OF LEAD GUITARISTS AND FIRST LINES...

What is it with lead guitarists? I have two–one in each band–that have gone flaky. Neither one’s been practicing (one maintains he doesn’t need to), and at this point I have worries whether either one is going to show up for the gigs–which are, at this point, just days away. I thought I’d gotten out of coddling people when I ceased being a city manager. (At least I got paid for doing it back then.)

It’d be possible to get by with just a blues harp lead–but in both bands, the blues harp players have been sick. One’s still sick (flu), and the other’s just out of the hospital and recovering from a major operation. The Portland band is at least tight (drummer, bass player, and me), and I hope the Coast band is going to get there, too. Provides a good framework for a lead player to build upon–but are we going to have a lead player? I think problems like this are one reason why so many songwriters prefer to perform solo; it’s not hard to depend on yourself.

Yes, there is probably a song in it. Life and its issues are just chock full of songs. Sometimes, though, you have to sit on something a little, and wait for some of the worry to get squeezed out and get replaced with some humor. Life (and its issues) should not be taken too seriously.

Practice with the Coast band Sunday (without a lead guitarist) did go good. Dick Ackerman is one of the best blues harp players I know, and he did real well on all of the material. If we don’t have Jeff there to play lead guitar, Dick can carry it just fine, so I will try not to worry. Now, if Don, the blues harp player in the Portland band, can get over his flu by Thursday, we should be okay at the Red Room, too.

I saw a discussion on line about the importance of FIRST LINES in songs. The point was made that a lot of hit songs either have the hook in the first line, or have “subordinate hooks” that suck the listener in, and make them listen until the real hook gets there. “True dat,” as they say.

I have a few of those myself, but not many. In “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas,” “I Broke My Girlfriend,” and “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You,” the first line is the hook–but in at least half my songs, my suck-you-in line doesn’t happen right away. The first line is actually pretty innocuous; it’s usually the second one that signals that something a little twisted might be about to happen.

That is delaying the suck-you-in maybe a little longer than normally desirable. (The folks who do these studies are right, I think, about attention spans. They are short, and you have to accommodate that.) I think the Rap helps; I almost always have a Rap to introduce the song, that I’ll do when I’m performing, and sometimes I’ll include it on the recording, too. The Rap does help set the stage, I think, and maybe encourages the listener to be patient, and wait for the Something Twisted that’s coming, but just not right away. I suppose that’s not so much violating the rule as just finding a way around it.

Distributed more posters for the Failed Economy Show; found a $5 toilet for our “piggy bank” for donations to the Sewer Discount Program; and I have all but two (I think) of the 22 songs memorized. (I still need to be able to play a couple of them better on the guitar.) John has inspected the Friday Night Group’s PA system and thinks he knows how to adapt it for our purposes. Announced the concert at the Friday Night Group’s get-together, and had posters for everybody there, too. There were still some posters left over after the performance, which I hope were noticed by the Square Dance Club, which had the Dance Floor the following night. (I couldn’t go to the square dance–I was in Portland at band practice.) I haven’t seen any posters up at downtown Garibaldi businesses; I’ll have to distribute them.

At least two more practices before the Failed Economy Show–Monday afternoon, and Saturday morning before the performance Saturday night. (We’re testing the sound system. We might as well make sure we’re okay at the same time we make sure it’s okay.) No more practices with the Portland band before the Red Room concert. We’re on.

Joe

FAILED ECONOMY SHOW SETLIST...

SETLIST for the Failed Economy Show looks like this:

SET #1:
50 Ways to Cure the Depression (me)
Glad That You’re Here (Stan Bolton)
Worried Man Blues (Woody Guthrie)
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (me)
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)
Have a Good Day (Frank Papa)
So 20th Century (Coleman & Lazzerini)
Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)
WD-40 the Economy (Stan Good)
Alabama Blues (Diane Ewing)

SET #2:
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)
I May Write You from Jupiter (me)
Aginst the Law (Woody Guthrie)
Oil in the Cornfield (me)
Final Payment (Gem Watson)
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)
The Emperor (Zmulls & Tintner)
Things Are Getting Better Now that Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Jeff Tanzer)
Free-Range Person (me)
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)

Six by me (I wrote the Southern Pigfish one, too), five by Woody Guthrie, two by Stan Good, one each by nine other writers. We have ragtime, calypso, blues, bluegrass, country, and folk–even one waltz. (And I have nearly all the songs memorized. Recording them was definitely the way to go.) I have CDs for everybody in the band with all the songs recorded, and I’ve delivered lyrics to Dick and will do the same for Jeff. What’s necessary now is more practice, and to make sure the sound system works the way we want it to.

First priority is for a decent sound through the PA system for the audience; the City Hall Dance Floor, with its concrete-block walls and low acoustic ceiling, is a rotten acoustic space to work with. That’s one reason why the Friday Night Group has such a sophisticated PA system. They need it. John and I will check it out Friday.

Second (or third) is to feed mixed sound to at least one of a pair of video cameras (the other camera only needs sound as a tracking device, so that video can be matched up later). We want DVDs of the Show for later airing on cable TV, and to make clips from for getting gigs from other venues. Third (or second) is to feed an audio recorder, so we can produce that “Songs from the Failed Economy Show” CD I’ve been talking about. We will need to use John’s little recorder for that–it records to a real hard drive, rather than a digital-camera chip like the Tascam does, and can hold a couple of hours’ worth of music easily. John thinks he can break both video and audio into one-song increments so they can be played with on the computer. (He can manipulate the video from Dick’s camera, but not mine. He says my camera’s too old.)

For the recording, the plan is to do it separate from the Friday Night Group’s PA--recording instead from some strategically located omnidirectional mikes John thinks he can borrow, using my 6-channel mixer and then splitting the output three ways–one to the audio recorder, and two to the video cameras. When I go to Portland Saturday, I’ll need to pick up a couple of adapters to make the cabling all work.

And one other option for the recording I’ve got to follow up on–I know a local minister (I keep saying “I know people”) who has some good recording equipment; he has a studio set up in his house, but says his experience is all with recording live shows (mostly with Christian bands, I think). Wonder if he’d be interested in recording this one? It’d have to be for no money–everybody’s donating their time on the Failed Economy Show–but it might be a worthy enough cause. We’ll see.

Joe

STILL MORE UPDATES...

The trick to memorizing the Failed Economy songs is to RECORD THEM. I’ve done that for Zmulls & Tintner’s “The Emperor,” Coleman & Lazzerini’s “So 20th Century,” Woody Guthrie’s “Dance a Little Longer” and “Ain’t Got No Home,” Gem’s “Final Payment,” Frank Papa’s “Have a Good Day,” and Betty Holt’s “Our Own Little Stimulus Plan,” doing each in one to three takes, and by the end of the process–one to two hours apiece–I’ve got the song mostly down, and can play it without looking at notes. I’m overdue to get the rest of the band CDs with the setlist songs anyway. As this is written, I’ve only four more songs to do, three of them by \Woody Guthrie–and two of those are old standards that everybody ought to be familiar with.

The recordings I’ve done are all simple: rhythm guitar, vocal, and a real simple lead guitar. The vocal’s done with one of the instrument mikes I got from Bodie (John’s got the singing mike at his house to play with the mixer and sound system)–not perfect, but it works. I’m not going to post them anywhere (with the exception of Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street,” which I sent to Stan for approval first).

When we do the show, we should get better recordings–but I’m still not sure how we’re going to accomplish it. The Friday Night Group’s PA system, which we’ve been invited to use (and John wants to use) doesn’t have a “line out” that I know of, but it does have 8 inputs. One could interpose my 6-channel mixer before the signals go to the PA, but that doesn’t take advantage of the capabilities of the PA (and they are nice). My mixer is old, and nowhere near as fancy, and I’m sure wouldn’t produce as good a sound. The solutions that come to mind–having a splitter for each circuit, or running everything through a patch bay–involve purchasing equipment, which I’m not about to do when I don’t have an income.

I begin to understand the challenges Sharma’s facing with recording and amplifying the Portland band. (Her equipment is new, and a lot more sophisticated.)

Distributed more Failed Economy Show posters today, too. Whenever I go to Tillamook, I should take a stack with me; every place I stopped at wanted to post it right away, and I ran out of posters pretty fast. Got to chat briefly with some still-employed city and county officials I hadn’t seen in a while, too–and everywhere promoted the idea of “This should be imitated.” Wednesday, I think I’ll head north; four more city halls, another newspaper, and the Recreation District to hit, plus I want to buy a junk toilet at the recycling center to turn into a sort-of piggy bank for donations to the City of Garibaldi’s Sewer Discount Program, which we’ll also solicit help for during the Failed Economy Show.

And one idea I hadn’t thought of. I do (or did) know one of the producers at Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland; she and her camera crew visited Union several times while I was city manager there, doing a documentary on volunteerism–and of course, I sent her the “Santa’s Fallen” CD when that came out. I have no idea if she remembers me, but I sent her the invitation and poster files for the Failed Economy Show, too, emphasizing what I’m after is IMITATORS. I’d like to see a lot of people doing this–as our county judge put it, “putting your mandolins where your mandibles are.” Is OPB doing any shows about the economic mess? According to their schedule, they’re doing a lot of them–including one on the growing hunger problem. Could be right down her (and our) alley. I doubt OPB would send any film crews on a 2-1/2 hour drive over the Coast Range on bad roads to film us–but it’d be nice if what we’re doing got mentioned.

Another instance of the desirability of staying in touch with people. You never know when a particular contact may be important, either for you or for them.

TO DO: The four last Failed Economy Show songs to record; CDs to burn (and distribute) for the band; three more jobs to apply for. Music at the tavern Wednesday night, and at City hall Friday night, practice with the Portland band on Saturday and the Coast band all day Sunday. I may be unemployed, but I have plenty of work.

Joe

GARIBALDI DAYS?

Someone actually requested “Hey, Little Chicken” at the Ghost Hole last night. Good night for tips, too—we’re starting to see some five-dollar bills along with the ones. Come Sunday, we actually might have the whole Coast band together for practice for the first time, and I want to make sure I’m ready.

I still need to master the words for Zmulls’ & Tintner’s “The Emperor,” Frank Papa’s “Have A Good Day,” Gene Burnett’s “Things Are Getting Better,” Stan Good’s “WD-40 the Economy,” Coleman’s and Lazzerini’s “So 20th Century,” and four Woody Guthrie songs—“Worried Man Blues,” “Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More,” Dance a Little Longer,” and “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad.” Need to have the music down for Jeff Tanzer’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” too.

On the plus side, I may have finally found a key I can sing “The Emperor” in, and a Keith Richards-style guitar riff for “Dance a little Longer” that’s almost rhythm-and-blues—probably not at all what Woody Guthrie intended, but people can definitely dance to it.

Gem’s “Final Payment” is down pat; so is Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street,” Stan Bolton’s “Glad That You’re Here,” and Woody’s “Aginst the Law.” And the six songs that are mine, of course. I ought to know my songs by now.

Over the next couple of days, I should assemble CDs with the setlist songs; I’ll have to re-record a lot of them, because the way I play them is different from the way they were sent to me. At very least, my voice range forces them to be performed in different keys than the authors—all of them better singers than I—sent them to me.

I asked the “outside” authors for photos and links to Websites where people can listen to or buy their music, and heard back from most of them the same day (and from a couple of them within minutes). One bright aspect of all this unemployment is it has made communication faster; you don’t have to wait for most people to come home from work because they’re not working.

Went to the Lions Club’s organizational meeting for Garibaldi Days; the top officers weren’t in attendance, so little was done—but I did find out it was the Tillamook Eagles, not the Lions, that shelled out the big bucks for beer garden entertainment last year, and the Eagles’ Sharon Stafford is my next person to contact. The Lions were complaining the open mike scheduled on the Friday night of last year’s Garibaldi Days was a flop; of course it was—any Friday entertainment is going to have to compete with the Friday Night Group up at City Hall, and probably can’t. I told them there was no point. I did offer my graphic-design services to the cause; we’ll see if anybody wants to take advantage of them.

And I was asked the next day (by the Lions president) if I’d be willing to handle the entertainment for Garibaldi Days. I think the answer is yes. I do know people who perform, both individuals and bands; it’s a matter of contacting them and asking them (1) if they’re interested and (2) what they’d charge. (Unlike most festival promoters, I do assume the performers are going to get paid.) I’d want five performers—soloists or bands—playing roughly an hour each. Then I can go back to the Garibaldi Days people and tell them how much I think it’ll cost, and find out how much of an entertainment budget they really have. They’ll need to hire a PA system, too, and somebody to run it—I presume the same people they used last year.

And I do not want to put a lot of effort into it. I want our band to perform at this thing, so I don’t want to get caught up in anything that’d be a distraction from that. I don’t want to babysit the bands, and I don’t want to do sound (tone-deaf sound engineer? Come on…) But finding the people? Sure, I can do that. I’ll talk to people from one band tonight when the Friday Night Group plays.

Joe

A SETLIST--BUT NO CAR...

Setlist for the Failed Economy Show is complete, I think. I needed one fast song and one slow song to finish things off, and that’ll be a bluegrass tune of mine, “I May Write You from Jupiter,” and a waltz by the late Jeff Tanzer, who was lead guitarist for the Dodson Drifters. Jeff’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” hasn’t been performed since he died, almost ten years ago.

That gives us 22 songs (two sets of 11 each), which ought to be two hours’ worth of material. A couple of the Woody Guthrie tunes have a lot of verses and can be carried out for a long time, with lead breaks, and one of mine, “Oil in the Cornfield,” is over 6 minutes long. Six by me, five by Woody, two by Stan Good, and one each by nine others. Some blues, some bluegrass, some country, two rockabilly, one calypso, and one ragtime. I still need to work on my vocals and guitar playing on some of these. I haven’t memorized all the lyrics yet, either. Having to typset them all helped, though.

I may have time. I’m going to be vehicle-less for a while—the van died of electrical problems en route back from practice in Portland Saturday night, and it’s down at the local mechanic’s, hopefully awaiting repair and not burial. So I lugged guitar and all the infrastructure up to John’s house on foot for practice here, and got to discover that while John’s house is only 8 blocks away, it’s also 60 feet higher in elevation (there is virtually nowhere in Garibaldi that’s flat). Knowing the exercise is good for me did not make it any more fun. (And it hailed today. A lot.)

I did leave everything but the guitar at John’s house—the mike, mike stand, video camera and its tripod, cables, and the 6-channel mixer (which is very heavy if you’re not using a car to carry it). We will be practicing some more there, and this’ll give John a chance to play with the mixer, which we will need to record with—John’s new 12-channel machine is on backorder, and won’t arrive until late May. Having the mike at John’s means I won’t be able to record anything here—but I hadn’t been recording anything anyway.

Having two bands to play with does let me compare them to each other constantly. This week, the Portland band is ahead; we had everybody there for practice on Saturday, probably half the songs sounded excitingly good (we’ll have one more practice, in two weeks), the sound finally got put together okay, and we got a good recording of some of the songs. If I can get a copy, I can put together a gig-soliciting EP. We are comfortable enough with some of the stuff so we can do some experimenting; David has some very other-worldly sounding guitar leads on “Naked Space Hamsters in Love” (which he taught me, so I can try it on the Strat at home), and does a satisfyingly raunchy bottleneck slide on “She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself.” It will be nice. Still don’t have anybody doing vocals except me.

Music Wednesday night at the tavern, Friday at City Hall (both just a couple of blocks away), Saturday at the Tillamook Library (a bus ride), and Sunday I think we’ll practice again in Garibaldi.

I was berating myself for not having accomplished anything, but that’s not true—I have done a few things, just not things I wanted to do. I have written one new song—“50 Ways to Cure the depression”—and it’s okay; I have musicated five songs by other people (seven if you add the two Woody Guthrie tunes I couldn’t find music for); have adapted two complicated pieces of music into forms I can not only play, but sing; and have memorized maybe half of an hour and a half of brand-new material. I guess that’s not too bad. I still don’t have a job—got another rejection letter in the mail—and right now, don’t have a car, either, and despite the accomplishments, don’t feel I’m doing enough. If I were, things would be better, right?

Joe

MORE FAILED ECONOMY SHOW THOUGHTS...

So instead of applying for another job, I’m writing another issue of the blog. Is that because I’m worried I might actually get offered the job? And if so, is that a good reason to procrastinate? I could really use a job. It really stung to have Sallie Mae, the Federal student-loan agency, tell me they had no jobs for me—at the same time they’re hiring 2,000 people to man their call center.

Figured out how to play Zmulls’ “The Emperor”: the verses are the same chord progression I used in the music for Don Varnell’s “Another Crappy Christmas,” and it’s easy to apply the same rhythm to the chorus and bridge. It’s not calypso by any means—but that’s something the bass player and drummer can overlay on what I do. I remember thinking at the time that the meter to the Varnell song was tricky, and having to practice it a lot before recording it. Now it’s second nature (because I did practice it a lot).

I really like “Un-Easy Street,” the new Stan Good song about the joys of living out of one’s car, and I hope Stan likes what I did with the lyrics; I really would like to perform this one—as the lead song in the Failed Economy Show, I think. Heart-rending and bouncy at the same time. I robbed the music for it from myself (third time I’ve done that, but it’s okay—I haven’t heard any complaints from me about myself doing that)—from two other songs I’ve written, in fact, so it might not be that noticeable. The music for the verses is out of “One: I Love You,” and the chorus from “I Broke My Girlfriend.” I am unlikely to be performing both of those at the same time I do “Un-Easy Street,” so it’s okay.

What do we need? Three more songs? Two? We’re getting close. (Good thing, too—only about two weeks left to practice in, and we still haven’t gotten the whole band together in one place yet.) I have a tentative setlist, which we’ll go over Monday, I think, and I’ve been working on the Rap.

Promotion continues apace; the county librarian wants copies of the poster for each library, and I’ll take copies of the poster to my daughter’s college Saturday when I go into Portland for practice with that band. (They need names. They really need names.) The tavern got posters when Jeff and I played there tonight, as did Timmy the car dealer, who has been coming in Wednesday nights to hear us.

Tomorrow—there won’t be time today—I’ll deliver posters to the county commissioners, county judge, city managers, another newspaper, and the recreation district manager. Dropped off a poster at the barbershop yesterday—and the barber had already heard about it (and wants more posters). So word is getting around. It’s a scattergun approach, much like what ol’ FDR himself did toward fixing the last Depression: you try everything you can think of, and when something actually works, you try to figure out what it was.

It is (and has been) a lot of work—for something that is actually (and deliberately) not going to generate one dime for me or anybody else in the band. (I can’t even call ‘em The Band With No Name. They both have no names.) Why do it? Looked at from a mercenary standpoint—which I have to do when I have no money—this event is going to make the band’s reputation. We’re getting a lot of publicity—which is incidentally publicity for the band while being focused on the event. If we generate a big crowd—and we may—a lot of those folks will be people who have never heard us before. If we’re good—and I want to make sure we’re good—people will remember us, and it’ll be easier to get a crowd in the door for the next concert. I’ve maintained before one of the best things one can do for a band’s reputation is to get associated with a good cause. We’re putting it into practice.

And if we’re asked to do it again? The band have already agreed that yes, we’ll do more of these. We intend and expect to have a lot of fun. Once the Failed Economy Show is done, it’s a set piece, that we can pull out of the proverbial hat and do with very little practice. That’s the payoff down the road for the investment we’re making now.

I hope, too, that the event spawns a lot of imitators. No, that does nothing for the band—but it could do a lot for The Cause. You help by doing what you can, and in our (and other musicians’) case, that means “putting your mandolins where your mouths are.” Combines satisfying the public’s need for entertainment in a Depression, and satisfying unfortunate folks’ need for help, at the same time. And that’s a good thing.

Joe

THE FAILED ECONOM Y SETLIST GROWS...

The Failed Economy Show setlist is up to 20 songs, after Sunday’s practice.

Of the Woody Guthrie songs, WORRIED MAN BLUES is a keeper; so is I AIN’T GOT NO HOME IN THIS WORLD ANY MORE, and the two newfound ones, DANCE A LITTLE LONGER (got to clean up some of the lyrics, though—I know why this one never got played on the radio) and AGINST THE LAW. I assume nobody has a problem with GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD FEELIN’ BAD—The Grateful Dead made that one famous, and I’d be surprised if everyone didn’t remember it.

Zmulls’ THE EMPEROR works; there’s one point in the chorus where my voice has to go up instead of down, because I don’t have any more “down” I can go, but other than that, it’s fine. I don’t have to worry about the calypso beat—that’s up to the bass player and drummer to pull off.

Lazzerini’s SO 20TH CENTURY is playable easily—as ragtime. Stripped of the suspendeds, diminisheds, and eleventh-flatted fifths, it’s a simple circle-of-fifths progression. Maybe ragtime is where bluegrass and jazz meet. John would like to do more ragtime songs, and I said I’d see if I could find any from the 1893 or 1907 financial panics—ragtime music was popular then. (All I’ve found thus far are sappy love songs, however.)

Frank Papa’s HAVE A GOOD DAY “clicked” as soon as I realized the meter and progression were the same as “The Little Brown Jug.” And Dick can play the jug song lead on harmonica. Not only that, but the meter and progression are also the same as Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”—which Jeff can play on guitar. We could have a lot of fun with this.

John likes Southern Pigfish’s FOR THEIR OWN ENDS (it’s folk-rock, and we don’t do much rock music in the show), and Gem Watson’s FINAL PAYMENT, and would like us to also play BLUEBIRD ON MY WINDSHIELD. I’m okay with that; the more of my songs we do, the less songs I have to learn.

It is an eclectic mix—7 bluegrass, 3 Gospel, 2 blues, 2 rock, 4 country, 1 ragtime, and 1 calypso. Almost all of ‘em good dance tunes, and they show off the diverse capabilities of the band, too. Four more to pick.

E-mailed invitations (with posters) just for the heck of it to the local state representative and senator, publisher and editor of the local newspaper, manager of the PUD (on the offchance he might get an announcement placed in the Ruralite, the monthly magazine published cooperatively by the public utilities), and Hipfish, the “cultural” monthly in Astoria, 60 miles north of here. I’d like to send invites and posters to our Senators and Congressman, too, but I’ll have to do that by snail-mail; those guys don’t have e-mail (probably for good reason—they’d hear from too many people). The state rep says she’ll try to come; I haven’t heard from the rest—but I really wasn’t expecting to hear from anybody. The newspapers will either cover it—or not; the elected officials will either come—or not. We’re going to play anyway.

Still a couple more newspapers to hit; I think the county librarian will promote it through the libraries—and I’ll make the circuit of the city halls like I did for the Bay City concert. I’ll see the manager of the recreation district, too; he didn’t come to the Bay City concert (I’m sure his new job doesn’t leave him much time—it wouldn’t have left me any time), but if he wants to learn how to put on a benefit show, I think this’ll tell him.

Music at the tavern Wednesday night, the Friday Night Group on (when else?) Friday, practice with the Portland band Saturday (I’ll go in early and distribute posters)—and Sunday’s Easter. I never noticed until someone invited us for Easter dinner. How can time fly when no one can afford the gas?

Joe

UPDATES...

Last night at the Ghost Hole was just Jeff and me, no John, but it went okay. We had (surprise!) fans—people who actually came to hear us, and dropped money in the tip jar. Made me want to stay and play longer, even though it was literally a dark and stormy night. Gave Jeff a ride home to his new trailer, 15 miles away (guess I have to stop saying the entire band lives in Garibaldi), got to meet his new landlord (also a musician—plays piano and guitar)—and while we were talking, heard him mention the magic word “studio.” I didn’t press, but will find out. New Landlord is going to come with Jeff to band practice Sunday, and may come to the Friday Night Group session, too.

FAILED ECONOMY SHOW: We have confirmation of the 2 May date. Talked to the Food Bank’s head honcho; they’ll help collect food at the concert, and will promote the concert, too, sticking a flyer in every box of food they give out this month and putting up posters in every business in town. (I need more ink cartridges for the printer.) We’ll solicit donations for the city’s Sewer Discount Program at the concert, too—John’s getting an old toilet we can turn into a huge piggy bank, and I’ll make the slotted lid for it.

16 songs for the show thus far (assuming we’re able to pull off Zmulls’ “The Emperor” and Lazz’s “So 20th Century”—I don’t know that yet); there are two more songs we haven’t considered yet, but that I’d like to. Poster’s done, and I’m working on the Rap—but we still need to decide on eight more songs. Then, I can decide what order they ought to be in.

In a pinch, I suppose, we can do more of mine, if the band don’t find any other of the submissions they want to tackle (learning two hours of new music in one month is a difficult job). Since we’re talking about donations for the food bank, I do have some songs that are food-related—about chickens, armadillos, dead cats, dogs, termites, and of course cookies. All are considered delicacies in certain cultures. I also found three more fairly obscure Woody Guthrie songs that might be worth a gander—“Airline to Heaven” (obviously a Gospel song), “Aginst the Law” (a blues), and “Dance a Little Longer” (country).

PORTLAND BAND practices 11 April, a week from Saturday; I’ll go into town early and distribute posters in the Usual And Accustomed Places (at least part of our packed house last time came from those poster placements), and try some new ones, too. Notice of the gig has already gone out (with poster) to the “joelist.”

Both bands need to create RECORDINGS. They need to be good-quality stuff, but we can do it with the equipment we have. Venues are going to want CDs of what we sound like (an EP with three songs on it is probably sufficient); I think the DVD of a live performance is going to be a good marketing tool, but I can’t get that in either case until we do our live performances—and that’s not going to be until the end of the month.

On the Coast, we’re going to miss out on summer business unless we go after it now, and I think the same is true in Portland. Since we were planning on recording both performances, and feeding the recording to the camera to go along with the video, we should do it at practice to make sure we have levels right in advance. For the Coast band, I’ve got two more venues identified—but I have to get them CDs. I probably need to do the same for Garibaldi Days—the organizing committee is meeting 14 April, and I’ve volunteered to help. I have warned them I’m interested in our band being the Star Performers this year.

Joe