Hi Black Walnut Folk:

This is an extra update on The club.  It has been almost a year since we tried some new ideas to have more fun and get more performers onto our open stage.  Mostly things are working out, with few cases where open stage performers can’t get to play because they were too late to get signed in on a busy night. Also, we have been getting everything finished by 11:00 pm most months.

The things that you need to know if you plan to be a non-performing folkie are:

2. There may not  be a half-time break so people can still get up and move around, quietly between performers.
3. We will try to bring a little more variety of snacks.

For the featured opening set performers very little has changed at this time:
4. You need to be in the gym and set up for your sound check by 7:00 pm.
5. You still have a 30 min. long slot to play/sing up to 6 songs.  The clock starts at 8 pm and we really must complete your set by 8:30 pm.

For all performers:
6. The sign-up for the open stage does not start until the sound-check is finished and the door to the gym has opened. The facilitators who want to pick slots will do that before the door opens.  If you want to help out, talk to one of us in advance so that we can book you to be there at 6:30 pm on the night when we need you. There are still no phone-in registrations.  You still need to sign yourself in for the open stage.
7. There is still a 2-song 10 min limit for your performance.  That includes the time that it takes you to get in place and start your songs, including anything you have to say about your day and the songs that you still haven’t started to play.  You don’t have to wait to be announced to get in place. There will be someone to assist you. We insist that you tune in advance,  know exactly what you are going to do and how you are going to make sure that you can finish on time.  If you aren’t tuned-up and ready, you should pass your turn on to the next performer.
8. We will probably not let you know how much time you have left after you finish your first song, unless you ask.  If you have less than 3 minutes left you probably should not start another song. To help you out with this, understand that if your songs are each more than 4 minutes long, you probably won’t have time for more than one song, because it always take at least a minute for you to get on-stage and ready to start your first song.

9. Black Walnut, the Mill Courtland Community Centre are family friendly.  Some performers have slipped some offensive language and subjects into their songs and it  does get us a bad response from people who need to let us know how offensive that is. They are right to complain.  Choose appropriate material, always.