THREE GIGS!

THREE GIGS! Here they are, in chronological order:

(1) FRIDAY, 25 APRIL at Johnny B.’s in Medford (downtown, at 35 S. Bartlett), starting at 9:30 p.m. I’ll be playing with Screamin’ Gulch, and we’ll be followed by the bluegrass band The Mighty Lonesomes.

(2) SATURDAY, 26 APRIL with Darrin Wayne at the Triple Tree Restaurant in Sams Valley (on Highway 234 at the blinking light), starting at 5 p.m. We’ll try to rope a bunch of other Southern Oregon Songwriters in, too.

(3) TUESDAY, 29 APRIL at the Wild Goose Café & Bar in Ashland (exit 14 off I-5), 8 to 11 p.m. The Band will be Jack Fischer (electric bass), Darrin Wayne (harmonica), and James Maille (lead guitar). This is the big one--3 hours of my stuff. Might throw in a couple of co-writes for seriousness—one can’t have levity all the time—but with over 50 songs, I’ve got more than 3 hours’ worth of music just with my material. With two good lead players, a lot of the songs can be expanded into real good dance numbers (not that the Goose has any room to dance in).

Time to notify the joelist.

Medford paper (which is a pretty big daily) did an article on the “Joe Got Fired song,” and it’s gotten some attention. (Many thanks to Buffy, the reporter; I hadn’t expected it, and she did a great job.) The article got circulated statewide a day later by the League of Oregon Cities. The publicity is probably okay. The song is getting requested now everywhere I show up to play. It probably needs to be the song Darrin and I do in Rogue Community College’s “Star of Stars” fundraising show in June. ($1,000 prize money if we win.)

Three of my songs got the “full band treatment” at the Southern Oregon Songwriters showcase at the Siskiyou Brew Pub in Ashland Monday 4/7—“No Good Songs About the War,” “Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus,” and “Free-Range Person.” Jack Fischer on electric bass, and George Clark on harmonica. Yes, we can rock the house. Used the opportunity to hit Patrick-the-owner up for a paying gig, but he says he’s booked till summer. I did not tell him (this time) that that might be too late.

A few to-dos, then: The article in the Medford paper is a potential spur to a gig at Roscoe’s in Phoenix; need to talk to him. He understands promotion, I think, and the operative question is whether he wants to take advantage of the free publicity afforded by the article (like Johnny did) to increase the size of his crowd.

Is there an opportunity for publicity in Ashland before the Wild Goose gig? Again, the newspaper article is a potential ticket through the door—if I can find out where the door is (and who’s manning it). I should get some extra copies of that issue of the paper.

OTHER STUFF: Recorded a Darrin Wayne song for him—there’s a radio station that wants to play it. Did it over about a 3-hour period last night. (The little Tascam is great for this stuff, because it’s so mobile—everything but the mike stand fits in a little Winnie-the-Pooh shoulder bag I can take anywhere.) Darrin’s on three tracks—rhythm guitar, vocal, and harmonica; I added lead guitar (me) and mixed it the following morning.

I can do more of this. One artist whose stuff I’d like to try to tackle is Scott Garriott, one of the few authentic folksingers in these parts; Scott’s material has very compelling melodies (and I can play lead to some of his material). I don’t think any of it has ever been recorded professionally, and none of it has been recorded well. I think I could help with that. Not studio-quality stuff, of course—the Tascam, even in competent hands, is incapable of that—but I think we could produce presentation-quality stuff, that could adequately show off the material and get the guy some needed attention.

Joe