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Information for Artists

Calvin's New Discovery Showcase

In 2015, we are beginning a series of quarterly events, called the Calvin's New Discovery Showcase, to give local or touring artists who have not played at Calvin's a chance to be heard by the bookers at our venue in front of a live audience, just like a typical Calvin's show. These events are normally scheduled for the last Friday of the first month of each quarter (Jan, Apr, Jul, and Oct), although there will be some exceptions from time to time.

Six artists will be chosen from online submissions, or via direct invitation, to play at each event. Submissions will be screened and participants selected by the Uncle Calvin's booking committee.

For more information, or to submit your songs for the showcase, visit the Showcase page.

New artists

We are always interested in discovering new (to us) talent and actively seek these artists out at concerts, conferences, festivals, and their song circles and competitions.  This is a very rich and plentiful environment for those discoveries, where supply far exceeds demand, and where performance in a live setting gives us a better idea of what an artist would sound like if they were booked at Calvin's. So, therefore:

We do not accept unsolicited recordings or submissions or press kits (either physical media or online).

We will not open them or listen to them. Sorry. That's the bad news.

The good news is that almost all of the places we go to discover new talent are open to everyone and provide, at minimum, informal opportunities for you to be heard. The best examples are

  • the Kerrville Folk Festival (May-June or September in Kerrville)
  • the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (September/October in Austin)
  • the International Folk Alliance (February in Kansas City)
  • the Wildflower Festival (May in Richardson)

So, sign up to attend, enter the song contests, seek out the song circles, sign up for the showcases, do whatever it takes to get your music out there. And, by all means, seek us out and introduce yourself!

If you do happen to be in the Dallas area and performing at another venue, please feel free to let us know, both several weeks in advance, and on the day of the show. Send an email to our address (upper left of this page) with the phrase Gig in Dallas in the subject line. We can't promise that we'll be able to catch you there, but would like that opportunity.

Recommendations from other venues/concerts/festivals are also highly respected, so encourage those folks let us know about you.  Getting around to an actual booking can take several months (or years) since we have such a large backlog of folks we already want to present, but don't lose hope.

Promoting your show

It's one thing to get booked at Uncle Calvin's. It's another thing entirely to get people out to hear you, particularly if they don't know who you are.

As a non-profit, non-commercial venue, we have very little money to spend on advertising and promoting our shows. We do our best with what we have, but ultimately it's up to you, the artist, to generate an audience for YOUR show. Since we are paying you a guarantee, you in particular have an obligation to help us at least cover that guarantee. We can't continue to book artists for which we lose money.

Here are some suggesions for how to do that:

  1. Send out postcards, flyers, and/or emails to your area friends, family, and fans on your email or postal mailing lists.
  2. Make extensive use of all your social media outlets, particularly Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to notify people in the area that you will be coming. Include listening and/or viewing links with those posts, and directly ask your contacts to share your posting. Include references to our Facebook facebook.com/unclecalvins and Twitter twitter.com/unclecalvins accounts.
  3. Refer to our media list here. Send out press releases to all these outlets. Send electronic notification to all of the bloggers on the list.
  4. We unfortunately don't have much radio or TV support in the Dallas area. Try KNON (community radio), KHYI (for Texas artists), or KXT (for contemporary singer/songwriters).
  5. Make your to post your show to your website as soon as possible, and also calendar sites like Songkick, Bandsintown, Eventful, etc.
If neither you nor we did ANY promotion, and it's your first time to play our room, you MAY get 20 people to come. We lose money if only 20 people show up. You get your guarantee, but we aren't particularly happy with the outcome.

Returning artists

If you are known to us and are interested in returning to Calvin's, your best way of contacting us is through the same booking representative, and his or her direct email and/or phone, for which you established on prior visits. Of course, sometimes personnel change on our end, so in a pinch (or if you aren't getting any response) you may also contact us via our voice mail or to the booking email (upper left of this page). Include the phrase You Know Me in the subject line.

Our rotation period for returning headliners is on the order of 18-24 months. We don't book anyone more than one time per year, except perhaps for artists who open one show to set up a headlining appearance a few weeks or months later.

Any artist who performs at Calvin's requires the approval of the booking team. We typically choose every artist ourselves, including openers. If a headliner wishes to bring their own opener with them, we will require final approval beforehand.

We book headliners approximately 6-12 months in advance, and openers 4-6 months out.

Contacting us

Before contacting us about a gig at Uncle Calvin's, please read our policies on this page.

If you've met all of the criteria, then do one of the following (in order of effectiveness):

  1. Contact the Calvin's booker you worked with on prior occasions using his or her personal email or phone number
  2. Send an email to book@unclecalvins.org with a tag in the subject line
  3. Call our voice mail at 214.363.0044 and leave a message

We don't recommend that you use Facebook or Twitter to get in touch with us. We do not respond to messages left on our Uncle Calvin's page. If you've met one of us personally, then sending a message to our personal Facebook page could possibly get a response.

Booking Info

Booking email
For artists already known to us only. Please read the information on this page before using. If you have a direct address to one of our bookers, use it instead.
Calvin's voice mail
214-363-0044
Facebook page
Twitter feed
Media list

Booking committee

Kendra Terry
Booking Chairperson
Ed Gunsalus
Co-Manager
John M. Cook
Booker
Bill Nash
Member
Joyce Wilson
Member
Mike Hall
Co-manager and immediate past booking chairperson (ex-officio)

Who we are

Uncle Calvin’s Coffeehouse is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run live music venue, presenting concerts nearly every Friday night in the fellowship hall of Northpark Presbyterian Church in Dallas, TX. Our goal is to bring you the best possible environment for listening to music, with clear, pristine sound, free of smoke, alcohol, and conversation. In addition to the music, we offer fine coffees, teas, juices, desserts, and salty snacks. Find out more about us here.

Our friends talk

"The intimate setting of Calvin's makes it easy to see and hear musicians....the gold standard of Dallas area coffeehouses, and for that matter, the nation...." --Michael Granberry, DMN

"I'd call Uncle Calvin's the cosmic center of the folk universe in Texas...." --Chuck Pyle

"...a warm spirited place where everybody's kinfolk, and where good music and good company are the ties that bind." --Lynn Adler

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Uncle Calvin's Coffeehouse * Northpark Presbyterian Church * 9555 N. Central Expy. * Dallas TX 75231 * unclecalvins.org * info@unclecalvins.org * 214.363.0044