Can I hire a musician for just one song?

Yes. A proposal, a surprise at a birthday dinner, an anniversary song: one song is a real booking here, planned as carefully as a four-hour evening. There's a booking minimum, because the musician's whole evening goes to being in the right place at the right minute, and it's quoted for the date. Signet Artists books them across Denver and the Colorado mountains.

Do restaurants and public places allow it?

Most restaurants say yes when asked in advance, and we ask, so the manager knows a musician is coming and where the small case goes. A park, a trailhead or a rooftop sometimes needs a permit and sometimes a battery-powered system, and we plan that with you. We never surprise the venue.

Quiet enough to pass for the restaurant's usual background music until the song starts, so nobody at your table suspects anything. Outdoors, a guitarist plays with a small battery-powered system or none at all, depending on the wind and the spot.

Can the musician learn our song?

Yes. Tell us the song and whether it should be played on the guitar or sung, and we can usually learn it for the day if it isn't already on the song list.

Proposals and surprise songs

A musician for a proposal, or for the one song that matters.

The guitarist in the corner of the restaurant has been playing quietly for twenty minutes, and nobody at your table has looked up. Then you give the nod, and your song starts. We book one-song moments like that, a proposal or a surprise at a birthday or anniversary dinner, and plan them to the minute with the one person who knows it’s coming.

It’s the smallest booking on our private parties page, and it carries a booking minimum, quoted for the date when you send it.

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How it works

Background music, until the song.

The whole trick of a proposal with a musician is that the musician was already there.

Before: You tell us the place, the time, the song and who is in on it. We tell the restaurant or the venue a musician is coming, so the manager knows where the small case goes and the door staff expect them. The musician is set up early and playing a few songs at conversation volume, so it looks like the place just has live music that night.
The cue: The cue can be a hand signal, a text from a friend at the next table or a nod from the server, whatever you and the musician agree on beforehand. The song starts on it, and the song is the one you chose, learned for the day if it isn’t already on the song list.
After: The set keeps going while the two of you get your breath back, or it stops so the moment stays yours. Some people want a second song for the walk out; some want the musician gone before anyone thinks to ask. Tell us which one you want.

The same plan covers a surprise at a birthday or anniversary dinner: a musician in the restaurant before the guest of honor arrives, a short set under the meal, and the one song, the wedding song or the one from the year they met, placed when the table is ready for it.

Who plays it depends on the song and the place: a solo guitarist when the song should be recognized without a voice, a singer and guitarist when the words are the point, a Spanish guitarist for the song above, a violinist for A Thousand Years or a film theme, and the jazz duo when the place wants a little more sound.

Where

A restaurant, a rooftop, a trailhead, a table at home.

A restaurant is the easiest place to do this. We ask the manager in advance, the musician takes a corner with one small case, and the place hears live music for half an hour before it hears your song. A private dining space is easier still, because the door closes.

A rooftop, a park or a trailhead is a different plan. There may be a permit, there’s often no power, and the wind decides what carries. A guitarist plays those with a battery-powered system or none at all, and we walk the spot with you beforehand, on a map or in person, so the musician is where the view is and not where the traffic is.

At home, a dinner for twelve with a guitarist in the corner is the booking that turns into an anniversary, an engagement party or a milestone birthday, and the private parties page covers what a whole evening at home looks like when the one song grows into a set. In the mountains, the mountain corridor page covers what changes at altitude and what a resort town allows outdoors.

Travel outside the Denver metro area is priced with the date, and what a short booking runs in Colorado is in the cost guide. A song at a graveside or a memorial service has a page of its own: funerals and memorials.

Questions

Asked about proposals and one-song bookings.

Can I hire a musician for just one song?: Yes. A proposal, a surprise at a birthday dinner, an anniversary song: one song is a real booking here, planned as carefully as a four-hour evening. There's a booking minimum, because the musician's whole evening goes to being in the right place at the right minute, and it's quoted for the date. Signet Artists books them across Denver and the Colorado mountains.
Do restaurants and public places allow it?: Most restaurants say yes when asked in advance, and we ask, so the manager knows a musician is coming and where the small case goes. A park, a trailhead or a rooftop sometimes needs a permit and sometimes a battery-powered system, and we plan that with you. We never surprise the venue.
How loud is it?: Quiet enough to pass for the restaurant's usual background music until the song starts, so nobody at your table suspects anything. Outdoors, a guitarist plays with a small battery-powered system or none at all, depending on the wind and the spot.
Can the musician learn our song?: Yes. Tell us the song and whether it should be played on the guitar or sung, and we can usually learn it for the day if it isn't already on the song list.

Send us the place, the time and the song, and we'll be there before they are.

Live music for your event, from a solo musician to a full band, with sound support that’s the right size for the venue and a personal contact for the night.

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