Comments on: Concert review — Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. kicks some nostalgia at Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre

By: Philip Clock

Philip Clock — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:50:08 +0000

Landau:

We NEED you, Jennifer and Jane out here in San Francisco, people feel so unloved they’re stripping in public!!

By: Shannon Hankey

Shannon Hankey — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 20:58:56 +0000

Love to hear you sing, Landau. Please have a concert in Dallas, Texas area.

By: Liz and Matt Broughton

Liz and Matt Broughton — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:28:31 +0000

My husband and I had the privilege of attending this concert, along with six of our friends. All I can say is that it was one of the most pleasurable concerts I have ever attended. Landau has incredible talent and interacts with the audience wonderfully. We encourage anyone who loves this genre of music to get out and support him. We need to keep him around!

By: Teresa K.

Teresa K. — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 05:08:29 +0000

I can see where it could be either of those things. People can sign up for monthly e-mails through Landau’s website and in one of those, his booking agent requested suggestions for venues. I’m sure the agent must have received many responses. I replied with information on several local venues with modest seating capacities that would be appropriate. I’m not sure what the problem is. Even without soliciting suggestions, a booking agency should know how to locate appropriate venues.

Budget issues could also be a reason as could the fact that 20 or so people with separate lives and careers of their own may not be available to tour all at the same time. Although record companies are not as “flush” as they used to be, it seems like Sony/Columbia should be making some sort of investment in Landau as a means of getting him established, including fronting some of the tour expenses. This would be a big help in keeping the ticket prices reasonable; something that strikes me as necessary since Landau is a new artist and most people don’t have a lot of discretionary income right now. As for band expense and availability, maybe the band could be downsized a bit and some rotation allowed so band members could attend to whatever else they have going.

Anyway, that’s just a few more random thoughts in response to your reply. I appreciated reading your review and listening to the terrific podcast. As you said, it should be interesting to see how this all plays out.

By: Nora Smith

Nora Smith — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 04:48:35 +0000

I agree with Tad Dickens–it is past time for Eugene to move past the tri-state area. He is so talented! He has great charisma with the audience. He also should take Jane Powell with him on the road. Those two are great together! Jane reminded me of Pearl Bailey when she was kidding around. The audience was mostly white women 60 and over–which is a big niche to fill–and the women were loving the show. I loved the West Virginia jokes.

By: Debbie Clem

Debbie Clem — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:51:02 +0000

Tad, i just wanted to give my insight on Landau’s concert performance in Roanoke last night. I thought he was absolutely great. My husband and I have followed him since day 1 on America’s Got Talent. If you were to close your eyes and listen to him sing you could almost think you were listening to Frank Sinatra. He did say that he is versatile in almost every aspect of music with the acception of Bluegrass. It has only been about 4 months since he finished up with AGT and I feel he has a bright future ahead of him. His humility and down to earth personality is going to take him places and I feel that those two qualities lack in musicians today as they forget where they came from and how they got there. I was also impressed that he and his wife took time at the end of the show to sign autographs and have pictures taken with his fans in which my husband and I were one of those. I was disappointed in the turnout but as he establishes himself I look for those numbers to go up. I also thought that Jane Powell was absolutely fabulous as well. If she can get to where she is so can Landau Eugene Murphy.

By: Tad Dickens

Tad Dickens — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:22:14 +0000

Interesting insights, Teresa K. I wonder what’s up with that. Booking agency troubles? Budget issues where carrying a big band is involved? Something else I’m not thinking of? I’ll be interested to see how it all plays out. Thanks for posting!

By: Teresa K.

Teresa K. — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:01:46 +0000

I think that part of the attendance problem has to do with the fact that Landau is “wearing out his welcome.” Most of his concerts have been in the tri-state area. It speaks volumes that at first it was difficult to even get a ticket and now only 430 seats are filled out of however many that facility has. Its time (actually well past time) that Landau starts establishing a “national presence.” There have been some out of the area concerts listed on his website, but they are definitely in the minority. A review of Landau related Facebook pages shows that there are many people throughout the country (and internationally) who want to see him in concert. However, I have noticed lately that people are posting that desire less often than before. It is possible that many people are giving up any hope of seeing him or have possibly even started to forget about him, including people who devotedly voted for him every week on AGT. People have short attention spans and short memories these days. In my opinion, Landau needs to get some national attention with concerts outside of the tri-state area and national media coverage such as talk shows (i.e. Leno, Lettermen, Ferguson, Kimmel, and Fallon), the morning national news shows and re-visit the morning talk shows. Landau interviews extremely well and he should take full advantage of it. I’m afraid that if he doesn’t “ramp it up” soon, he will lose the momentum he gained by winning AGT. Besides my own personal reasons (I don’t live in the tri-state area and would love to see Landau in concert), I am afraid that he will slip out of sight and never be able to fully use that wonderful God given talent he has been blessed with. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Landau continuing to live in West Virginia. In fact that, and continuing to walk by faith, are the best things he can do to maintain his wonderful humility. However, Landau needs to get out of the tri-state area for a while as soon as possible to establish his career. These days, especially with modern technology, he can get out there to “do his business” and then go back home. Sorry for being so long-winded, but I’ve been needing to get this off my chest. If you decide to post this message, thank you for giving me the opportunity to vent.