WELCOME...

This blog is the outgrowth of a songwriting workshop I conducted at the 2006 "Moograss" Bluegrass Festival in Tillamook, Oregon. It presumes that after 30-odd years of writing and playing music, I might have something to contribute that others might take advantage of. If not, it may be at least a record of an entertaining journey, and a list of mistakes others may be able to avoid repeating. This blog is intended to be updated weekly. In addition to discussions about WRITING, it will discuss PROMOTION--perhaps the biggest challenge for a writer today--as well as provide UPDATES on continuing PROJECTS, dates and venues for CONCERTS as they happen, how and where to get THE LATEST CD, the LINKS to sites where LATEST SONGS are posted, and a way to E-MAIL ME if you've a mind to. Not all these features will show up right away. Like songwriting itself, this is a work in progress. What isn't here now will be here eventually. Thank you for your interest and your support.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

PERFORMING (AND UPDATES)...

THE JOE LIST: First junkmail went out Thursday. Only 7 e-mails returned as bad edresses, and only 2 people have asked thus far to be taken off the list. Thanks to all (there were a bunch of you) who wished me luck.

THE JOE GIGS: Only one on the horizon is the unplugged gig with fellow writer Scott Garriott at the Ashland St. Beanery in Ashland, SATURDAY 5 APRIL, 7 to 9 p.m. Same night as a Southern Oregon Songwriters showcase, so I’ll have to make sure to be on early at the showcase. I do have a poster designed, and a setlist organized (have to be anal about these things), and some people are planning to come. I need to pay the Beanery a visit and check out the hall (another of those “leave nothing to chance” activities).

Did have the opportunity to talk to Roscoe (owner of Roscoe’s BBQ in Phoenix, Oregon) about a gig there, and hopefully conveyed the impression I know what I’m doing. I emphasized the importance of doing a show in my hometown of Phoenix (and I think if I did get that, I probably would not press hard for the other places). He’ll listen to the CD, I think.

WEBSITE: No, not my own Website, just yet. Took part of a day to set me up a Web “presence” on SongStuff, the British writers’ site I subscribe to (
www.songstuff.com). Photos, bio, links—the usual stuff. All adaptable easily to a new “Joe is Great” brochure, which is my next task.

ST. LEIF’S EVE: Took fancy little gift bags of popcorn (the traditional St. Leif’s Day gift) and CDs of “The Six-Legged Polka,” my St. Leif’s Day song, to my former co-workers at City Hall, and explained to them the secret of St. Leif (that he’s a complete fabrication). And it snowed. In Phoenix—it doesn’t even do that much in the winter. How can you have the traditional Swarming of the Ants with snow on the ground?

ARTICLE: And I was asked to do an article for the jupcoming (April) Southern Oregon Songwriters newsletter—about (I think) the importance of playing together. I can do that. I’ve spent most of the past 8 months encouraging precisely that activity among the group’s members—and, of course, doing it myself.
So why is it important? First, it’s nice to not be alone on stage. It’s not that audiences scare me (they do—they always have, and probably always will, but I have ways of dealing with it)—but if I’m on stage with a band, I find myself worrying more about what they’re doing, and don’t have time to worry about the audience at all. Presumably, others have the same paranoia about audiences. Be not afraid--there is safety in numbers.

Second, the band—whatever form it takes—is visible evidence that somebody besides the author knows the song. (That isn’t always the case, of course. Some of SOSA’s musicians are very good, and can just jump into something they’ve never heard before and make it sound like they’ve been practicing it for years.) It validates the author—these “band” people have practiced this thing, and it is probably as good as it can be, and the audience (and venue owner) should take notice.

Third, most music simply sounds better with a band. Country music (and its relatives, folk and blues) can be performed equally well solo or with a band, but most genres can’t. And most of the membership of the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. are generating pop and rock music; I’m about the only country music writer (there are a couple of folkies). And my music definitely sounds better with a band, because I’m not that good on the guitar. With a band, my stuff is (shall we say) better dressed.

One presumes the goal of all these writers is to present what they’ve written in the best possible light; we are selling our ability as writers, after all. So dress it up as good as you can, to get it the best possible attention. Yes?

Joe

Thursday, March 27, 2008

THE E-MAIL LIST BEGINS...

HERE WE GO…

Signed up for gmail (owned by Google). It appears it will do the mailing list thing (Yahoo will not). Right now, there’s one big list, with over 130 people on it (I’ll add more), and I don’t know how best to break it down. I could have (1) one list for people who know me through music (like SOSA members), and (2) one for people who do not—or I could separate ‘em geographically (southern Oregon/Other or even Northwest/Other), or maybe just between (1) people who would go to live performances and (2) people who would just buy CDs. Maybe there will have to be more than two lists.

The MySpace “friends” (87 at last count) will constitute another “list.” I don’t have e-mail addresses for most of them, but I don’t need them: MySpace “bulletins” will reach them all simultaneously. (Both a blessing and a curse, that. I must get a dozen of those “bulletins” a day.)

I have written the first message, which is a Welcome, alerting everybody to what I’m doing and telling them how to get off the mailing list if they want to. I asked those for whom I have only work edresses whether they’d rather get these notices at home, and for those for whom I have multiple edresses, I asked which they’d rather have me use.

I assume they detest junk mail as much as I do, so I won’t be bothering them a lot. Purpose of the “Joe List” is to let them know when and where Joe Gigs are, and when CDs are coming out; otherwise, they may not hear from me.

And there’s some housekeeping stuff—the URLs of where the songs are (on Soundclick and MySpace), and where “The Writer’s Blog” is posted (on MySpace, Blogspot, and Songstuff over in Britain). I may move around some, because of the Job Thing, but people will be able to get hold of me wherever I am.

I guess it can go out right away. I don’t know where and when the Big Joe Gig (or Gigs) is (or are), but I’ll probably find out this week, and I said I’d be telling ‘em.

For adding to the “Joe List,” I think I’ll adopt a trick from Dandelion Jo, the band Dan Doshier plays with. They just have a notebook for edresses, that travels to every gig; as fast as they get names, they’re added to the list, and they, too, get notified of gigs. I can do that, too. I’m just not getting as many gigs as they are.

UPDATES: All of the performances have been good. No feedback from the owner of the Siskiyou Pub about a gig there, though, and we didn’t record Screamin’ Gulch Wednesday night because Wayne wasn’t there. Do have a gig, though—a small one, at a coffee shop in Ashland called The Beanery. Fellow writer Scott Garriott and I will play an unplugged set there Saturday, April 5. We’ll see if we can’t use the intervening time to practice some things together.

Joe

Saturday, March 22, 2008

UNEMPLOYED...

Friday at 5 p.m. I officially joined the ranks of the unemployed. I’m still in southern Oregon; got a house to clean, and furniture and books to dispose of, and some business to tie up—and I’d still like to find a job in this area, even though they are hard to come by. This is a very exciting place to live. Still haven’t decided whether to sue my former employers, though two different attorneys have advised I do have a case. (That last is for the benefit of the City Councilperson who said he’s been reading my blogs—presumably with the intent of digging up dirt on me. I expect the search was unproductive, and also exhausting—I’ve written rather a lot.)

I expect I’ll be writing even more now that I have more time. (This is the first instance of that. Two blogs in one week?)

MUSICALLY, there’s a lot to do. I get to play Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights this week, and 75% of those appearances have an agenda. Sunday’s the open mike at the Wild Goose, and I’ll try to find out when in April I have my paying gig (I asked it be early, in the expectation I’ll be moving). Monday is the Southern Oregon Songwriters’ “showcase” at the Siskiyou Pub in Ashland, and one of the people I’ll be struttin’ my stuff for is the new owner, from whom I’ve also solicited a gig. Wednesday night is practice with Screamin’ Gulch, and Wayne will bring his recording equipment, and the band will record “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You” and the Joe-got-fired song, “Free-Range Person.”

“Cliff” is going to American Idol’s 2008 song contest (deadline 31 March), and “Free-Range Person” will go to the Woody Guthrie Song Contest in June. (The Guthrie folks want “social justice” songs—in Woody’s memory, of course—and a happy, uptempo song about the advantages of being homeless probably fits the bill.) Both outfits need “radio-ready” recordings, and I’ll give ‘em the most professional job I can for no money. (Thanks, Wayne.)

THE JOE GIG (or gigs) is the other major thing I need to do before I move. I have said repeatedly if I go, I’m going with a bang—and this will be the bang. I think I’ve got the musicians for a band (maybe a couple of bands); need to practice as soon as I know the gig date(s). Posters, of course—and I maybe have a sizable mailing list I can notify.

One gig-related task is burning more CDs. I probably could use 100, and that’ll take a while, with my old-and-good-but-slow equipment; on the other hand, I’m unemployed, and have little else but time. Another task is assembling that e-mail list. Embarq’s (Sprint, the phone company) Webmail program does not do this well, and the last attempt got screwed up royally. I could get a local e-mail account (one comes with the cable-modem service), but I don’t want to do that if I’m moving.

I presently have 3 Webmail accounts, one for music (that’s the “spacehamster” one), one for other business, and one from a prior ISP that I use as a repository for spam (it’s worth the $30 a year to keep the spam off the other two accounts). I could use Yahoo, I suppose—I was forced to sign up for Yahoo e-mail (by Yahoo) as a condition of staying on the mailing list of one music publisher, but I’ve never used it.

The other thing I can do with that spare time I’m going to have so much of is learn to use Audacity. I have it (and it was free), but I’ve never used it for anything but generating “click tracks” for recording and converting things to *.wav files (something my other software doesn’t seem able to do easily). But it’s supposed to be a good recording program.

And I’ve got one more song to put music to—a country lyric penned by “Tampa Stan” Good, one of the more prolific (and better) writers I’ve met online. It’s Gospel music (and I’ve always loved gospel music), and it should be a short, simple job, ‘cause this one sings. And with a chorus line like “I love my truck, my dog, and I love Jesus,” how could one resist?

Joe

Thursday, March 20, 2008

THE JOE GIG (ET AL.)...

Well, it doesn’t look like the St. Leif’s gig will happen at Johnny B.’s. He changed the date (to the 22nd), then booked a band for that night, too. I’ll have to go somewhere else. Left a CD with the lady who does the booking for Roscoe’s BBQ in Phoenix, and with Patrick, the new owner of the former Jefferson State Pub in Ashland. I have been insistent about wanting to do the Joe Gig before the end of March.

“Free-Range Person” is finished, I think. Performed it at the Wild Goose open mike Sunday, with Jack Fischer on bass and Gene Burnett doing harmony vocals, and solo at the open mike at NW Pizza in Ashland Tuesday night. Played it for the girls at City Hall Thursday. I think it’s a hit (reinforcing the contention that there’s a strong connection between Inspiration and Pain).

I’ve recorded the rhythm guitar and vocal tracks on the little Tascam, and hit up Dan Doshier to play mandolin (he agreed) and Darrin Wayne harmonica. If I can get that done this coming weekend, I can post it on Soundclick.

Since it is a “social justice” song (after a fashion), it’s a possible submission to the Woody Guthrie Song Competition this summer. It’ll need to be professionally recorded to do that, however. I’ve hit up Wayne (Screamin’ Gulch’s National Steel guitar player, who has some good recording equipment and knows how to use it) to do that with Screamin’ Gulch, and we’ll try to do that next week.

The other recording task for Screamin’ Gulch is “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You,” which I want to send to American Idol’s 2008 song contest. Deadline for that is March 31, a lot earlier than last year—but A.I. may not be as interested in sifting through a huge pile of entries as they were last year.

I explained to the band the realities: American Idol’s contest does appear to be legitimate, but they’re going to get entries from professional songwriters who work for big record and publishing companies; they did last year. (And if I owned one of those companies, I would make sure my people entered. The exposure—having your song performed on national TV while millions of people are watching—is tremendous.) Those guys are good—it’s why they’re doing it for a living—and they have a lot of resources.

I don’t expect we’ll win either contest, really, but I do expect we’ll have fun at it. We’ll have rhythm guitar (me), National Steel lead, string bass, washtub bass, banjo, and percussion (snare drum, washboard, pennywhistle, and duck—remember, don’t ask about the duck).

Semi-gig last Friday night at Johnny B.’s; I was asked to open for their first Real Band of the evening, Lonesome Dove, a bluegrass group from Ashland, and did that with Dan Doshier on mandolin and David, the bass player from his band, Dandelion Jo. Got to do it a second time in between Dandelion Jo’s and Lonesome Dove’s second sets.

And the SOSA “showcase” Saturday night at Johnny B.’s also went off well. Had backup from Darrin on harmonica and Jack Fischer on electric bass. Tried out Beth Williams’ song “Syllables for Sale” on ‘em, and they were as appreciative as they usually are of my stuff (so it was good). We also did “Rotten Candy,” the song I sent to American Idol’s song contest last year (they rejected it). That song rocks with a full band. I was sure it would.

AND THE FUTURE? The late President Eisenhower summed it up best (he was prone to very Zen comments on occasion): “We should all be concerned about the future. It’s where we’re going to spend the rest of our lives.” I’m out of work after Friday. What do I do now? (We’re talking music here, not a job. I know I need a job.)

First priority, I think, is the Joe Gig. I’m pretty determined that if I’m leaving town, I’m doing it with a bang. I’m pretty sure of a paying gig at the Wild Goose in early April; I might end up with one at Patrick’s (he’ll hear some of my stuff at a Southern Oregon Songwriters “showcase” there Monday), and maybe one at Roscoe’s as well. That’d be three gigs, which would be cool. One of the things I can use my time off for is to make lots of CDs to sell.

Second, I know I want to go to Pineyfest this end-July. Last year’s visit to Nashville had an impact in some of the Appropriate Places, I think, and I’d like to follow up before people forget me again. It’d be nice to score an appearance at the famous Bluebird CafĂ© (now owned by the Nashville Songwriters Assn.). Last year’s week in Nashville cost about $2,000, and I should budget the same for 2008—even though I think I know how to shave some of the costs.

Third is The Album. I’ve got the material ready to record, and (mostly) the musicians to record it with. I’ll have to abandon all that if I move. MORAL: Don’t wait so long next time. Wherever I go, find the resources immediately and use them immediately. We are talking about only $500 to $1,000 here. It is better spent earlier than later.

(Actually, it didn’t take that long in southern Oregon—probably because this is such a culturally active area. Six months to make a name for myself, strike up with a band, and find some really professional-sounding musicians ain’t bad for effective use of time. Over in eastern Oregon, it took 15 months to do the same thing.)

And fourth, I guess, would be Concert Season. I want to do the Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival in July, the “Moograss” Bluegrass Festival Labor Day weekend, Grassroots in August, and the Neskowin Harvest Festival in September or October. First two of those will entail traveling with a band. And all but “Moograss” will depend on whatever schedule I have from a new job.

Joe

Thursday, March 13, 2008

YES, THERE WILL BE A ST. LEIF'S EVE CONCERT...

A week in which I virtually did not play music? Feels really odd…

Missed last Tuesday (Chris Parreira’s open mike in Ashland), last Friday (with the Friday Night Group in Garibaldi), and last Sunday (open mike at the Wild Goose), mostly because of scheduling conflicts. Practice Wednesday night with Screamin’ Gulch was phenomenal; we had an audience (of 5) who did nothing but listen raptly for the whole two hours we played. The band is tight, and impressive—even with me as their lead guitarist. I’m going to miss those guys.

This week will be better. I played Tuesday, and can play Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. (Screamin’ Gulch can’t practice Wednesday because a Real Band is playing.) Friday, I’ll get to do a short set sandwiched in between Lonesome Dove and Dandelion Jo at Johnny B.’s, and Saturday is Round Two of the auditions for the $1,000 Prize Gig, as well as a Southern Oregon Songwriters “showcase.”

Good news is the “Joe got fired” song is coming together. Couple long trips in the car (with no radio), and a lot of breaks in between judging sessions at the District Speech Championships, turned out to be enough. Four verses and four choruses, pretty fast country music (country rather than bluegrass, because of the prominent bass line). Might be room for a fifth verse, but it’d have to be really special. Since it’s an encounter with a freeway panhandler (on the advantages of being homeless), it needs to take place between a red light and a green light at an intersection—which I think is just about 3 minutes. (Yes, I know that’s arbitrary. There is nothing wrong with being arbitrary as long as I’m the one imposing the arbitrariness.)

Still need the last verse to tie it all together and make the final point—which it doesn’t yet. It would be nice if it were performable by this weekend.

THE ST. LEIF’S EVE CONCERT: Yes, it’ll be FRIDAY, MARCH 28—that’s the day Johnny B.’s has open, and I’ve reserved it. My ideal band includes James on guitar, Darrin on harmonica, Dan on mandolin, Russ on congas, and either Delonde or Jack on bass. Have solicited Russ, Jack, Dan and Darrin thus far. And we’ll need time to practice. A two-hour set, probably, which would give the audience the best 25 or so songs. (And I have photographs of everybody. This could be fun to do a poster for.)

Joe

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

GETTING READY TO LEAVE...

Well, I lost my day job. It’s tempting to consider just going out and being an unemployed musician—but I’m not well-known enough, and haven’t been making money at it, just having fun. Last time I had a shot at supporting myself as a musician was when I played with The Dodson Drifters—and that was 25 years ago, and even then I had a day job.

Not having a job, of course, means having to move—southern Oregon’s too expensive a place to live without an income. The monthly bills alone are two thousand dollars—and eating and driving are extras on top of that. And nothing better happen to the old car (which has had its share of repair bills over the last six months).

But before I go, I want to put on a show—a Farewell Joe Concert, as it were. The place to do it is probably Johnny B.’s in Medford; it’d be nice to do it in the old temporary home town of Phoenix, but I don’t know any places—Roscoe’s, the only venue with a stage (left over from its days as a wild bar), books jazz and blues, trying to attract a mature crowd. Mature crowds probably ain’t me.

Invitations by e-mail, of course—no cost, there—plus posters, again of course. Friday or Saturday night. Band? Bass, lead, fiddle, harmonica, and mandolin, maybe? (I know a few people.) It’d be easy to do a 3-hour show. Publicize the heck out of it, and go out with a bang.

AMERICAN IDOL announced they’re doing another song contest, for the 2008 season—and again, I just might have a candidate. They want an upbeat, hopeful, aspitational, uptempo song that can be sung equally by a boy or a girl, and of course they don’t want it to mention American Idol, or singing, or playing on stage, or making it in the music business. I might have one that fits those parameters—“When I Jump Off the Cliff I’l Think of You.”

Of course, we know the American Idol folks don’t want country music, but this is one song that transcends genres well—the version up on my Soundclick site is rock ‘n’ roll, with me playing lead Strat, and probably the best rendition ever of the song was done by an electronica artist, zonemusicinc. Wonder if Screamin’ Gulch would be interested in recording it? They’re a punk-rock band with a hillbilly patina. It’d definitely be different.

RECORDING WITH THE ALL-STARS may be out—when I’m poor, I don’t want to spend money on frills like studio time. I’ll have to do something simple instead. Dan Doshier’s invited me to come by and test out his 8-channel Tascam (which I’ll no longer be in a position to buy), and we could layer a whole band that way. Alternatively, there’s Screamin’ Gulch, which Wayne has the ability to record, or I could do something simple on my own 4-channel Tascam.

ANOTHER SOSA POSTER, using photos from the archives this time; I probably could do posters through the end of the month with what I have. Finally got my computer’s “virtual PC” (hight “Old Alice”) to do PageMaker-to-Acrobat conversions, so I didn’t have to keep e-mailing them to a different computer. “Old Alice” is completely imaginary, running Windows 98—necessary to do those conversions, because my graphics software is old—but she doesn’t realize she has high-speed Internet or a CD-rewritable drive, because those things didn’t use to exist, so there was no way to get files out once converted. I knew there was a workaround for this, and I was right. It’s a little hokey, but that’s because the “Virtual PC” software isn’t supposed to work with my version of Windows XP. But it does.

Maybe St. Leif’s Day would be the time to do the Concert. March 29 is a Saturday this year, and I’ll be around, I think, till the end of the month because I won’t get to pick up my last paycheck until then. Gives me two intervening weekends to plan the thing (and the days, too, since I won’t be working).

Joe