After one complete failure and several bumps in the road, finally got another band going.

This time was wise enough to let a better man handle the accordion playing, so just have to sing and strum a little on the guitar.

Much easier and no stress. Excellent drummer, bass, and fiddlers. Already played one CFMA dance to good reviews.

The question of what to do now is multi-faceted:

Register a Domain name and attempt to created a website?

Register the band name?

Hire a local booking agent?

Probably all three?

Need opinions and advice from those who have been there and done that.

Thanks to all,

JB

OMG,starting a new band: First, do all the booking yourself (at least for a year). Second, create an on-line presence to get those bookings and show yourself to whomever, like facebook or myspace, etc. Thirdly, take a 3 hour trip with your musicians to do a 3-set gig for a $300 total paycheck before gas, sound and food, and see if you still like each other when you get back. 4th-if you do, keep the social website and register your domain name. If you sense the tension, replace the problems or start over again. To heck with booking agents (until the number of pretty girls you draw with your act outdraws your paycheck). A booking agent is set up to make money if you are popular and steal it, if you are not (yet). That's why they exist.
Best o luck with your new group.

Haha.. sounds like wise words from someone who has perhaps been there from Cher Bear

Man, you folks back home got it good. Shake a random tree and accordion, fiddle, guitar players fall out.

It's been worse than pulling teeth trying to find anyone here in Eugene, Oregon who wants to just play for fun.

CB

Like the part about doing all the booking personally.
Already had doubts about booking agents.

Taking a 3-hour trip with these guys for no money; kinda done that already. Luckily, we are all either retired or have good day-jobs and even though some pocket money would be nice, it's not the main motivation. We still even like each other, mostly.

Did have to shuck one Problem Child already, who kept saying he didn't like to play in bands because they had too much drama, when in essence, he was the drama.

Defintely gonna get some type of on-line exposure and a registered domain name, but don't have the expertise to do it alone.

Good advice, and much appreciated.

JB

So JB your not into "Minimalism"! I like the set up of your band need drums and bass.

Minimalism depends on the skill level of the musicians, IMHO.

This weekend at the Medina Lake Cajun Festival, Bruce Daigrepont (could have spelled that name wrong), Gina Forsythe on fiddle, a drummer and a bass player (didn't get their names) made some unbelievable, outstanding music, great vocals, had everybody dancing, and appeared to be having a great time themselves.

Only four musicians, outside in the heat, and a ton of white noise, but they had an absolute outstanding performance. Would they have sounded better with a rhythm guitar, an electric 'tit-fer, and a steel? Kinda doubt it.

There was a five-piece group there (who shall remain un-named) at the same festival, who somehow managed to empty almost all the seats at their venue, and not onto the dance floor.

Skill level.

JB

Somebody asked me if I had ever been married. I said "yep, I gots 5 band members and they're b**chn at me right now".

For those of you into minimalism, a nice trio of fiddle guitar and accordion will get you a long way in the public performance arena, especially if you sing pretty, look good and can put on lipstick. (Sorry Randy, not talkin' 'bout you). Otherwise, you will be fine with your backporch style and a couple of lite beers amongst friends who are into trad cajun, etc.

But what is the object? To play and perform the music as it was recorded 50-70 years ago? To live the same desperation as Canray? Or to make music among friends/family and maybe some gas money along the way (eg., the Balfas)? Or, maybe even go 'pro' and play thursday thru sunday 40 weeks of year? Lotsa choices there. Depends, really, on how much you value being a player, a performer, or both. IF you need the money you will be working hard. If you don't like entertaining, stay at home, have jams and do the best you can at becoming a better accordion, fiddle, or French speaker. But why talk down on somebody else who is trying to do otherwise?

When you organize a group, a leader takes a lot on personally unless it is a collective effort (the best, but hardest to achieve). To get 5 or 6 people to work together on 'your' group can be a project with unlimited compromise, most likely, your compromising your values just to keep the gig from collapsing into a drama filled shout-fest of contempt and other short-comnings. Gotta be on the same page, minimal or not. Even so, with an ideal combo, there always seems to be someone with a hard edge that has to be 'handled' carefully. Just like your wife.

Suggest building your group in stages: With a good trio core, you can 'outboard' your drums, bass, steel, second fiddle,etc when you need them at the one-a-month dance that pays enuf for a group that size. In most areas of the world, bass and drummers rule the roost cuz they can go from gig to gig, style to style, with impunity. They want your gig money but probably can't name two real cajuns unless they were born that way. However, cuz they are in 'the loop' and this is roots music, most of these 'extras' with at-least average talent will be able to keep your group going at first.... till you realize you are still doing all their work while they collect the paycheck. That's the whole dynamic of getting 'paid to play'. It costs a lot financially to keep a good dance band floating on it's own. And, like any business, it often is gonna come out of the leader/owner's pocket. Remember: if it is good, it will sell itself. Your friends, dancers and competitors will all tell you this before your girlfriend or family members will.

Consider this:Hadley Castille was forced not to speak French, Steve Riley never learned French, natively. Walter Mouton never used a guitar player, and Beausoleil has often toured without a bass player. Jeffrey Broussard, and Rosie Ledet are constantly changing line-ups due to musician availability and the fact that they are constantly on the road. Talk about drama!But you never see that amongst pro's. What will keep your dancers and fans on the floor is if you always show up. Longevity counts. So hang in there, have fun and get rid of the folks who bring it/you down. Some days are better than others and, like my dog knows, yesterday can never happen again.

Hey JB, just real quickly: Get a website up with a bio of the band and bandmembers, your calendar, a youtube or two of y'all playing, and tell people in great detail how wonderful you are. They will believe you.

Somebody told me a long time ago to blow your own horn, lest someone mistake it for a spittoon . . .

Also, play free gigs for good causes. It'll make you feel good, and make other people feel good about you - and remember you.

And BTW, no offense to Cher Bear, but the initials CB are already taken by our own Cajun and Cajunphile, Charlie Begnaud.

you need a sound system
you need to carry it

get a regular gig even if it doesn;t pay much

that is 'practice'

but you also need to work on some things out of the public eye

that way you can stop and fix problems

you may want to develop a flex-band

small and acoustic for cheap or quiet gigs
loud and electric for parties, higher fees, festivals

re - agents

you shouldn;t really 'hire' them
you just tell them what you do
give them examples
let them find you gigs
they are paid by commission
the difference between what they get and what you will take

you can do this to dozens of agents
they all reach different customers/clients..

my band MAYBE does one gig a year through any kind of 'agent'

it;s just really not that kind of music


wle

1) You've got to have a marketable product
2) You've got to have a website that markets your product with a brand, photos, a schedule and sound samples
3) It helps to have had clients to lend credence to your marketing efforts

It's all about marketing... ;)

Yeah..what was it James Brown said..'..the music business....hmmm, 90% business, 10% music....man !..but, I Feeeel good !"

This is the same James Brown who fined , by taking money off of his band members for every mistake they made on stage, eg coming at at the wrong time, bum notes,missed cues, etc etc "..cop that Braves..that'd make ya or break ya as a muso wouldn't it ?

A cat like James Brown could do that. A guy with an accordion, playing roots music doing something like that would be a death sentence.

In the realm of C/Z music, having fun and creating an atmosphere of a party is foremost. Everyone makes mistakes, and I'm sure even James Jenkins Brown made 'em. Trying to compare Mr. Brown to even the most popular C/Z artists is not comparing apples to apples (R.I.P. Steve Jobs).

Even the upper echelon of C/Z artists keep the same players for quite a while. Usually, it's creative, touring conflicts with their day jobs, hearing loss or personality differences that cause and exit for band members -- not a dictatorship brought on by some money-mad, egotistical front-man. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but it's ethnic folk music and not an internationally recognized Dick Clark endorsed household-genre social movement.

I'm sure that money problems always exist to some degree in all bands, but any "leader" docking pay for making mistakes (a very subjective argument) is pure insanity. I'm sure if someone wasn't putting their time into learning the parts, then that would definitely show at gigs -- and that's ground for dismissal. But to keep tally on numbers of goofs while caught-up in the moment is inhuman.

james brown was a tortured genius
eccentric
artistic
temperamental

if he fined someone for a mistake,
he would also usually covertly slip them back most of the money

or buy them a cadillac for christmas


wle

I love how you write
Larry
Like a haiku
Everytime

Hey JB, Sorry I've been so slow on the trigger with this one - mighty busy, verily I say unto thee.

I think Larry had a stellar suggestion about having a regular gig; weekly, ideally, even if it doesn't pay at all. Being on stage week after week will really help you to hone your craft, make you comfortable on stage, and make performing second nature to you. As for websites, you might check ours out at I'm sure there's a ton of things we could do better, but we've gotten a lot of jobs off of it (and from Rick Reid - another suggestion: get on his good side! Actually, all his sides are good . . .). Of course, it helps that we're the only Cajun-attempting band for 250 miles around . . .

yep

the old 'only band in the tri state area' ploy works too!

another thing that works is this:
say 'yes' even though they want
zydeco
new orleans jazz
dixieland
cajun
low country boil songs all day

actually i get these requests all the time

i say 'we don;t do that quite that way, but what we do might fit, it depends on what you really want'

because they usually either are more flexible than they realize, or they just don;t really know anything about louisiana music and anything with an accordion would be fine

but i will always explain the difference between cajun and zydeco, or
zydeco and jazz..

[[now your 'zydeco' never has a tuba or a tenor banjo, or guys in matching colonel sanders ties]]

most of the time we get the gig anyway



wle

I do the same thing with song requests, Larry: when they say "Do the Kaplan Waltz", for instance, I say "That WAS the Kaplan Waltz! Didn't you recognize it?"

BTW, the website I meant to post, and thought I did, is snakeeyesandthebugband.com