Norman, Oklahoma is big on college football. Home of the Oklahoma Sooners, Norman is about three hours north of Dallas, a halfway point from Oklahoma to Tennessee. Norman is home to the McMannis family (arguably more soccer people than football people), transplants from California who appreciate just what a hub of connectivity their city is.
“Norman, Oklahoma can be really overlooked in terms of location,” Raeanna McMannis explained. “A lot of times, when people hear ‘Oklahoma,’ it’s kind of wrapped into the flyover states. There’s a lot of rich tradition in our town and it’s also really good thoroughfare for musicians from Tenessee that are dropping down into Dallas.”
Hosting Before Porchlight
Taking note of their prime location for touring musicians and having their interests peaked by Carly Bannister’s then-upcoming “Technically a Texas Tour” consisting of some house concerts alongside Jac Thompson and S. Grant Parker, the McMannis family fell into hosting.
Concerts in the McMannis home take place in their open-concept-style kitchen and living room. “We just move out some of the furniture and kind of rearrange it a little bit. Then people can sit at the bar space that opens up to the living room.” This arrangement allows for more seating in addition to the living room. Their tall ceilings serve to provide great natural acoustics for performances.
Hosting Creates Relationships
Not long after the McMannis family began hosting house concerts, word spread to artist J. Lind (now a Porchlight artist), who also booked a show. Attendance was lower than expected, yet even still it launched the beginning of a cherished relationship.
“J. Lind played in our house one time,” Raeanna recalled, “and then when he was moving during COVID, connected with me and said, ‘Hey, Ray, can I stay the night at your house?’ So he stayed the night… And then he also did Zoom video songwriting lessons for my kids during COVID. And then, through that relationship, he told us about Porchlight. And then we filled out a form to become Porchlight hosts.”
Christopher Williams playing at the McMannis Family house. Photo by Chris Valencia
Hosting After Porchlight
The relationship begun through J. Lind has connected the McMannis family to other Porchlight artists. For their first Porchlight show, they hosted Christopher Williams. Having mostly hosted emerging artists, they found it equally enjoyable to host a more seasoned musician.
“We have a pretty diverse friend group of believers and non-believers,” Raeanna explained. “And so when Christopher came to our house, he was like, ‘So who’s coming tonight, believers? Non-believers?’ And I was like, ‘Kind of both.’ So I think his life experiences as well as the storytelling that he feeds through the different songs that he played, I think it was really great for our audience, just because we had old people, young people, believers, non-believers, married people, single people… Christopher made a real effort to connect with the audience, pre-show and post-show. I think people really enjoy that aspect of it.”
Hospitality: Sacred or Secular
Community-building is one of the reasons the McMannises choose to open their homes in the spirit of art and hospitality. When asked how their faith speaks to their philosophy of hospitality, Raeanna shared, “We’ve moved quite a few times, and so I guess the easiest way we have transitioned is through community. And we first look for our communities through our church or, you know, people who have a relationship with Christ. And then some of our other natural, communities, I guess, like our kids in school and sports and things like that. But our kids play instruments, and it’s been just really awesome for my own children to experience other artists in our home that are believers that play music and use that as a tool to create connections for Christ for other people; whether they’re like blatantly Christian artists or they’re a Christian musician. I think for us, it’s really inspiring for our family to be a part of that.”
This faux line between the sacred and secular is what house concerts tend to heal, as the Christian life is lived out through the very real dimensions of hospitality that Scripture calls us to. “People are willing to, like, come into your home that might not necessarily want to go to church with you, creating natural conversations that don’t feel forced.”
A Reason to Host: Faith Over Fear
For the person hesitating on the edge of being ready to host, Raeanna had this advice.
“Honestly, I think a lot of times people are afraid of hosting because everything just has to be ‘just so.’ I think that that’s this Pinterest lie that our culture has created a little bit. Like, obviously yeah, you want your house to be somewhat clean, you know? But it doesn’t have to be perfect. And the reality is that it’s really just about the community and the music. That magic will naturally happen. Really, all you have to do is just be willing to commit to a day and invite people. Everything else will naturally happen. So maybe more faith rather than fear.”