showcases or if time permits, we can do a separate chapter meeting. Since we'll be taping all the events for our documentary project, these 1 hour sessions will be used to discuss the local scene in addition to JPF information. We may also set up additional interviews with local artists and business people for the project during the day before or after the shows.

Post any questions or comments here or you can email me directly at justplainfolks@aol.com (our official Roadtrip Sign Up Email Address) and please put "Roadtrip Question: (Your City)" in the subject so I can keep up with all of them.

Here's the tentative travel and city dates:

(Note: We are working on the final dates and will be posting the soon. Stay tuned for that information!)

I am looking forward to seeing all of you in 2005 and the rest of you in 2006!

Brian

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks



[This message has been edited by Brian Austin Whitney (edited 04-12-2005).]

Brian,

If you need any assistance with the
following dates, let's discuss.....

Mon, May 16: New Jersey (TBA)
Tue, May 17: New Jersey (TBA)
Wed, May 18: NYC, NY
Thu, May 19: NYC, NY
Fri, May 20: NYC, NY
Sat, May 21: NYC, NY
Sun, May 22: NYC, NY




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Kevin Campbell
http://www.kevincampbell.net

We definitely will need help in NJ. One of those 2 days I want to visit the Disc Makers headquarters, so a show nearby them would be good. We've always done our NJ show in New Brunswick at the Spook Handy open mic. We haven't been out there in a couple years, so I am not sure what they are up to these days. We've never gotten an active chapter off the ground in NJ, so my hope is that we can use this show to do so.

As far as NYC, we had a gigantic turn out the last trip through there with a week full of shows featuring 50+ artists a night. It was a blast. We did shows at The Triad (that was a bad experience though, they triple booked us and so we won't go back there), The Baggot Inn (they're always nice to us), The Parkside, Club 816, Downtime, The C-Note and the Bitter End as well as several other clubs I can't recall at the moment. Our coordinator from that time Christine Mascott moved to Cape Cod, so Stephen Arout has taken over but has never been involved in a Road Trip so we're going to need as much help as possible, especially if you have contacts with any of the above venues or similar ones to do shows in which are FREE. (i.e. no cover and no fees to us for anything). We filled every club previously in NYC, but since we don't have the organized chapter going right now, it may be a little tougher to get good turn outs. I have several interviews to do for the documentary in NYC so we'll likely be looking at doing 2-3 shows this time around.

Let me know and thanks for the offer of help!

Brian

Hey Brian,
Don't forget us newbies in Morristown NJ! We have a bunch of bands chomping at the bit to get involved. We will play in NJ or NYC. New Brunswick is only about 40 minutes south of us too, but there are a great many bands concentrated in that area already.

Let me know what more we can do to get this to happen. I will begin speaking with club owners this week.
Peace&Love.
Busterman

Busterman,

If you have a local venue there in Morristown, we'll do the event there as long as we can get a big turn out. In New Brunswick we maxed the place out the door there (we couldn't fit half the people in the room with the music.. it's a small place there in the basement). It also wasn't well suited for full bands.

Keep in mind for your band buddies that these shows are massive cattle calls so we try to have shared backlines and often bands are only doing 2 songs (sometimes 1 song each if it's crowded enough). It takes a lot of discipline, but last time in NYC we got 50 full bands up and down in less than 5 hours, each doing a song. It was amazing. But we had some key folks there (Cathy Grier and Christine Mascott) and tons of preparation and a very cooperative set of members to make it go fast. It was a wild and fun night. 5 hours or 50 songs is about the max that people can stand for a night. I am guessing most shows on this tour will average 30+ performers. We've never had to turn anyone away in the past and hopefully won't have to this year, but in doing so, it may mean 1 song per performer. Since we've only done shows in New Brunswick, we'd be depending on the locals to get the word out to all the local bands and performers to have a great turn out for NJ.

Brian

Oh and by the way, folks are welcome to sign up for shows in other cities. As long as they realize it's generally 1 or 2 songs, even if you have a long drive.

Brian

Hi Brian,

If you need a place to stay in Northern NJ, you are welcome to crash at my home in Bloomfield, NJ. I'm about 30 minutes west of NYC and about 40 minutes north of New Brunswick.

Let me know...

Thanks,
Bill

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Woogie!
Bubboon,
the Royal Fool
www.bubboon.com

I know of several place in Morristown in which we could put this together. Also, The Underpass in Elmwood Park is a mostly original music club already. I've never been there, but I'm playing there this Saturday so I'll see if that is a possible place.

What do you do when you have 50 bands playing as far as equipment goes. I don't know one drummer who would want that many strangers playing his kit. I'm not trying to be a downer here, I'm just trouble shooting.

Well, the Underpass is an amazing place to play!!! The people are great, so is the sound system and soundman. We were a huge success and asked back before we even got off the stage. It's in northern NJ about 20 minutes west of NYC and very easy to get to. If I talk to them soon we can probably book it in time since it's early in the week. I'm sure I could get 20 bands that would play. I already have about ten on which I would bet the house.

Glad to hear your show was such a success.

I-CON was a lot of fun. My performance at the cabaret on Saturday night went great despite a crappy sound system and incompetent sound men. One guy told me that before I went on stage he said to himself "OK, one more crappy act and I'm outta here." Then he stuck around because I didn't suck.

My concert on Sunday went great. I got more people to come than I thought I would. The convention tends to empty out on Sunday so I was happy with the crowd I drew.

I sold a few CDs. Took a couple pre-orders for my new CD. And when I wasn't performing I was having fun being a sci-fi geek.

->Later.....Spice

That's great Spice! Now let's get out there and put some shows together.