PROMOTING THE CHRISTMAS SHOW...

More Christmas concert promotion: I caught radio station DJ Tommy Boye (Coast105 FM) just as he was finishing his show, and gave him Christmas concert posters; I’m now scheduled for two 15-minute promotional slots, one two weeks before the show, and one the day before. (John suggested he and either Mike or Doc come down with me, and the three of us play “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas” on the air. That’s a great idea. I wonder how we could fit us in Tommy Boye’s little bathroom-sized sound room? Or could they mike us out in the lobby?)

More posters distributed; about the only people not enthusiastic about the show were the local newspaper (I was allowed to put a flyer on their bulletin board, however)—but I mentioned the show in my column I write for the paper. First practice is this Saturday, with John, Chris and Doc. (Mike won’t be there. It’s his birthday.)

I found an outfit called Oregon Music News (they were soliciting on craigslist for a writer); interesting Website, with quite a bit of information. It’s all about the music scene in Portland, though—Portlanders do tend to assume they’re the only part of Oregon that matters—and doesn’t say a word about country music, which I’ve noted before is not a popular genre in Portland, despite being ubiquitous elsewhere. I e-mailed the editor a Christmas concert flyer, and we’ll see what happens.

The Old Mill RV Park says they’re interested in having me play at one of their Christmas bazaars December 11 or 12. That’s a change from last year (they were very much not interested last year), but they also say they’re not paying anybody (and they did pay, last year—they may not have very many performers interested if they don’t want to pay any more). I’ll take them a CD. They say they just want Christmas music, though (again, that wasn’t the case last year), and I can’t give them much of that—nor do I want to.

I have played a lot of places for free, and that’s not going to change. Here, though, I am not so sure it’s a good idea—because they did pay their performers last year. I don’t mind the exposure; I expect I could generate a good crowd, and it’d be a good opportunity to promote the Christmas benefit concert for the Food Pantry the following week. And I might even end up with money in the Big Yellow Bucket, and sell a few CDs—things I’ve never managed to do when I played for free in Portland. On the other hand, a 2-hour solo show is quite a bit of work—I’ll be promoting it, too, because I know they won’t be—and I do not want to get a reputation as the guy who can be counted on to play for free when you were paying everybody else. We will have to talk.

And there’s apparently a band somewhere in Canada that wants to perform “Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up.” I told them of course, they can—with my blessings. That’s something that doesn’t happen enough, to me or to other writers. Credibility as a writer entails that your material be performed not just by you, but by other people, and that it still be attracting and pleasing audiences even when it’s not you performing it. Back 30 years ago, if enough other people were performing your stuff, you would get noticed by the music industry and they’d be trying to co-opt you as a writer; these days, with the industry attempting to be a determinedly closed circle, not so much—but it’s still the only way to get noticed as a writer by artists looking for material.

I try to do my part, too, to cover songs by other writers. The Christmas show is going to include songs by Gene Burnett (“Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse”), Colin Lazzerini and Tom Coleman (“So 20th Century”), Betty Holt (“Our Own little Stimulus Plan”), Stan Good (“Un-Easy Street”), and Gem Watson (“Final Payment”). Somebody needs to be out there saying these guys and gals are good, and encouraging people to listen to their stuff. One of those somebodies is going to be me.

Joe