My Friday, Jan 1st Concert at City Winery Chicago: The Preparation, The Worry, The Show.

It’s 5AM and I figure that I may as well do something besides bemoan the fact that my sleep schedule is screwed up. I have a lot of work to do for my upcoming Lynne Jordan & the Shivers show at City Winery Chicago. They asked me to perform on New Year’s Night which happens to fall on a Friday. This is a change, as all of my past shows have been on a week day. One might think that would be easier to fill the seats but it is New Year’s Day and folks will be out of town or tired from New Year’s Eve parting, so it’s going to be tricky to fill the room and I have less time to work on it. usually I have eight weeks to push a show at City Winery. This time I have less than a month. PLUS I have added lots of new challenging material. I will be singing a song in at least two languages: Japanese and French. I have also decided to perform a song by one of my favorite artists: Fela Kuti. I also hope to include the wonderful French Harpist/Composer Isabelle Olivier to play with us as well. She is the artist who brought me to France this year – TWICE. She added so much at our July show.

There will be all of the usual suspects as well: The Big fat Woman Song and lots of new and old dance favorites. I have also added the phenomenal Isiah Mitchell who sang with us for years. Now the challenge is to get the material to the guys (check) and schedule rehearsals. I have ten schedules to wrangle so it will be hard but not impossible.

The clock is ticking. I am trying not to stress. We have sold a few tickets but not nearly enough to keep my worry quotient down. I am doing what I can, creating an Eblast, posting on social media and reaching out to what contacts I have but it depends on my friends and fans to get the word out. That is how I have always done it and it is always nerve-wracking! Being a good performer with a great band isn’t enough. I have to get folks to come to the show. And that is stressful every time because it all falls on me. And then there is the unpredictable weather. First sign of snow and you lose more than 50% of your audience. Oh, the woes of an independent artist! Oh, to have a Team! Wah, wah, wah!

But I can’t worry about stuff I can not control like the weather. This show will be the best one yet. And I am better shape physically than I’ve been in years. I just have to stay focused and keep plugging away. I have a lot to be thankful for. It’s been a hard year but I have been shown so much love that I can not despair or really complain. I have to keep the faith and work my butt off. We can do this!

Now back to learning these new lyrics!

Come to the show!

Friday, January 1, 2016
City Winery Chicago 1200 W Randolph Street, Chicago
312-733-9463
8pm show, doors at 6pm. $25 Reserved seating.
FOR TICKETS:
http://www.citywinery.com/chicago/catalog/product/buytickets/id/1294998/