WORKSHOP: How to be an Opening Act (and nail it!) - Hosted by Jaimee Harris

  • July 22, 2023 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

  • Folk School of Fayetteville

    207 West Center Street
    Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
Ticket Price $27.37 This event is now over
Description

FOLK SCHOOL OF FAYETTEVILLE is located one block from the Fayetteville Square, in the historic 1840's  Walker Stone House, just across the street from Arsaga's Coffee Church & Center.

How to be an Opening Act… and nail it!
Hosted by Jaimee Harris

For Whom: All are welcome!

Picture this: you get a call to open a tour for one of your musical heroes. You’ve been playing your own headling shows in your hometown for years, so you think a thirty-minute opening set will be a breeze. Finally, the first big gig night comes. You step onto the stage, do your best, and walk off feeling like something went very, very wrong. Maybe it was just a weird night. The next night, same thing. You begin to question whether or not you should leave the tour immediately. Perhaps you should go back to your desk job, take all of your music off of the internet, and make your website disappear. Has this ever happened to you? It happened to me. 

In 2018, after eighteen years of playing live, I finally quit my day job and went on the road. Over the last five years, I’ve played in dozens of countries and hundreds of cities opening for Mary Gauthier. Despite all my years of experience, I quickly learned that being an opening act is a whole other art form. 

In this workshop, I will teach you what I learned, in real-time, about how to succeed in front of an audience that has no idea who you are. You’ll learn that being an opening act is a coveted job, but it’s anything but easy. I will share with you my understanding of how to succeed as an opening act on and off stage.


 
ABOUT JAIMEE HARRIS
Jaimee Harris turned 30 during the pandemic. It’s a milestone that is a rite of passage even during normal times. But for this Texas-born singer-songwriter, it came in the midst of one of the strangest and most tumultuous periods in American history. When the world stopped during lockdown, Harris, like many others, found herself gazing back into the past, ruminating on the nature of her hometown and family origins, and reckoning with their imprint on her. The term ‘nostalgia’ derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain), and if Harris’s Boomerang Town can be regarded as a nostalgic album, it is only nostalgic in the sense that the longing for home is a desire to return to the past and heal old wounds.

Date & Time

Sat, Jul 22, 2023 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Venue Details

Folk School of Fayetteville

207 West Center Street
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 Folk School of Fayetteville
Folk School of Fayetteville

FOLK SCHOOL OF FAYETTEVILLE is a 501(c)3 non-profit music organization popularly known as Fayetteville Roots. 
For over a 13 years we have carried out our mission to connnect community through music and food. Over that time we have fostered concerts & community/educational events in Northwest Arkansas. We believe in our music community and strive to create opportunies for connections and learning. 

In 2022 one of our signature events, the Fayetteville Roots Festival, was paused. 2023 brings a new chapter and a new location for our organization. The Folk School of Fayetteville, located in the historic Walker Stone House near the Fayetteville Square, will open in late Spring 2023 with space for lessons, classes, workshops, jams, and more.


What is a Folk School and why do you need to know about it?
Folk Schools originated as a way for communities to learn from each other, especially vital to communities that didn’t have access to “formal education”.     Folk Schools create an environment that encourages People teaching People, rather than a classical education approach of Professor and Student.

Folk School of Fayetteville is continuing this model by providing space for musicians to learn from each other, for new players to learn, and for long time musicians to develop new technique and skills — and this is available to ALL the FOLKS (people).  Folk School is open to all genres, identities, and cultures, and is excited to host music that is as dynamic and varied as our community.


Folk School of Fayetteville is buit on the body of work (13 years) of Fayetteville Roots Festival, and is fostered on many of its guiding principles:
Create opportunities for our music community
Support and present multivaried music genres, identities, & cultures
Commitment to free & low-cost community learning
Creative re-use of existing urban spaces
Collaboration with the community & music/arts organizations
Low waste & low impact sustainable events


Find more Folk School of Fayetteville Events and Music events in Fayetteville