Yukon musician Kim Beggs visited Lethbridge, Feb. 6 as part of the Home Routes concert series— the first of 2015 at Valerie McQuaid’s home.
“House concerts are a good way for musicians to make a living,” Beggs said before her Lethbridge show with accompanist Marcel Desilets. She was in the middle of her latest house concert tour with Home Routes.
A house concert is just what it suggests.
Homeowners make arrangements to with an organization like Home Routes to host a concert for numeorus touring musicians.
They feed the artist, put them up for the night and all money taken at the door from invited friends, goes directly to the musician.
“It feels good to be part of a community. You get home cooked meals,” Beggs said.
House concerts are also a good way to sell a lot of CDs, not to mention keep musicians on their toes for an audience that is really playing attention.
“So there is some pressure to make sure my stuff is up to snuff,” she said.
She released her most recent CD “ Beauty and Breaking” in 2014.
Valerie McQuaid is enjoying her fourth season being a host for Home Routes.
“ I love the diversity of artists they have,” she said adding she doesn’t get to choose the musicians she hosts. But she has had some big names and award winners including Sue Foley and Peter Karp, Scott Nolan, the Crooked brothers and Leonard Podoluk who used to perform with the folk rock icons the Duhks in Winnipeg.
She does six shows a season with Home Routes, with three last year and three this year including Kim Beggs.
“ It’s a great way to support live music,” she said adding turnout has varied from 8 to 38 — as many as she can fit in her basement where the performances take place.
She noted the house concerts also exposed her underaged children to musicians they would not have been able to see otherwise, not being old enough to go to hear them in bars.
Her next concerts are New Mexico folk and cowboy singer Steve Cormier on March 7 and Newfoundland Celtic duo Tanglecove (Dave Panting and Dan Rubin) on April 12.
House concerts are a great way for musicians to make a living other than just playing loud bars. Cormier is also playing for the Lethbridge Folk Club, March 1 with Peter Paul Van Camp
Home Routes is one of several house concert series operating around western Canada.
