Re: What my audience prefers to hear (rant)
Originally Posted by
foldedpath
I wouldn't necessarily put "Celtic" folk music in that same category, unless we're talking about Clancy Brothers-type bands, which is its own category. Or a St. Patrick's Day gig, where people probably expect some singing. I've done St. Patrick's gigs with an otherwise instrumental band where we hired in a vocalist to help. Otherwise we did okay as a straight instrumental group, but it was mostly background-music gigs like weddings....
I've had the same problem I did with the fiddle trio, getting agreement to book Celtic bands that didn't sing. My Celtic group Innisfree has a small vocal repertoire so we don't get typed as "instrumentals only." I was in a Scottish-oriented band, Thistledown, and while our CD was all instrumental, we learned some vocals for live performance.
Not sure whether it's the audience, or the venue bookers, who shy away from strictly-instrumental groups. Personally, I'd much rather hear a really good instrumental, than a mediocre vocal that the musician included because he/she felt it was required.
I like to sing -- not that I'm super-good at it -- and I think that mixing instrumentals and vocals makes for more interesting programming. But I'd hate to think I was singing because I had to, in order to have a gig.
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