Well Made PlaysWren Hollis · Dusty Alt-Country · Austin, Texas

Booking Outreach System

Venues book people who fill rooms, and a draw is built in small rooms first. Your realistic first wins are support slots on somebody else's draw, which is why tier three is the largest section here and gets pitched hardest. Response rates are low everywhere, for everyone: silence is normal and isn't a verdict on the songs. Local bookers talk to each other constantly, so one honest pitch with a real draw number is worth more than five inflated ones, because an inflated number gets checked against the door and remembered.

Targets: 22 across four tiers
Honest draw: 55 to 90
Window: February to April 2027

Tracker

Arrives with all twenty-two targets already filled in, so the first session is sending rather than typing. The five rows below are sample outcomes, showing how the tracker reads mid-cycle.

Venue	Contact	Pitched	Followed up	Answer	Played	Door / draw	Next step
The Tin Lantern	Bea	28 Aug	n/a	Yes, Fri 12 Feb	n/a	n/a	Confirm PA and load-in
Pecan Street Social	Booker	28 Aug	7 Sep	No answer	n/a	n/a	Re-pitch after the single
Hondo Hall	Promoter	29 Aug	n/a	Asked for dates	n/a	n/a	Send Feb and Mar availability
The Caliche Room	Form	4 Sep	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	Follow up 14 Sep
Cass Renner	Direct	4 Sep	n/a	Yes, in principle	n/a	n/a	Pitch the pair to The Caliche Room

Position

Current position

Open mics and showcase nights. Behind you. Two years of them.
Support slots. Four so far, all at The Tin Lantern, all arranged informally.
Weeknight headline. Where you are. The residency is a Thursday and it draws about 45 to a room of 60. This is the rung the list below is built to work from.
Weekend headline. Not yet, and pitching for it now would cost you the tier-two rooms.

Your honest draw is 55 to 90 in a room you've played before, and unknown outside Austin. That number goes in the pitches exactly as written. It's a good number for a Thursday and a modest one for a Friday, and being straight about which is what gets a second reply.

Target list

Twenty-two targets: thirteen rooms, and nine local acts one rung up whose support slots are the way into rooms that won't book you direct yet. Each carries a reason it fits. Four more were cut during research for having no fit reason, which is the correct outcome rather than padding the list to a round number.

Room	Cap	Contact	Nights	Note
Tier 1 · Warm · 3 targetsRooms you've played or people you've met. Highest hit rate, always pitched first.
The Tin Lantern	60	Direct, Bea at the bar	Thu residencies, Sun matinees	Your room. Ask about a Friday, not another Thursday.
Pecan Street Social	90	Booker, met at the March showcase	Wed and Thu songwriter nights	Played the showcase, drew 40 cold. They asked you to come back and you never followed up.
Hondo Hall	150	Promoter, Dell Hartigan intro	Fri and Sat, mixed bills	Your pedal steel player books there monthly. Warm intro is available and free.
Tier 2 · Room-match · 7 targetsCapacity matches your honest draw. This is the working list.
The Caliche Room	80	Booking form, checked weekly	Tue to Thu, listening room	Seated, quiet, no PA over the band. Built for exactly what you do.
Ranger Icehouse	120	Email, booker named on site	Thu and Sun	Alt-country on Thursdays for six years. Their audience already turns out for this.
Lamplight Co-op	70	Volunteer booker, rotates	Fri, all-ages	All-ages and door-split. Small but it books returns quickly.
The Dry Creek	95	Email	Wed songwriter rounds	Rounds format suits a solo set and puts you in front of two other draws.
Buffalo Gap Tavern	100	Instagram, they reply there	Thu to Sat	Ninety minutes out of town. A first road date that doesn't need a hotel.
The Slow Draw	85	Email	Thu, Sun	San Marcos. Same drive as Buffalo Gap, different audience, worth pairing into one weekend.
Junction 12	130	Booking form	Fri and Sat	Slightly above your draw. Pitch as support first, headline later.
Tier 3 · Support · 9 actsLocal acts one rung up whose audience overlaps yours, and the rooms they play. Pitch these hardest; this is where the first real wins come from.
Marla Pike	180 to 250	n/a	Hondo Hall, Junction 12	Closest match on the list. Same tempo, same rooms, and she books her own support.
The Ferrier Brothers	200	n/a	Junction 12, Ranger Icehouse	Harmony-led. Their crowd sits and listens, which is the crowd you want.
Dovetail Hollow	150 to 200	n/a	Buffalo Gap, The Slow Draw	They tour the triangle four times a year. One support slot could become four.
Cass Renner	90	n/a	The Caliche Room, Lamplight	Solo, similar draw, and has opened for you once already. Propose a shared bill rather than a support.
Nightjar Union	220	n/a	Hondo Hall	Louder than you, which is fine on a three-band bill where you open.
Tier 4 · Reach · 3 targetsRooms you want in a year. One polite pitch each, then patience. These aren't this cycle's work.
The Amaranth	400	n/a	n/a	Books three months out and wants a 200 draw. Pitch as support only.
Vaquero Ballroom	600	n/a	n/a	Agent-only in practice. One direct pitch is worth sending, and expect nothing.
Longhorn Sessions	n/a	n/a	n/a	Filmed session series. Ask again after County Line has been out a quarter.

Four more acts and their rooms are in the working file. The pairing worth doing first is Cass Renner at The Caliche Room: similar draw, an existing relationship, and a room that suits both of you, which means you can propose the whole bill instead of asking a booker to solve it.

Pitches

One per tier, all under 120 words, all with the live link above the fold. Highlighted parts get changed per venue; everything else stays as written.

Tier 1 · warm65 words

Subject: Wren Hollis · alt-country · Friday in Feb or Mar?

Hi Bea,

Thursdays have been good to me and I'd like to try a Friday. I draw about 45 on a Thursday here, and I think a decent share of that follows.

New single out 9 October, so I'd be coming in with something to play.

Live from the residency: [link]

Any Friday in February or March that's still open?

Wren

Tier 2 · room-match93 words

Subject: Dusty alt-country, honest 55 to 90 draw · Thu in Feb or Mar

Hi [name],

I play quiet alt-country in Austin, two EPs out, monthly residency at The Tin Lantern. My honest draw is 55 to 90 in a room I've played before, and I haven't played The Caliche Room yet, so treat that number carefully.

Your Tuesday-to-Thursday listening nights look like the right fit; nobody talks over the songs and that's the whole thing for me.

Live, one song, no edits: [link]

Would a Thursday in February or March work? Happy to open for whoever you already have.

Thanks for reading,
Wren

Tier 3 · support, to the act81 words

Subject: Sharing a bill? · Wren Hollis, alt-country

Hi Cass,

You opened for me at the Lantern in April and it worked better than either of us expected. I'd like to do it the other way round, or better, split a bill properly.

The Caliche Room suits both of us and I can pitch them the whole bill so nobody has to solve it.

I draw 55 to 90 here. Two of us on one night should clear a hundred.

Live clip: [link]

Interested? Any month works.

Wren

Tier 4 · reach62 words

Subject: Wren Hollis · alt-country · support consideration

Hi [name],

I know I'm under the draw you need to headline, so this is purely for support consideration.

Two EPs, monthly residency at The Tin Lantern, 55 to 90 draw, new single out 9 October.

Live: [link]

If anything comes up where a quiet opener fits, I'd be glad to be on the list. No reply needed.

Thanks,
Wren

Cadence

Send in tier order, tier one first. Three warm pitches in week one. Don't send tier two until the warm ones have had five days, because a yes from tier one changes what you can say to tier two.
One follow-up, seven to ten days later. Same thread, never a new email, and it must add something new: a confirmed date, a new clip, a bill that has come together. A follow-up that only says "just checking" trains people to ignore you.
Then stop. No second follow-up. Move the row to "no answer" and pitch them again next cycle with something that has changed.
Same-week thank-you after every show. Send the door number, unprompted, and ask about the next hold. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it's where repeat bookings actually come from.

Built from researched listings and the artist's own show history. Every target was checked individually and four were cut for having no fit reason. Nothing here promises a booking, a fee, or an attendance; the outreach is ours to build and the decision is the booker's. No pay-to-play offers are included, and none are recommended.