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UTR Launches National “In Your House” Tour with Eric Peters
- Dave Trout
- Under the Radar
- 8/23/11
Under the Radar has launched a national tour of living room concerts featuring Eric Peters. Over the next two months, UTR is partnering with the Nashville-based singer-songwriter to play a total of over 35 concerts (mostly in living rooms) across the US and Canada. The concerts were arranged through a UTR advertising offering "A concert in your living room for $150."
"It’s a grassroots way to let people know more about UTR, and to introduce people to a terrific indie songwriter, " said UTR producer Dave Trout. The vision for this was born in December 2010 over an Italian beef dinner in the lobby of a Chicago hotel. Between bites, Dave asked, “Eric, what is your greatest need as an artist, and how do you think UTR can help with that?” Finding his greatest need was simple: bookings. He wants to play more dates, but churches and venues don’t have the concert budgets they had a few years ago when the economy was better. "We started to lay the groundwork for partnering on a house-show tour," continued Dave, "We could offer him steady work for a season, he could tell people about UTR and encourage them to tune in, and the host could have an amazing concert experience for a very low price."
After some scattered conversations the first half of 2011, UTR was finally ready to step out of the proverbial boat. "We crossed our fingers, knocked on wood, and posted our invitation to participate in the tour on July 4. We didn’t know how many people would be interested in being a host on the tour. I even feared getting single-digit response and maybe not even making one trip. Thankfully, on the contrary, we had about 90 people apply for the tour in less than 3 weeks," said Dave. Out of that, seven trips are planned to different regions over the next nine weeks.
- August 26-28 – Western Oregon
- September 2-5 – Central Georgia
- September 9-13 – Eastern Nebraska
- September 14 & 19 – Chicago area
- September 15-18 – Fort Wayne, IN area
- October 7-9 – Western Pennsylvania
- October 14-17 – Eastern Texas
- October 26-30 – New England
"We're always thrilled to work with musical artists and Eric has been an especially good partner in ministry," commented Steven Koster, director of ReFrame Media. "Once again, UTR has found another venue for both deepening relationships with our listener communities around the country and fostering Christian reflection on good music."
Most of the living room concerts are by-invitation-only events, but a few church concerts are sprinkled in the schedule. If you see your region listed and would like to attend an event, contact Under the Radar and we'll let you know at which public event you can join us (or maybe even get on the guest list for a house concert).
