Booking

Thanks for the interest in The Cobalt Season. If you’ve listened to our music or met us, you know how idealistic we can be, and if you know us a even a little, you know how this idealism can lead to all sorts of crazy adventures. A little over three years ago, it meant moving from our home, putting all of our stuff in storage, and driving our car around the States to play our music at free house shows, selling just enough CDs to put gas in our tank. Our time was wonderful and freeing and life-giving, and also blessed us in many ways. Most especially with the gift of our son Paxton…and also with some rich collaborative friendships.

So we geared up to go on the road again, realizing that we needed to do so in a way that reflected and celebrated these new realities. As we’ve thought about it, we’ve tried to figure out how we could make our tours sustainable and accessible. We love traveling, sharing ours and others’ stories, participating in conversation, sharing fine brew and wine…but how would we do it now with our 1-year-old?

Well, we did it. It was a crazy, epic, 12,000 mile odyssey across the US. 30 shows in 30 cities in about 6 weeks. Epic. And difficult. And beautiful. Which should let you know that we’re serious about what we do.

We continue to tour and do limited fly-dates. We are honored that you would consider our voice a valid voice in your community’s on-going conversation. Your partnership in this effort is what allows us to share our message. Thank you.

We like to think of our performance as prophetic theatre or live art. At times, comforting and soft; at other times, jarring and raw. We generally travel with some sort of interactive medium such as a video projector that displays time-lapse images that contradict and support the themes of the music. We attempt to be conversational and professional and sensitive and prophetic and real-life at the same time.

So, though it pains us to be so formal, I think we’ve come up with at least 4 options of how to approach an encounter with The Cobalt Season…though none of these categories or parameters are absolute, and none should prevent you from hosting us. It is simply an attempt at transparency so that all of us can share in the task of making such a tour possible.

1. A House Show - This is often a favorite option. You invite a few dozen friends, neighbors, enemies, and relatives for a night of music, adult beverages, and conversation. We play about 1-1.5 hours while our son sleeps in the back room (he generally heads to sleep about 7pm). These are great nights because they are a disarming and real-life place to throw down ideas of how we can live better in/for our world. More info here.

Cost: Guarantee 30-40 people @ $5-10 per person (plus travel expenses if possible), a meal and lodging for the night (preferably close to or at the home of the house show). We’ll provide sound system and projector.

2. A Church Service - This can be a great chance for us to either give you the morning/night off or offer some sort of outside perspective. From time to time, we have worked with other members of our community who speak and are poets. Since our music isn’t really what most people would call “worship music”, please keep that in mind as far as expectations go. Our music is raw and real-life, so…

Cost: Suggested donation of $300-600 plus travel expenses, meals and lodging.

3. A Public Venue (Coffee House, Pub, Etc.) - To be honest, these can be very time-consuming to pull off. It really, really, really requires some serious promotion and event coordinating on your part. When doing this, we suggest that you partner with another group/community/organization or two to help with promotion and make the event “happen”.

Cost: Guarantee $300-600 plus travel expenses, a meal and lodging for the night.

4. Conference / Retreat - If you feel like we’d vibe well with what your conference or retreat is about, then let’s chat. We love to share both music and words…and time in conversation…about life, intentional community, global issues, Emergent, etc. We are no “experts”, but we have certainly been around for a little while.

Cost: Let’s chat.

We usually travel as a 3-piece (Holly, Ryan, and Jared) and have our son Paxton with us at most all times. We also try to have one or two of our community members with us as well. Adam Klein is an amazing beat poet who travels with us often. He is also available for consulting and speaking engagements. You can check out his website here. I hope this answers most questions as far what it’s like to bring The Cobalt Season out your way. Feel free to call (714.293.6780) or email.

Cheers to the Kingdom Come,
Ryan Sharp

After You’ve Set Up An Event

Click here for some ideas.

You can download a poster or email/blog banner to get the word out. Just fill in the info for the event. You can also grab photos from our photo gallery.

Flyer for Blog/Email

Flyer for Printing

Poster

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