Phil,

Now ya got me thinkin'.

When I was going to the Barbarossa, the No Exit, and the David Adler Center's events, I went initially because they had booked someone I wanted to see, and then once I was there I liked the place and its standards of performance. I figured if I had liked one performer, I would probably like others they featured, and if it was go-out night, out I went to a spot I liked, to see who might be playing and what they were like. If I liked the music I stayed and paid a second cover for the second set (and often a third). If it was not, I left near the end of the first set and caught someone else somewhere else. But then in Chicago we had a fine appreciation for what is known as "voting with the feet." I always came back... I suppose if they had started hiring all one genre I didn't like, I'd have stopped going there. But I think as business people they would have seen the feet-vote and smartened up.

So I would go where I liked to go, not because I expected them to book all the same sorts of people (think: that would be pretty boring!), but because I figured they had good taste and high standards. So I depended on them to book diverse, interesting, quality performers. If the mix had not been so eclectic-- well shoot! How would I have learned to appreciate everything I love now??? And where would I have been inspired, to sing and play some of it myself????? Heck, there goes a whole ministry down the tubes!

IMO they should be asked to try out good quality folks even if it may not be the genre the regulars seem most used to-- maybe they would not get the first pick on set times and nights, but I'd think they'd want to try them out and see how they went over-- AND I'd want to see if they had a following that started coming to that venue!!

~Susan