I just remembered this thread. Rick Fines and his bass player Richard Simpkins are performing in my living room this Saturday night. And there's quite a waiting list. House concerts are fun. You spend a few weeks getting it organized, and hope for a full house, and then when it's sold out, and you have people begging us to let them in - to find chandaliers for them to hang from - the excitement just keeps rising.

JeffM and Rick Speyer are opening for this one. Two of my very talented musical friends.

We don't do many house concerts here, and it's unusual for us to have them so close together on the calendar, so we're organizing the Wheatley concert at the same time, but it's not been onerous. Actually it's been almost easier to do them really close together than a few months apart. Katherine's concert is almost sold out now too. Michael Bolton (not that one, the other one) is going to open for Katherine...it's on Valentine's Day so he's going to sing "silly songs of love and heartache".

We can fit max 40 people into our little semi-detached house (the living room and dining room join together with a wide door between them). There are quite a few places to hear folk now in the city (Toronto) but this is so different. We ask people who are top of the ladder musicians, usually with whom we have some personal connection already, and generally if they live outside of the city, so that each one is a very special event. Rick Fines will be only our 4rth house concert.

I wonder how many of you ever host, or ever go to house concerts? I'd be interested to hear. Personally, I think they're magic. So small, intimate, acoustic, and full of energy. Now, if I could only squeeze in a few more chairs....

~b.w.