MUSICATING APRIL...

I spent most of the day following our performance at the “Rocktoberfest” unable to get the songs on our setlist out of my head. I did hit on a solution, though. With nothing musical on the immediate horizon, and no immediate commitments except applying for more jobs I probably won’t get, now was the time to musicate something—fill my brain with a different melody, as it were.

So April Johns’ “Sometimes Country Boys Get the Blues” finally got its music. It didn’t come out exactly like I expected: I’d envisioned something rather slow and mournful, something one would put a wailing fiddle to—but what I got instead was a definite swing beat, with marginally (but noticeably) increasing tempo and volume. By the end of the song, it rocks—and hopefully, people would be out on the dance floor. If a fiddle were playing along with this, it wouldn’t—and couldn’t—be mournful at all. (I don’t have a fiddle, of course. All I have to work with is a lead guitar. But April has a band. I don’t know what they could do with this.)

Myself, I think I like it—when I keep hitting the “replay” button on the computer, it’s usually a good sign. Of course, I like the contrast between relatively mournful lyrics and upbeat music; I’ve done that a few times now (and need to watch out it doesn’t become a trademark). But it panders a little, too, to the predilections of the Music Industry as I understand them: they reportedly don’t want ”power ballads,” because the industry has a plethora of them—every artist has written ‘em, and they’ll perform their own, no matter how bad, rather than somebody else’s. The Music Industry says they want upbeat, uptempo songs, which are supposedly harder to write (I hadn’t noticed—most of my songs are uptempo). So April’s song is more marketable this way.

(April did like it—said it grows on you (I agree)—and recorded her own vocal to it. She has a growly, wide-range voice ideal for blues—reminiscent of Mary Miller, who was singing when I first moved to Garibaldi, nine years ago. She should sing more. I’m glad she’s working with a band.) One more April Johns song to musicate, “Family Portrait,” a heartrending lost love song. Now that I know what April sounds like, we’ll see what I can do with that.

I think the band are excited about doing more gigs, now that our “Rocktoberfest” performance came off so well (and we got such good reviews). I’ve advised John and Chris I’ll stick to their original request, though, and not book anything until after the end of October; that’ll give John time to get work out of the way at City Hall, and accommodate Chris’s work at the Port—with fishing so good, this fall is likely to be the busiest season of the year on the waterfront. They, like me, are anxious to hear how organizer (and music teacher) Mike Simpson’s recording of our live performance came out.

Gave John the recording I have of “Test Tube Baby,” the old (1977?) Dodson Drifters hit recorded two years ago with Gem Watson on drums, bass, and lead guitar. With Southern Pigfish’s “For Their own Ends” a bona fide (if incomprehensible) hit with audiences, I think we should do more rock ‘n’ roll songs. And “Test Tube Baby” is a classic.

Elsewhere: No word from Insomnia Coffee about what time I’m playing (and I need that for the posters)—I’ll have to call them. Music this Friday and Saturday, and hopefully the Burlesque Show post-mortem on Sunday (it’s been postponed twice); I’ll go in early and distribute Insomnia gig posters. I don’t know if I’ll try any more Portland open mikes.

Joe