Catherine Feeny: Focusing on Key Regions (Nashville, TN)-- Local Cut

Catherine Feeny: Focusing on Key Regions (Nashville, TN)

October 30th, 2009 [1:01PM] Posted by: Catherine Feeny | 0 COMMENTS

I’m on the east coast now, Nashville, TN specifically. This side of the country has been a bit kinder—I have lots of family over here, plus some support slots with a great artist (Chris Pureka) who’s toured a lot more in the States than I have.

My husband Sebastian went back to Portland to do some production, so I asked my mom to go on tour with me. We went to the horse races yesterday in Lexington, KY and won $16. We are sharing the driving and she is selling my merch for me—it’s pretty awesome. Also getting lots of time in the car to catch up, which we don’t do much cuz she lives in Philly.

Tin Angel in Philly was a regular family reunion—I have a huge Irish Catholic clan. Great venue, but they take a pretty big cut of the door, which is a bummer. NYC was great—saw many old friends and a bunch of new faces. The Livingroom is super artist-friendly, regardless of its location in big bad new york.

Then we headed to the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern* in Cleveland, OH which is my new favorite venue. It has serious Eastern European working class charm. Plus good sound. I have played a couple times at the Barking Spider in Cleveland, and also have a brother and a sister there who get a bunch of people out, so the turnout was great and the crowd was respectful.

I think Chris Pureka and Lindel (her fiddle and bass player) were a little surprised when I turned up with my 60+ year old mom at the first venue in Pittsburgh—but they are sweet and it’s been cool. My mom is pretty intensely friendly when you first meet her, which can be a bit overwhelming… I’ve had moments of teenage embarrassment… but mostly I think people find her kooky and charming. She is super helpful and supportive. Chris has a big lesbian audience, so folks are pretty stoked on the women-supporting-one-another angle.

Gotta run and get ready for the Nashville show—it’s an early one and I am not sure what to expect. My new booking agent is based in Nashville, so he’s coming down and we are going to have a meal after the show. He has also helped the east coast leg of the tour—he got me into the venues in NYC and Cleveland, and sorted out some dates that I booked that might have gone South without his help.

I want to talk to him about strategies for next time around… focusing on key regions… More soon.