The first I can remember hearing of house concerts was from Dave Nachmanoff. Kevin and I discovered him when we went to Al Stewart gigs in the Bay Area. Dave also performs on his own, and he does house concerts. I remember thinking at the time that this must be the sort of thing that very rich Bay Area folks do — paying to actually have the artist perform live in your home. This was long before I had heard of Amanda Palmer and seen how a musician can build a fan base.

A couple of months back someone contacted BristolCon on Twitter and asked us to publicize a European tour by an American singer-songwriter, Marian Call. As well as playing gigs in pubs and clubs, Marian would be doing house concerts. I passed on the link and thought no more of it, until my friend Marjorie informed me that she’d be hosting one of these events. In Trowbridge? Really? And free entry, pay what you can? Well it was interesting, so I agreed to go.

Of course then I had something of a travel nightmare, and was two hours later getting home than I should have been. I also had work come in. The net result was that I missed the first half of the gig. I did catch the second, however, and was pleased that I did.

Like my friend Talis Kimberley, Marian has come out of the SF&F community and filking. While filking has something of a poor reputation at conventions, it has produced some really good musicians. Talis and Marian are fine examples, and Marian tells me that she knows Seanan McGuire and Sooj Tucker, so I guess a lot of my Bay Area friends already know how good she is.

I’m not going to review the music beyond saying that I enjoyed it. I was very tired last night and not concentrating well. Besides, there are free samples available on Marian’s website that you can listen to. What I can review is the gig itself. Marjorie’s house is not huge, but it coped. Marian was accompanied by another singer-songwriter, Scott Barkan. I counted an audience of 16, one of whom turned out to be Marian’s boyfriend, so I guess 15 paying guests. Refreshments were on a BYO basis. And from Marian’s point of view, she and her team got accommodation for the night, which must help a lot with expenses. (Note to Kevin: they are traveling on a BritRail pass). Economically, this works. It isn’t making Marian a fortune, but it is covering costs and helping build a fan base, which is what it is all about.

If you’d like to see Marian yourself, the tour calendar is on the website. She’s off Up North today, playing Sheffield, Manchester, Stockport, Birmingham and Edinburgh in quick succession. There are then three gigs in London next week. After that she’s off to the Continent for a while, and the tour finishes up with a couple of dates in Dublin in the middle of the month. If she’s not coming near you, well there are albums available from the usual places.

Oh, and Marian is recording a live album during the tour. If you are at the Manchester gig, or the Sunday night one in London, you can be part of that recording. More details will doubtless be available on Marian’s Twitter feed.