Practice Saturday with the Portland band and Sunday with the Coast band (we have got to get them some names). Coast band now has a drummer, a versatile one--Chris Miller, who also lives in Garibaldi. (The idea that we can assemble a whole band of good musicians living in a single town of 900 people is mind-boggling. Shades of the Dodson Drifters…)
On SUNDAY, John, Chris and I worked on the following, which are all definitely inclusions in the Failed Economy Show setlist:
50 Ways to Cure the Depression (me), in C
Free-Range Person (me), in C
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (me), in C
Oil in the Cornfield (me), in C
When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You (me), in C
Our Own Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt), in D
WD-40 the Economy (Stan Good), in C
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett), in C
Glad That You’re Here (Stan Bolton), in A
They want to try Zmulls’ “The Emperor” (probably in C) and Coleman/Lazzerini’s “So 20th Century” (and I’m not sure what key, but we’ll try to simplify it to eliminate a lot of the fruity chords). Both are pretty complicated pieces of music, but intriguing—probably because of their complexity. I don’t have to do a whole lot in either one except remember the words; it’s John (on bass) and Chris (on drums) who have to do the fancy stuff.
Also in by popular demand, though we haven’t practiced them yet, are the Southern Pigfish song “For Their Own Ends” and Frank Papa’s “Have A Good Day.” Don’t know about the rest yet. Practice again next Sunday—and I’ve promised everybody another CD with another dozen songs to think about. John, Jeff and I will run through some of them, no doubt, when we play at the Ghost Hole Wednesday night.
I’d really like Jeff to sing some of the songs if he’d be willing. He has a much better voice than I (and if he sings, I can play lead guitar). Some of the songs written by other folks are a real stretch for my voice, which doesn’t have as wide a range as most people’s. Trying to sing over amplified instruments is a strain, too—next practice, I’ll plan on using the vocal mike. I don’t have a good boom mike stand, but may be able to assemble one that’d work out of pieces of two older mike stands I have. I don’t want to buy anything right now.
John got to go through the big box of audio equipment I’d earlier been given, and said the microphones are good instrument mikes, the headphones are professional grade, and some of the fittings and adapters are hard to find. Good stuff, in other words. (Thanks, Bodie.) John has ordered his new mixer, plus we have permission to use the Friday Night Group’s soundboard (an 8-channel). We should be able to record, and amplify ourselves, and run the video cameras, all at the same time.
On SATURDAY, we didn’t have the whole band together in Portland either, but Sharma (bass), Doug (drums) and I practiced in the early afternoon and then, Sharma, David (lead) and I in the late afternoon. We’ll practice again in two weeks (on Saturday again, I think)—we’re hoping three practices will be enough, since we’re basically dealing with only four new songs. (That does up the band’s repertoire to 13. We are making progress.) Everybody’s got setlists with lyrics, and CDs with recordings of the songs. The Red Room updated their Website (finally), confirming that we’re on for 30 APRIL at 9 P.M.
TO DO: Still need the Lions Club’s okay on the 2 MAY date for the Failed Economy Show (they’re the sponsors)—then we can start the “buzz.” Some of the newspapers I want to contact are monthlies, and they’ll be going to press soon. “Joelist” to notify of both concerts, plus bulletins on MySpace and Facebook. Two CDs to donate to my daughter’s old high school—they want to auction them off at the Speech Team’s annual Dessert Gala. One of the fun things about living in this area is being sorta famous…
Joe
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
FAILED ECONOMY UPDATES...
And we occasionally do the unnecessary… Musicated a Betty Holt song, “Our Own Stimulus Plan, “ a good uptempo, between-the-sheets tune; she’d contacted me earlier about using the song in the Failed Economy Show, but said she may actually have someone else doing music for it. It got music anyway because I had to get it out of my head. (Indicates it’s a good song.) I can go back to doing necessary things now.
Stan Good’s “WD-40 the Economy” has a revised soundtrack, with the changes Stan wanted, and is waiting on his okay. One more Stan song to do—“The Big Obscene Green Money Machine.” Those two, plus “Death of the Middle Class,” are all candidates for the Failed Economy Show. Stan has a gift for poignant (and hilarious) social commentary.
If this were the ‘60s, his stuff would be on the radio—no doubt with music by someone more competent than I am. Since it’s (as one Brit I know put it) the “Noughts,” with the airwaves controlled by a handful of Big Players, it’s not—virtually no independent music is. One goal of the Failed Economy Show is to get a little exposure for some of the good writers out there. It won’t be much exposure: a heavily-attended concert in a small town (with maybe more to come), a TV show broadcast in two counties (lightly-populated counties, be it noted), maybe the song on a limited-edition record that people might buy because it’s for a good cause. One does what one can.
Tentative date and time for the Failed Economy Show is SATURDAY, 2 MAY, 7 P.M. on the Dance Floor at Garibaldi City Hall. We’ll have the facility for the whole day, so we can play with the sound. (The Dance Floor has rotten acoustics, because of the low, acoustic-tile false ceiling, but it’s a big hall, able to hold 500 people.) John is trying to get a new mixer (a 12-channel), and I bought an old tripod today for the video camera at the “We Are Not A Pawn Shop” store in Tillamook. We’ll have a month to practice, Sundays at John’s house (with Chris the drummer) and Wednesday nights at the tavern (just Jeff, John, and me).
I’ve stopped trying to find downloadable-for-free music for the five Woody Guthrie songs I want us to do, and started looking for tablature instead. We-the-band are going to have to perform these things, and I might as well re-record them in a key I can sing in. All of the five I want to use are simple music; one Woody Guthrie proverb I ran across on my search was “If you use more than two chords, you’re showing off.” (Most of Woody’s songs have three to five chords, however. Guess he was showing off.)
Simultaneously with this, I’ve got the Portland band to practice with, too (we have got to get these outfits some names). The “Red Room Two” gig is THURSDAY, 30 APRIL, 9 P.M., and again, we’ve got a month to practice. (We will probably be practicing on Saturdays, like we did before.) I think I have less worries about those guys. Just four new songs for them to get familiar with, out of a setlist of nine, and they’re all simple, uptempo tunes. Our main challenge will be making sure the sound system works without a hitch; we’ll be following another band this time, and we’ll have only minutes to set up, not the hour we did last time. And this time, we will get videoed.
Music/practice (I’m not sure what to call it) tonight at the tavern; the Friday Night Group on Friday (of course); no music at the library the next two Saturdays, but I’ll be practicing in Portland anyway. Sunday (March 29) is St. Leif’s Day, and one should be playing music on St. Leif’s Day, he being the patron saint of bagpipes and all. And I will be.
Joe
Stan Good’s “WD-40 the Economy” has a revised soundtrack, with the changes Stan wanted, and is waiting on his okay. One more Stan song to do—“The Big Obscene Green Money Machine.” Those two, plus “Death of the Middle Class,” are all candidates for the Failed Economy Show. Stan has a gift for poignant (and hilarious) social commentary.
If this were the ‘60s, his stuff would be on the radio—no doubt with music by someone more competent than I am. Since it’s (as one Brit I know put it) the “Noughts,” with the airwaves controlled by a handful of Big Players, it’s not—virtually no independent music is. One goal of the Failed Economy Show is to get a little exposure for some of the good writers out there. It won’t be much exposure: a heavily-attended concert in a small town (with maybe more to come), a TV show broadcast in two counties (lightly-populated counties, be it noted), maybe the song on a limited-edition record that people might buy because it’s for a good cause. One does what one can.
Tentative date and time for the Failed Economy Show is SATURDAY, 2 MAY, 7 P.M. on the Dance Floor at Garibaldi City Hall. We’ll have the facility for the whole day, so we can play with the sound. (The Dance Floor has rotten acoustics, because of the low, acoustic-tile false ceiling, but it’s a big hall, able to hold 500 people.) John is trying to get a new mixer (a 12-channel), and I bought an old tripod today for the video camera at the “We Are Not A Pawn Shop” store in Tillamook. We’ll have a month to practice, Sundays at John’s house (with Chris the drummer) and Wednesday nights at the tavern (just Jeff, John, and me).
I’ve stopped trying to find downloadable-for-free music for the five Woody Guthrie songs I want us to do, and started looking for tablature instead. We-the-band are going to have to perform these things, and I might as well re-record them in a key I can sing in. All of the five I want to use are simple music; one Woody Guthrie proverb I ran across on my search was “If you use more than two chords, you’re showing off.” (Most of Woody’s songs have three to five chords, however. Guess he was showing off.)
Simultaneously with this, I’ve got the Portland band to practice with, too (we have got to get these outfits some names). The “Red Room Two” gig is THURSDAY, 30 APRIL, 9 P.M., and again, we’ve got a month to practice. (We will probably be practicing on Saturdays, like we did before.) I think I have less worries about those guys. Just four new songs for them to get familiar with, out of a setlist of nine, and they’re all simple, uptempo tunes. Our main challenge will be making sure the sound system works without a hitch; we’ll be following another band this time, and we’ll have only minutes to set up, not the hour we did last time. And this time, we will get videoed.
Music/practice (I’m not sure what to call it) tonight at the tavern; the Friday Night Group on Friday (of course); no music at the library the next two Saturdays, but I’ll be practicing in Portland anyway. Sunday (March 29) is St. Leif’s Day, and one should be playing music on St. Leif’s Day, he being the patron saint of bagpipes and all. And I will be.
Joe
Monday, March 23, 2009
PRODUCING THE FAILED ECONOMY RECORD...
Well, the plumbing emergency is over. (Most folks probably weren’t aware there was one.) What it took to fix it is a deterrmined application of the proper tool in the right place—and persistence. Winston Churchill’s answer to how to win World War II: “Never, never, never, NEVER give up.” Not bad rules to apply to everything, really.
FAILED ECONOMY SHOW has gotten some nice submissions, and more keep coming in. I’ve made copies of an hour’s worth for the band; we’ll pick through those, decide which we want to do, and then do it again with another hour’s worth. I think it may be best to keep everything simple—we’ll only have about a month in which to learn all of these, and get ‘em performance-ready. And once again, it may be me singing them.
As many as six of my songs, as many as five from Woody Guthrie (Voice of the Last Depression), as many as three from Stan Good (I’ve musicated two, and still have a third to do), and a bunch of “other.” I want a broad mix of styles, and all upbeat, uptempo, or both.
Simultaneous with practice, there’s PROMOTION. The local media, of course; this time, the concert will be a news story, and we should break into local radio the same way. Posters county-wide (and suggestions to the other area food banks that we could maybe do the same for them, too). We’ll have it filmed for cable TV; since the conglomerate that owns the cable TV system here can’t just run something locally, it’ll have to be broadcast everywhere in two counties (it’s hard to feel bad about that)—so we can run contact information for all the food banks in those two counties along with the broadcast.
And then, there’s the RECORD. We will attempt to make an audio record of the performance; John’s recorder can handle it (it’ll take two CDs), and my 6-channel mixer says it can record at the same time it’s feeding an amplifier—the only one way to tell for sure is to do it. We’ll take the best dozen songs from the concert—re-recording them if we have to—and put them on a CD. The CD itself will be a benefit for local food banks—any one that sells it. Sell for $10, food bank keeps $5. The $5 to us should just pay for production costs, based on my experience with the Broken Record project.
Since at least half the songs on the CD will not be ones I wrote, copyright royalties will have to be paid to the authors; I asked a music publisher I know (the only one I’ve dealt with on other than a rejection-letter basis) how to proceed with that, and got this advice:
Outside-Services-the-Record Company can pay royalties directly to the authors. I do not have to become a publisher, or deal with one. I simply draft up a contract (there are apparently no good templates) with each author, saying this is a nonexclusive deal in which Author allows Record Company to use their song, [insert name] on this here album [insert name] for the purpose of this here charity (i.e., the food bank). Since there is no publisher involved, the authors retain the publishing rights (4.55 cents per song per record manufactured—not sold—the same amount the author gets. The publisher suggested sweetening the deal for the food bank by asking the authors to also donate their publishing royalties for (say) the first 1,000 copies to the food bank as well.
And that’s it. Since there is no publisher involved in the arrangement, it’s my job as The Record Company to pay the authors their 4.55 cents per (plus their 4.55 cents per in publishing rights, if they’re retaining those, too) when the CDs are manufactured (probably when they’re delivered to me by the company that does that). If the album gets sold digitally on CDBaby (and why not?), CDBaby will send The Record Company (me) small amounts of money to distribute to the authors. The same will happen if the song is downloaded from something like iTunes.
There are a few other considerations for the authors. These are not essential to the record deal, but they might amount to a few more pennies for the authors down the road. The authors should register as writers with either ASCAP or BMI if they haven’t yet, and say they are self-published; they should make sure the song of theirs that’s going to be on the record is “registered” with whichever PRO they sign up with. That way, if the song is ever played on a radio station that ASCAP or BMI ever monitors (one should not hold one’s breath), the author could end up getting a few more pennies. Those pennies would be distributed by ASCAP or BMI, not me.
Joe
FAILED ECONOMY SHOW has gotten some nice submissions, and more keep coming in. I’ve made copies of an hour’s worth for the band; we’ll pick through those, decide which we want to do, and then do it again with another hour’s worth. I think it may be best to keep everything simple—we’ll only have about a month in which to learn all of these, and get ‘em performance-ready. And once again, it may be me singing them.
As many as six of my songs, as many as five from Woody Guthrie (Voice of the Last Depression), as many as three from Stan Good (I’ve musicated two, and still have a third to do), and a bunch of “other.” I want a broad mix of styles, and all upbeat, uptempo, or both.
Simultaneous with practice, there’s PROMOTION. The local media, of course; this time, the concert will be a news story, and we should break into local radio the same way. Posters county-wide (and suggestions to the other area food banks that we could maybe do the same for them, too). We’ll have it filmed for cable TV; since the conglomerate that owns the cable TV system here can’t just run something locally, it’ll have to be broadcast everywhere in two counties (it’s hard to feel bad about that)—so we can run contact information for all the food banks in those two counties along with the broadcast.
And then, there’s the RECORD. We will attempt to make an audio record of the performance; John’s recorder can handle it (it’ll take two CDs), and my 6-channel mixer says it can record at the same time it’s feeding an amplifier—the only one way to tell for sure is to do it. We’ll take the best dozen songs from the concert—re-recording them if we have to—and put them on a CD. The CD itself will be a benefit for local food banks—any one that sells it. Sell for $10, food bank keeps $5. The $5 to us should just pay for production costs, based on my experience with the Broken Record project.
Since at least half the songs on the CD will not be ones I wrote, copyright royalties will have to be paid to the authors; I asked a music publisher I know (the only one I’ve dealt with on other than a rejection-letter basis) how to proceed with that, and got this advice:
Outside-Services-the-Record Company can pay royalties directly to the authors. I do not have to become a publisher, or deal with one. I simply draft up a contract (there are apparently no good templates) with each author, saying this is a nonexclusive deal in which Author allows Record Company to use their song, [insert name] on this here album [insert name] for the purpose of this here charity (i.e., the food bank). Since there is no publisher involved, the authors retain the publishing rights (4.55 cents per song per record manufactured—not sold—the same amount the author gets. The publisher suggested sweetening the deal for the food bank by asking the authors to also donate their publishing royalties for (say) the first 1,000 copies to the food bank as well.
And that’s it. Since there is no publisher involved in the arrangement, it’s my job as The Record Company to pay the authors their 4.55 cents per (plus their 4.55 cents per in publishing rights, if they’re retaining those, too) when the CDs are manufactured (probably when they’re delivered to me by the company that does that). If the album gets sold digitally on CDBaby (and why not?), CDBaby will send The Record Company (me) small amounts of money to distribute to the authors. The same will happen if the song is downloaded from something like iTunes.
There are a few other considerations for the authors. These are not essential to the record deal, but they might amount to a few more pennies for the authors down the road. The authors should register as writers with either ASCAP or BMI if they haven’t yet, and say they are self-published; they should make sure the song of theirs that’s going to be on the record is “registered” with whichever PRO they sign up with. That way, if the song is ever played on a radio station that ASCAP or BMI ever monitors (one should not hold one’s breath), the author could end up getting a few more pennies. Those pennies would be distributed by ASCAP or BMI, not me.
Joe
Friday, March 20, 2009
RED ROOM NUMBER TWO...
RED ROOM #2 will be THURSDAY, 30 APRIL, 9 P.M. Poster’s done. First practice will be Saturday, 28 April (St. leif’s Eve, by the way). Sharma’s setting up times (I’m flexible, being unemployed and all). Setlist will be:
Bluebird on My Windshield (fast trucker rhythm)
Hey, Little Chicken (country blues)
Naked Space Hamsters in love (fast bluegrass)
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (slow & sleazy)
Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep (rock ‘n’ roll, Johnny Cash style)
50 Ways to Cure the Depression (mod. fast Gospel)
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself (mod. fast traditional blues)
Rotten Candy (fast bluegrass)
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas (slow & sleazy)
And this time, the Portland musicians are getting CDs with recordings of the songs, like I did for our band on the Coast. Definitely a good practice tool.
The setlist includes five songs that we did well last time, and four new ones. All the new ones are uptempo songs—the band likes and does those better. “Bluebird” is a bluegrass song that’s been done real well by rock bands; “Starvin’” is a fast-paced, easy to follow blues with room for a lot of lead breaks (which I now am sure these guys can do); “50 Ways” has a pounding Gospel-style bass line, as does “Rotten Candy.” It’d be neat if Sharma the bass player could sing “Rotten Candy.” The song could really benefit from a good female voice.
I was asked why I want to do this—we know from experience that the Red Room gig isn’t going to amount to any money. The answer is that this will turn into more business down the road—business that does pay better. This time, we will get a video that can be used for promotional, gig-getting purposes, too. Besides, I have an album to record (once I can afford it) and I think I would like these guys to do it.
FAILED ECONOMY SHOW got over two hours’ worth of submissions, which will allow the band to pick and choose what they want to do. The submissions include some country, some blues, some bluegrass, one jazz, and one R&B; we’ll listen to a round dozen or the songs over the weekend, and talk Monday at practice what we want to do.
I’m assuming my songs are a given for inclusion (there are advantages to being The Writer). There will be three of those: “Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues,” “Free-Range Person,” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” I have two Stan Good songs “musicated”—“WD-40 the Economy” has the electric banjo playing a sort of lead, and “Death of the Middle Class” I did as very electric (and angry) Death Metal. (Considering that it’s me doing it, it’s probably Country Death Metal.) I still have two more songs to musicate, and two that need to be re-recorded.
Not all the submissions are about the Depression per se. Everett Adams’ “I Will Survive” and Glynda Duncan’s “I’m Not as Stupid as You Wish I Was” are actually lost-love songs with sentiments appropriate to today’s hard times, for instance.
UPDATES: I sent a link to “The 30-Second Resume” video along with my last city-manager job application—to Wrangell, Alaska, the little town that’s accessible only by plane or boat. I’m still not sure whether it was a good idea, but it’s done. They’ll either hire me or not (and odds were on the “not” to begin with).
Joe
Bluebird on My Windshield (fast trucker rhythm)
Hey, Little Chicken (country blues)
Naked Space Hamsters in love (fast bluegrass)
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (slow & sleazy)
Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep (rock ‘n’ roll, Johnny Cash style)
50 Ways to Cure the Depression (mod. fast Gospel)
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself (mod. fast traditional blues)
Rotten Candy (fast bluegrass)
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas (slow & sleazy)
And this time, the Portland musicians are getting CDs with recordings of the songs, like I did for our band on the Coast. Definitely a good practice tool.
The setlist includes five songs that we did well last time, and four new ones. All the new ones are uptempo songs—the band likes and does those better. “Bluebird” is a bluegrass song that’s been done real well by rock bands; “Starvin’” is a fast-paced, easy to follow blues with room for a lot of lead breaks (which I now am sure these guys can do); “50 Ways” has a pounding Gospel-style bass line, as does “Rotten Candy.” It’d be neat if Sharma the bass player could sing “Rotten Candy.” The song could really benefit from a good female voice.
I was asked why I want to do this—we know from experience that the Red Room gig isn’t going to amount to any money. The answer is that this will turn into more business down the road—business that does pay better. This time, we will get a video that can be used for promotional, gig-getting purposes, too. Besides, I have an album to record (once I can afford it) and I think I would like these guys to do it.
FAILED ECONOMY SHOW got over two hours’ worth of submissions, which will allow the band to pick and choose what they want to do. The submissions include some country, some blues, some bluegrass, one jazz, and one R&B; we’ll listen to a round dozen or the songs over the weekend, and talk Monday at practice what we want to do.
I’m assuming my songs are a given for inclusion (there are advantages to being The Writer). There will be three of those: “Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues,” “Free-Range Person,” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” I have two Stan Good songs “musicated”—“WD-40 the Economy” has the electric banjo playing a sort of lead, and “Death of the Middle Class” I did as very electric (and angry) Death Metal. (Considering that it’s me doing it, it’s probably Country Death Metal.) I still have two more songs to musicate, and two that need to be re-recorded.
Not all the submissions are about the Depression per se. Everett Adams’ “I Will Survive” and Glynda Duncan’s “I’m Not as Stupid as You Wish I Was” are actually lost-love songs with sentiments appropriate to today’s hard times, for instance.
UPDATES: I sent a link to “The 30-Second Resume” video along with my last city-manager job application—to Wrangell, Alaska, the little town that’s accessible only by plane or boat. I’m still not sure whether it was a good idea, but it’s done. They’ll either hire me or not (and odds were on the “not” to begin with).
Joe
Monday, March 16, 2009
MORE VIDEO THOUGHTS...
About the time I finish and post one “issue” of the blog, I start another one. I’m not sure whether that means a lot is happening, or I just have too much time on my hands. Probably the latter. Why else would I spend time on Facebook’s “Which Disney Princess Are You?” quiz? (I’m Cinderella, in case you hadn’t guessed.)
Some things are going okay. I have two bands I’m playing with, and we have a fan base; the ability to get gigs may be limited mostly by reluctance to ask for them. There are a few things I could do that would make the process easier, and I should simply do them. The Coast Band can record a few songs during our six weeks “off” before the Failed Economy Show, and maybe do a video if someone can be tapped to film us somewhere; the Portland Band will get videoed at our Red Room performance, but we’ll know exactly how to do it going in, in part because of my experiences on the Coast.
And I am still writing. “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” was the first song in a long time, but there will be more—I feel like a logjam broke. It’s nice to hear people say it’s the best I’ve ever done; I know it’s not, but the sentiments are encouraging. And it is timely. Lengthy to-do list of songs to musicate for the Failed Economy Show, and I’m comfortable—again—that I can do most of them in one or two takes.
The problem, of course, is that I don’t make a living at that stuff. If I pushed real hard, could I? I don’t know. I’ve said before I thought it’d take a year of hard work before I got to the point where music was providing even half my income, and I haven’t pushed hard at this. I have confirmed thus far what I suspected, namely that there is a market for the stuff I do, and it might be a big one, despite whatever The Industry says. (It isn’t the first time I’ve been right and they’ve been wrong. I should just stop paying attention to them.)
An idea. There was, once upon a time, a lady who videotaped a lot of city council and county commissioners’ meetings, and had them aired on cable TV. Could that be done with the Failed Economy Show? It is a benefit, after all, for the local Food Bank, and everybody knows the food banks everywhere are in trouble. If the concert footage were run on TV, with contact information for all the local food banks, it’d be great publicity for the band. I don’t know who the lady is, but I know some government folks who do. If the lady’s no longer around, could the cable TV company itself be prevailed upon to air our videotape? (They’re a big conglomerate—but I do know their vice-president for public affairs in New York City. That could be fun…)
CDs, too. Select the best of the performance cuts—or re-do them in the studio if we have to—and assemble a CD with about an hour’s worth of music. Could the CD itself be a benefit for the food bank? Maybe; there’s not a lot of profit in a $10 CD, and if one gave half that to the food bank, there wouldn’t be much left to distribute after production costs. On the other hand, the publicity could be really worthwhile, and could maybe sell other CDs, and get the band more gigs. Might be well worth a try.
For that one, we (or I) would get to pay copyright royalties to the authors, which would be fun for them, even if inadequate recompense for their work. They’d at least be able to tell publishers, record companies, &c., “Yes, one of my songs was covered by a relatively famous performing band, and it is on a record, and the record is selling. Now, what are you going to do for me?” And to do that, I have to become a music publisher. Things keep nudging me in that direction.
Joe
Some things are going okay. I have two bands I’m playing with, and we have a fan base; the ability to get gigs may be limited mostly by reluctance to ask for them. There are a few things I could do that would make the process easier, and I should simply do them. The Coast Band can record a few songs during our six weeks “off” before the Failed Economy Show, and maybe do a video if someone can be tapped to film us somewhere; the Portland Band will get videoed at our Red Room performance, but we’ll know exactly how to do it going in, in part because of my experiences on the Coast.
And I am still writing. “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” was the first song in a long time, but there will be more—I feel like a logjam broke. It’s nice to hear people say it’s the best I’ve ever done; I know it’s not, but the sentiments are encouraging. And it is timely. Lengthy to-do list of songs to musicate for the Failed Economy Show, and I’m comfortable—again—that I can do most of them in one or two takes.
The problem, of course, is that I don’t make a living at that stuff. If I pushed real hard, could I? I don’t know. I’ve said before I thought it’d take a year of hard work before I got to the point where music was providing even half my income, and I haven’t pushed hard at this. I have confirmed thus far what I suspected, namely that there is a market for the stuff I do, and it might be a big one, despite whatever The Industry says. (It isn’t the first time I’ve been right and they’ve been wrong. I should just stop paying attention to them.)
An idea. There was, once upon a time, a lady who videotaped a lot of city council and county commissioners’ meetings, and had them aired on cable TV. Could that be done with the Failed Economy Show? It is a benefit, after all, for the local Food Bank, and everybody knows the food banks everywhere are in trouble. If the concert footage were run on TV, with contact information for all the local food banks, it’d be great publicity for the band. I don’t know who the lady is, but I know some government folks who do. If the lady’s no longer around, could the cable TV company itself be prevailed upon to air our videotape? (They’re a big conglomerate—but I do know their vice-president for public affairs in New York City. That could be fun…)
CDs, too. Select the best of the performance cuts—or re-do them in the studio if we have to—and assemble a CD with about an hour’s worth of music. Could the CD itself be a benefit for the food bank? Maybe; there’s not a lot of profit in a $10 CD, and if one gave half that to the food bank, there wouldn’t be much left to distribute after production costs. On the other hand, the publicity could be really worthwhile, and could maybe sell other CDs, and get the band more gigs. Might be well worth a try.
For that one, we (or I) would get to pay copyright royalties to the authors, which would be fun for them, even if inadequate recompense for their work. They’d at least be able to tell publishers, record companies, &c., “Yes, one of my songs was covered by a relatively famous performing band, and it is on a record, and the record is selling. Now, what are you going to do for me?” And to do that, I have to become a music publisher. Things keep nudging me in that direction.
Joe
Saturday, March 14, 2009
VIDEO THOUGHTS (MOSTLY)...
I have seen both of the Bay City videos—the one taken by John with his digital camera (it had enough memory for two songs), and the one taken by Dick’s wife Carol (which caught nearly all of the 2-hour show). John’s is not bad visually, but the audio is awful. I assume that’s the result of the camera’s limitations (those built-in mikes are cheap), and that we really didn’t sound that bad.
Dick’s has better sound (more expensive camera, better microphone), but It’s still not great; the bass can’t be heard well at all, because the bass amp wasn’t pointing directly at the camera, and my guitar sounds tinny (of course, maybe my guitar does sound tinny). The band doesn’t all fit in the frame of the camera most of the time, either. Neither tape, I think, is marketable because of the sound, but I’ll install “Alice” her DVD-rewritable drive (and extra RAM) and see what I can do with it. I think, though, we will probably have to do better.
Next time, we should bypass the camera’s mike, and pipe the sound in direct from the soundboard (if everyone’s plugged into the board) or from an omnidirectional mike set up in the audience, in front of the band. Using the soundboard instead of separate amps for the lead guitar and bass would provide better control of the sound.
Two cameras would help, too. I’d mount the second one off to the side, so it could pick up the vocalist’s face without the mike getting in the way (one has to get very close to my singing mike)—and also easily pan to the audience.
One of those two cameras could be mine. My old video camera works now—I stopped by the Radio Shack store, and the techie (who happens to be the owner) made me a power adapter for the thing while I waited. So I bought a tape from him at the same time. All the camera needs now is a tripod, which I’m determined not to buy new. I have everything necessary, I think, to hook the camera up to either a sound board (my 6-channel mixer) or a remote mike.
RED ROOM CONCERT #2 will be in APRIL, not March—maybe the last Saturday in April. That would give us some time to practice. Our Coast band will be out of action most of April, too, because blues harpist Dick Ackerman is having an operation; the rest of us will practice, but the band won’t be playing any gigs.
“50 WAYS TO CURE THE DEPRESSION” got tested out on a live audience at the Tillamook Library. Yes, it’s a keeper. The recording actually came in under 4-1/2 minutes, even with a lead break, so there’s really plenty of room to add more “ways” (only 17 are listed in the song). One could carry the song out for a long time—just like “Big Bob” Provus did with “50 Ways to kill Your Lover” (which actually had 50 ways). Might do that when we play it in concert.
(This song might make a good music video, too. All of the imagery is quite photogenic—banks, trucks, and so on. One could do still photos—rotating pretty fast—for the “ways,” and then footage of the band during the verses.)
KGW-TV in Portland did air the “30-Second Resume” music video, on their “Live at 7” show Friday night; their producer e-mailed me to tell me he liked it. No job offers yet, but I did get a lead on a city-manager job—in Alaska.
Joe
Dick’s has better sound (more expensive camera, better microphone), but It’s still not great; the bass can’t be heard well at all, because the bass amp wasn’t pointing directly at the camera, and my guitar sounds tinny (of course, maybe my guitar does sound tinny). The band doesn’t all fit in the frame of the camera most of the time, either. Neither tape, I think, is marketable because of the sound, but I’ll install “Alice” her DVD-rewritable drive (and extra RAM) and see what I can do with it. I think, though, we will probably have to do better.
Next time, we should bypass the camera’s mike, and pipe the sound in direct from the soundboard (if everyone’s plugged into the board) or from an omnidirectional mike set up in the audience, in front of the band. Using the soundboard instead of separate amps for the lead guitar and bass would provide better control of the sound.
Two cameras would help, too. I’d mount the second one off to the side, so it could pick up the vocalist’s face without the mike getting in the way (one has to get very close to my singing mike)—and also easily pan to the audience.
One of those two cameras could be mine. My old video camera works now—I stopped by the Radio Shack store, and the techie (who happens to be the owner) made me a power adapter for the thing while I waited. So I bought a tape from him at the same time. All the camera needs now is a tripod, which I’m determined not to buy new. I have everything necessary, I think, to hook the camera up to either a sound board (my 6-channel mixer) or a remote mike.
RED ROOM CONCERT #2 will be in APRIL, not March—maybe the last Saturday in April. That would give us some time to practice. Our Coast band will be out of action most of April, too, because blues harpist Dick Ackerman is having an operation; the rest of us will practice, but the band won’t be playing any gigs.
“50 WAYS TO CURE THE DEPRESSION” got tested out on a live audience at the Tillamook Library. Yes, it’s a keeper. The recording actually came in under 4-1/2 minutes, even with a lead break, so there’s really plenty of room to add more “ways” (only 17 are listed in the song). One could carry the song out for a long time—just like “Big Bob” Provus did with “50 Ways to kill Your Lover” (which actually had 50 ways). Might do that when we play it in concert.
(This song might make a good music video, too. All of the imagery is quite photogenic—banks, trucks, and so on. One could do still photos—rotating pretty fast—for the “ways,” and then footage of the band during the verses.)
KGW-TV in Portland did air the “30-Second Resume” music video, on their “Live at 7” show Friday night; their producer e-mailed me to tell me he liked it. No job offers yet, but I did get a lead on a city-manager job—in Alaska.
Joe
Thursday, March 12, 2009
I'M IN TWO BANDS NOW?
A couple of “uppers” (that’s good—helps offset the two job rejection letters I got in the mail). I got hit up on the street by a fan asking when the band were going to do our next concert (I think it will be the Failed Economy Show, and probably the beginning of May). I’ve heard already from a number of folks who didn’t make it to the Bay City concert but say they are determined to come to the next one—and I’ve encouraged them, emphasizing what a good time they missed.
The director of the Arts Center said she was hit up by “a tall guy” (I think I know who he was) wanting to get in touch with our manager (he thought she was it). We don’t have one, of course—we’re not ready yet—but it’s nice somebody thought we were professional enough (at our first gig, no less) to be being professionally managed. And the band themselves have started asking me when our next gig is.
All the band are gung-ho for the Failed Economy Show. The song lineup—still not complete—includes at this point blues, jazz, bluegrass, Gospel, “straight” country, and an R&B tune, plus three songs from me (one blues, one bluegrass, and one Gospel) and two from Woody Guthrie. An impressive lineup—and it would really establish our reputation if we could pull all those different styles off. We do have maybe five weeks to practice in. Chris, the drummer John knows, is also interested—and he, too, lives and works in Garibaldi.
John brought his bass down to the Ghost Hole tonight; he, Jeff and I are going to treat Wednesday nights as an opportunity to practice from now on, I think. That provides another important component of the Performing Band picture—a home base where you’re playing regularly, that lets you tell people (for instance) “Yeah, we play there every Wednesday night—come down and you can hear what we sound like.” Having a Regular Gig raises you a bunch of notches in the eyes of those who might hire you; it says somebody likes you enough to have you playing regularly, that audiences like what you’re doing, and also that you-the-band are serious about what you do. (It is not necessary to tell anybody how much you’re getting paid.)
TWO BANDS? On the Portland front, Sharma has a go-ahead from the Red Room for a return gig—both for the Portland Band (David, Don, Doug, Sharma, and me) and for lead guitarist David’s other band (a prerequisite for his playing with us was getting that other band a gig, too, on the same night). The Red Room is apparently amenable—they’re offering Saturday nights, which I think means they really want us back. SATURDAY, 28 MARCH looks like the date—which will give us time probably for only one practice before Gig Night. (That’s St. Leif’s Eve—probably as close as I’m going to get to playing music on St. Leif’s Day this year.)
I think we’ll do mostly the same material as last time (we didn’t have time to perform all of it last time), plus one or two new songs. I’d like to see them tackle “Rotten Candy,” with Sharma the bass player doing lead vocal. The song really would benefit from a female voice. The other one we could do is “Bluebird on My Windshield,” which is a simple 1-4-5 progression—and its “trucker rhythm” works as well with rock ‘n’ roll as bluegrass. Both are pretty fast-moving songs—and I have noticed those guys (and gal) do better on fast-paced material.
We’ll videotape the Portland gig, too—using (if I can manage it) the two-camera approach, one camera doing static footage of the band (with audio feed from the soundboard, so there’s good sound) and the other “roaming,” doing closeups from different angles of people playing and shots of the audience. And then hopefully I can splice them together on the computer. It is probably time to visit the Radio Shack store (the Tillamook store has a pretty good resident techie) with the old Fisher video camera in hand, and see if the guy can’t make me an adapter to bypass the $60 battery pack I don’t have and don’t want to buy.
TO DO: Five songs, I think, to musicate, and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” to finish recording; then I can assemble CDs for the band to start listening to. I’d like to do all that in one day (plus finish and send off another job application)—I’ve been asked to judge a debate tournament at my daughter’s old high school on Friday, and that’s another thing I’d like to keep my hand in.
Joe
The director of the Arts Center said she was hit up by “a tall guy” (I think I know who he was) wanting to get in touch with our manager (he thought she was it). We don’t have one, of course—we’re not ready yet—but it’s nice somebody thought we were professional enough (at our first gig, no less) to be being professionally managed. And the band themselves have started asking me when our next gig is.
All the band are gung-ho for the Failed Economy Show. The song lineup—still not complete—includes at this point blues, jazz, bluegrass, Gospel, “straight” country, and an R&B tune, plus three songs from me (one blues, one bluegrass, and one Gospel) and two from Woody Guthrie. An impressive lineup—and it would really establish our reputation if we could pull all those different styles off. We do have maybe five weeks to practice in. Chris, the drummer John knows, is also interested—and he, too, lives and works in Garibaldi.
John brought his bass down to the Ghost Hole tonight; he, Jeff and I are going to treat Wednesday nights as an opportunity to practice from now on, I think. That provides another important component of the Performing Band picture—a home base where you’re playing regularly, that lets you tell people (for instance) “Yeah, we play there every Wednesday night—come down and you can hear what we sound like.” Having a Regular Gig raises you a bunch of notches in the eyes of those who might hire you; it says somebody likes you enough to have you playing regularly, that audiences like what you’re doing, and also that you-the-band are serious about what you do. (It is not necessary to tell anybody how much you’re getting paid.)
TWO BANDS? On the Portland front, Sharma has a go-ahead from the Red Room for a return gig—both for the Portland Band (David, Don, Doug, Sharma, and me) and for lead guitarist David’s other band (a prerequisite for his playing with us was getting that other band a gig, too, on the same night). The Red Room is apparently amenable—they’re offering Saturday nights, which I think means they really want us back. SATURDAY, 28 MARCH looks like the date—which will give us time probably for only one practice before Gig Night. (That’s St. Leif’s Eve—probably as close as I’m going to get to playing music on St. Leif’s Day this year.)
I think we’ll do mostly the same material as last time (we didn’t have time to perform all of it last time), plus one or two new songs. I’d like to see them tackle “Rotten Candy,” with Sharma the bass player doing lead vocal. The song really would benefit from a female voice. The other one we could do is “Bluebird on My Windshield,” which is a simple 1-4-5 progression—and its “trucker rhythm” works as well with rock ‘n’ roll as bluegrass. Both are pretty fast-moving songs—and I have noticed those guys (and gal) do better on fast-paced material.
We’ll videotape the Portland gig, too—using (if I can manage it) the two-camera approach, one camera doing static footage of the band (with audio feed from the soundboard, so there’s good sound) and the other “roaming,” doing closeups from different angles of people playing and shots of the audience. And then hopefully I can splice them together on the computer. It is probably time to visit the Radio Shack store (the Tillamook store has a pretty good resident techie) with the old Fisher video camera in hand, and see if the guy can’t make me an adapter to bypass the $60 battery pack I don’t have and don’t want to buy.
TO DO: Five songs, I think, to musicate, and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” to finish recording; then I can assemble CDs for the band to start listening to. I’d like to do all that in one day (plus finish and send off another job application)—I’ve been asked to judge a debate tournament at my daughter’s old high school on Friday, and that’s another thing I’d like to keep my hand in.
Joe
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
FIRST MUSIC VIDEO (SORT OF)...
Okay, we got a band. They play really good together, they’re interested in playing together, and they’d like to do more gigs. Where do we go from here?
We did videotape the Bay City Concert, with two different cameras—I haven’t seen how the tapes came out. The more sophisticated of the cameras is old, but Dick has the equipment to convert its VHS tape to DVD.
We should have a couple of promo audio tracks on hand, and the only way to get them may be by recording them. (At John’s, probably—his recording equipment is better than mine.) Three or four of our best songs, to stick on “band” Soundclick and MySpace pages as a “here’s what it sounds like” reference.
Candidates to hit up for gigs would be the Tillamook and Astoria Farmer’s Markets. County fairs? The Tillamook County Fair is insistent about never hiring any local entertainment, but I’m not sure how many other county fairs are like that. (I got to play once at the Union County Fair, when I lived in Union.) I think we’re in for Garibaldi Days, the local festival, even without a videotape, as long as I stay in touch with the organizers. (And I will. I’ve offered my services as a graphic designer.)
FIRST MUSIC VIDEO: A Portland TV station variety show had asked people to submit 30-second video resumes—-doing their part for the unemployment problem, I guess—-and they got real excited when one fellow put his resume on a T-shirt and then sent them a clip of him wearing the T-shirt. I decided I could go one better. Could I put my resume in a 30-second song? Almost—it came out 40 seconds, but I recorded and submitted it anyway. Bluegrass music, of course; it had to move pretty fast.
Gave me a chance to use Windows Movie Maker for the first time (and a 40-second song was good for experimenting). For the “video,” I used still photos, changing every 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 seconds, and then added simple titles; it didn’t come out bad. The photos of me are all of me performing (and they’re mostly pretty good, because they were taken by others), but I have a big library of municipal-type photos, too, of fire trucks, sewer plants, streets, and water system things—the product of doing all those newsletters for all those towns I worked for. I don’t know if “The 30-Second Resume” (that’s the title) is YouTube material—I’ll have to see what the TV station does with it. (It’s on their Website now.) I know the next one can be better.
Dick Ackerman’s video camera (which is old, but not as old as mine) has an audio input, which I think we can use to take sound off the 6-channel mixer instead of using the camera’s built-in mike (which is a cheap thing), so we can match up good sound to videotape. The other thing I’d like to try next time is using two cameras—one would film just the band playing, while the other could move around, do close-ups and the like. And then the two could be spliced together on the computer.
FAILED ECONOMY SONGS: Time to sift through the material—-I ended up getting a lot. Five of them, I think, need musication, and two more need the music changed so they’ll be more uptempo (since they’re not upbeat). Got one jazz piece, from a fellow in England, that’d be really fun to do (great lyrics), but I’m not sure how fast the band could learn it. Still, it’d be a big surprise for the audience if we could.
Music this Wednesday at the Ghost Hole, Friday at City Hall, and Saturday at the library, and a square dance Saturday night. DVD rewritable drive to install on “Alice” the ‘puter (I probably better put the extra RAM in while I’m at it), and two more city-manager jobs to apply for (even though I’m sure doing so will just result in more rejection letters). And a sink to fix—-yes, Joe the Plumber rides again.
Joe
We did videotape the Bay City Concert, with two different cameras—I haven’t seen how the tapes came out. The more sophisticated of the cameras is old, but Dick has the equipment to convert its VHS tape to DVD.
We should have a couple of promo audio tracks on hand, and the only way to get them may be by recording them. (At John’s, probably—his recording equipment is better than mine.) Three or four of our best songs, to stick on “band” Soundclick and MySpace pages as a “here’s what it sounds like” reference.
Candidates to hit up for gigs would be the Tillamook and Astoria Farmer’s Markets. County fairs? The Tillamook County Fair is insistent about never hiring any local entertainment, but I’m not sure how many other county fairs are like that. (I got to play once at the Union County Fair, when I lived in Union.) I think we’re in for Garibaldi Days, the local festival, even without a videotape, as long as I stay in touch with the organizers. (And I will. I’ve offered my services as a graphic designer.)
FIRST MUSIC VIDEO: A Portland TV station variety show had asked people to submit 30-second video resumes—-doing their part for the unemployment problem, I guess—-and they got real excited when one fellow put his resume on a T-shirt and then sent them a clip of him wearing the T-shirt. I decided I could go one better. Could I put my resume in a 30-second song? Almost—it came out 40 seconds, but I recorded and submitted it anyway. Bluegrass music, of course; it had to move pretty fast.
Gave me a chance to use Windows Movie Maker for the first time (and a 40-second song was good for experimenting). For the “video,” I used still photos, changing every 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 seconds, and then added simple titles; it didn’t come out bad. The photos of me are all of me performing (and they’re mostly pretty good, because they were taken by others), but I have a big library of municipal-type photos, too, of fire trucks, sewer plants, streets, and water system things—the product of doing all those newsletters for all those towns I worked for. I don’t know if “The 30-Second Resume” (that’s the title) is YouTube material—I’ll have to see what the TV station does with it. (It’s on their Website now.) I know the next one can be better.
Dick Ackerman’s video camera (which is old, but not as old as mine) has an audio input, which I think we can use to take sound off the 6-channel mixer instead of using the camera’s built-in mike (which is a cheap thing), so we can match up good sound to videotape. The other thing I’d like to try next time is using two cameras—one would film just the band playing, while the other could move around, do close-ups and the like. And then the two could be spliced together on the computer.
FAILED ECONOMY SONGS: Time to sift through the material—-I ended up getting a lot. Five of them, I think, need musication, and two more need the music changed so they’ll be more uptempo (since they’re not upbeat). Got one jazz piece, from a fellow in England, that’d be really fun to do (great lyrics), but I’m not sure how fast the band could learn it. Still, it’d be a big surprise for the audience if we could.
Music this Wednesday at the Ghost Hole, Friday at City Hall, and Saturday at the library, and a square dance Saturday night. DVD rewritable drive to install on “Alice” the ‘puter (I probably better put the extra RAM in while I’m at it), and two more city-manager jobs to apply for (even though I’m sure doing so will just result in more rejection letters). And a sink to fix—-yes, Joe the Plumber rides again.
Joe
Sunday, March 8, 2009
BAY CITY POST-MORTEM...
The Big Bay City Concert is over. It went really well—without a hitch, in fact—the audience (most of whom I knew) loved us, and there were a few of the Arts Center’s Board on hand, too (so I urged the audience to tell those guys how much we were appreciated).
We did some things that worked right. We did four practices in the three weeks before the gig, plus I spent the better part of a day with John the bass player, Wednesday nights with lead guitarist Jeff at the Ghost Hole, and Friday nights at City Hall with the Friday Night Group (which includes Dick the blues harpist). And in those latter two events, I tried to make sure the material I played was material that we were going to do at the gig.
All that practicing meant that when we got on stage, we didn’t have to look at each other—we could all face the audience. We knew exactly what each of us was doing, and going to do, all the time, because we’d done it so many times.
Giving everybody in the band CDs with draft recordings of all the songs helped a bunch, too. All of the band said they played the recordings a lot, and played along with them.
Jeff, John and I went to the Arts Center three hours early and set up and tested the sound, and arranged the seating so there’d be room for dancers. It fell together pretty fast, and we didn’t need any extras we didn’t have in our respective kits, so it was pretty much over except for the waiting.
While we were waiting, John got to look over my ancient 6-channel mixer, and thinks it will work for our soundboard for the Failed Economy Show (we’ll have to provide our own sound system at Garibaldi City Hall). Everything should be able to be run through that to John’s big amp. We’ll need it. We’ll be playing in a much bigger hall, and one that moreover has poorer acoustics.
If I’d been in charge of the weather (I was not), I probably would not have ordered snow. The snow may have cut down on attendance a little, but there was still a decent turnout. More importantly, each of those people who came is going to tell their friends they should have been there—and maybe next time, those friends will come.
The material? It was a good mix, alternating fast and slow, country, bluegrass, and blues, and changing keys every now and then. There are a couple of songs I wouldn’t do again, because they didn’t go over as well as the others—“The Frog Next Door” and “Vampire Roumanian Babies.” With five hours of material, there’s plenty of substitutions.
Got a couple of requests, too; I don’t do requests at gigs—everything’s carefully scripted out, and I don’t deviate from it—but I said I’d file them away for future reference. Some folks wanted to hear “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” an old Dodson Drifters hit that’s on my first album, and “Naked Space Hamsters in Love.” “Beaver” has a lot of words in it—it’s six minutes without any lead breaks—and moves so fast one has to be really careful when to breathe.
There were a few obvious hits. “Crosses by the Roadside” was one—I’d deliberately not played it in public before the concert (except for a couple of times at the Ghost Hole, practicing with Jeff—and yes, it’s album material. It doesn’t matter that two publishers in Nashville rejected it; this song makes people cry. It works. “The Termite Song” is an unexpected hit, too (that may indicate people are tired of hearing about global warming). Our arrangement of “No Good Songs About the War” is going to be a classic, I think; when Dick’s blues harp plays “Amazing Grace” at the break (turns out the chord progression is the same) and then “Taps” at the end, it’s a real eye-opener.
So… The band is excited, and wants to do it again; the audience is excited, and wants to do it again; and the Arts Center’s Board are (I think) excited, and want to do it again. I think that means we’ll be doing it again.
Oh, and we made money. Not a lot, but more than anybody expected—and I sold 9 more CDs, too.
Joe
We did some things that worked right. We did four practices in the three weeks before the gig, plus I spent the better part of a day with John the bass player, Wednesday nights with lead guitarist Jeff at the Ghost Hole, and Friday nights at City Hall with the Friday Night Group (which includes Dick the blues harpist). And in those latter two events, I tried to make sure the material I played was material that we were going to do at the gig.
All that practicing meant that when we got on stage, we didn’t have to look at each other—we could all face the audience. We knew exactly what each of us was doing, and going to do, all the time, because we’d done it so many times.
Giving everybody in the band CDs with draft recordings of all the songs helped a bunch, too. All of the band said they played the recordings a lot, and played along with them.
Jeff, John and I went to the Arts Center three hours early and set up and tested the sound, and arranged the seating so there’d be room for dancers. It fell together pretty fast, and we didn’t need any extras we didn’t have in our respective kits, so it was pretty much over except for the waiting.
While we were waiting, John got to look over my ancient 6-channel mixer, and thinks it will work for our soundboard for the Failed Economy Show (we’ll have to provide our own sound system at Garibaldi City Hall). Everything should be able to be run through that to John’s big amp. We’ll need it. We’ll be playing in a much bigger hall, and one that moreover has poorer acoustics.
If I’d been in charge of the weather (I was not), I probably would not have ordered snow. The snow may have cut down on attendance a little, but there was still a decent turnout. More importantly, each of those people who came is going to tell their friends they should have been there—and maybe next time, those friends will come.
The material? It was a good mix, alternating fast and slow, country, bluegrass, and blues, and changing keys every now and then. There are a couple of songs I wouldn’t do again, because they didn’t go over as well as the others—“The Frog Next Door” and “Vampire Roumanian Babies.” With five hours of material, there’s plenty of substitutions.
Got a couple of requests, too; I don’t do requests at gigs—everything’s carefully scripted out, and I don’t deviate from it—but I said I’d file them away for future reference. Some folks wanted to hear “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” an old Dodson Drifters hit that’s on my first album, and “Naked Space Hamsters in Love.” “Beaver” has a lot of words in it—it’s six minutes without any lead breaks—and moves so fast one has to be really careful when to breathe.
There were a few obvious hits. “Crosses by the Roadside” was one—I’d deliberately not played it in public before the concert (except for a couple of times at the Ghost Hole, practicing with Jeff—and yes, it’s album material. It doesn’t matter that two publishers in Nashville rejected it; this song makes people cry. It works. “The Termite Song” is an unexpected hit, too (that may indicate people are tired of hearing about global warming). Our arrangement of “No Good Songs About the War” is going to be a classic, I think; when Dick’s blues harp plays “Amazing Grace” at the break (turns out the chord progression is the same) and then “Taps” at the end, it’s a real eye-opener.
So… The band is excited, and wants to do it again; the audience is excited, and wants to do it again; and the Arts Center’s Board are (I think) excited, and want to do it again. I think that means we’ll be doing it again.
Oh, and we made money. Not a lot, but more than anybody expected—and I sold 9 more CDs, too.
Joe
Thursday, March 5, 2009
THE BAND IS GOOD...
The band is really good. I think the folks who come to the Arts Center are going to get a heck of a show for their five bucks. I hope we pack the place. I want people telling the Arts Center they want us back, and people from other places wanting to hire us to play in their communities or for their events. I have made sure some key people (like the manager of the Recreation District) knew about it, and got invited to attend; I don’t know if they will—I have endured a lot of times when things don’t turn out the way I expect them to, so I have no illusions—but if those folks don’t come, I hope someone will tell them what they missed.
Most of the paying gigs I’ve gotten have been the result not of being seen by the person who ends up hiring me, but being seen by someone else who tells them about it. It’s an okay way to go.
Today is Last-Minute Preparations Day. Package CDs; get a spare set of strings for the guitar; check out the sound system with Jeff (who knows what he’s doing—I do not); and find out if the Arts Center’s furnace has been fixed so we can play upstairs on their dance floor (otherwise, we’ll be downstairs, where they have a pellet stove for heat but can only accommodate a crowd half the size).
Tomorrow—Friday, the day before the Big Concert—I don’t want to do anything. I’ll play music with the Friday Night Group (opportunity to solicit more attendance at the concert), but that’s it.
Somebody online—I don’t know what state they’re in, or even what planet they’re on—suggested a name: “The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.” That does have a nice ring to it. Professional and pedestrian at the same time. (I did google it. There is a movie by that name—a documentary about pro bowling—and also a bloggers’ group of seven guys who aren’t letting any new members in. No band is using the name—and accordingly, it is probably fair game.)
Over an hour’s worth of material has been submitted thus far for the Failed Economy Concert; we’re still a couple days from the deadline, and I’m continuing to solicit more. In addition to the material from outside, we’ll have three songs of mine (“Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues,” “Free-Range Person,” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression”) and two Woody Guthrie tunes (“Worried Man Blues” and “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad”). Four of the submissions came with invitations to write the music—one from Modern Relics, two from “Tampa Stan” Good, and one from a fellow hight Michael Zaneski whose material I’d never run across before. I guess I’m getting a reputation for being able to do an acceptable job as composer. (Now all I have to do is deliver. I haven’t sat down with the recording equipment in a while.)
There’s two of the submissions I’d like to re-do, too, if the authors are willing—in one case, changing the chords slightly (so they’re majors instead of minors), in the other just speeding it up so it’s a Gospel-style rocker instead of a folk song. In both cases, the lyrics are pretty downbeat, so the music needs to be uptempoed to make up for it. Our audience may be “goin’ down the road feelin’ bad,” but I want ‘em to do it with a spring in their step, as it were. Ganesha’s Rule: “Dance. You’ll feel better.”
UPDATES: I haven’t done much except prepare for the Bay City concert and try to memorize the 50 ways of curing the Depression. I did run across a really attractive city-manager job to apply for—a little town on an island offshore from Alaska. That could be interesting…
Joe
Most of the paying gigs I’ve gotten have been the result not of being seen by the person who ends up hiring me, but being seen by someone else who tells them about it. It’s an okay way to go.
Today is Last-Minute Preparations Day. Package CDs; get a spare set of strings for the guitar; check out the sound system with Jeff (who knows what he’s doing—I do not); and find out if the Arts Center’s furnace has been fixed so we can play upstairs on their dance floor (otherwise, we’ll be downstairs, where they have a pellet stove for heat but can only accommodate a crowd half the size).
Tomorrow—Friday, the day before the Big Concert—I don’t want to do anything. I’ll play music with the Friday Night Group (opportunity to solicit more attendance at the concert), but that’s it.
Somebody online—I don’t know what state they’re in, or even what planet they’re on—suggested a name: “The League of Ordinary Gentlemen.” That does have a nice ring to it. Professional and pedestrian at the same time. (I did google it. There is a movie by that name—a documentary about pro bowling—and also a bloggers’ group of seven guys who aren’t letting any new members in. No band is using the name—and accordingly, it is probably fair game.)
Over an hour’s worth of material has been submitted thus far for the Failed Economy Concert; we’re still a couple days from the deadline, and I’m continuing to solicit more. In addition to the material from outside, we’ll have three songs of mine (“Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues,” “Free-Range Person,” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression”) and two Woody Guthrie tunes (“Worried Man Blues” and “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad”). Four of the submissions came with invitations to write the music—one from Modern Relics, two from “Tampa Stan” Good, and one from a fellow hight Michael Zaneski whose material I’d never run across before. I guess I’m getting a reputation for being able to do an acceptable job as composer. (Now all I have to do is deliver. I haven’t sat down with the recording equipment in a while.)
There’s two of the submissions I’d like to re-do, too, if the authors are willing—in one case, changing the chords slightly (so they’re majors instead of minors), in the other just speeding it up so it’s a Gospel-style rocker instead of a folk song. In both cases, the lyrics are pretty downbeat, so the music needs to be uptempoed to make up for it. Our audience may be “goin’ down the road feelin’ bad,” but I want ‘em to do it with a spring in their step, as it were. Ganesha’s Rule: “Dance. You’ll feel better.”
UPDATES: I haven’t done much except prepare for the Bay City concert and try to memorize the 50 ways of curing the Depression. I did run across a really attractive city-manager job to apply for—a little town on an island offshore from Alaska. That could be interesting…
Joe
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
UPDATES--4 DAYS TILL BAY CITY...
The Red Room wants the Portland Band back. (I’m not surprised—we were good.) They’ve offered a choice of dates, but two of the band haven’t decided whether they want to do it again. I’ve encouraged Sharma the bass player to talk to them, and the Red Room, about the details; I’m in, if they can work something out.
I think I have the go-ahead from the Coast Band to go get more gigs. They’re committed to playing the gig at the Garibaldi Museum in June, and the Failed Economy Concert as well, and want things in between; I need to avoid the month of April, because Dick will be having an operation, but he expects to be fine afterwards. Over here, we’ve got that Sunday Market starting up in Astoria in May, the Saturday one in Tillamook, and Garibaldi Days at the end of July, for starters.
Got a number of Failed Economy Song submissions; some fall into the “too depressing” category (sad is okay, but if it’s sad, it’s got to be uptempo), and one song, alas, is just too complicated to learn in time. There are a bunch that are really good fits, though. (I do know some very good writers.) In addition, there’s two of mine that are inclusions for the show, and two, maybe three, Woody Guthrie tunes.
My new one—“50 Ways to Cure the Depression”—is coming together nicely. I’ve had a lot of suggestions for “ways,” though we’re not up to 50. Structurally, the song hangs together okay with 27, but people have asked if I’m interested in more “ways,” and I’ve told them, “Sure.” The more ideas for curing the Depression, the better—that’s what the song is trying to encourage, after all, along with the “we’re on our own, Joan” mindset.
The only rules I’ve been applying are (1) they have to make money—we are “curing the Depression,” after all—(2) they should be outrageous enough to make people think, and (3) they have to follow the “stab her in the back, Jack” pattern used by “Big Bob” Provus in “50 Ways to Kill Your Lover.” (Bob’s song is more important than the Paul Simon one it parodied, because Bob really did have 50 ways. Paul Simon didn’t.)
This is one instance where I don’t think I’ll worry about length. With 6 verses, 5 choruses (with 27 ways—thus far—to cure the Depression) and an instrumental break, the song is guaranteed to exceed the 5-minute limit, even though it’s going to move fast. I don’t think it will matter. This is one that has to be performed, and if I’m right, that Gospel beat will have people up dancing. They are unlikely to mind being kept dancing a little longer. We can do it as the second-to-last song, and then close out the evening with—what else?—“Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad.”
I think the band has the makings of a working PA system of our own, too, for the Failed Economy Concert (where we’ll have to bring our own sound system), and other future gigs—and also if the Arts Center’s PA is non-functional for some reason. My mike for vocals, Jeff’s mike for harmonica, John’s 2-channel amp and big speakers, and my old 6-channel mixer. No additional investment (yay!). Yup, some of the equipment is bona fide antiques—but so are some of the band.
The one extra copy of the “Broken Record” CD (I miscounted when I burned them) is being auctioned off as a benefit to Just Plain Folks; as this is written, the bidding is over $50, with more than two weeks to go before the deadline. Of course, it’s a collector’s item—only 21 copies were ever made, and the other 20 went to the lyricists, composers and producers who contributed material to the album—but still, it feels good to have people putting that high a price on the product. Makes me want to do more of that.
Joe
I think I have the go-ahead from the Coast Band to go get more gigs. They’re committed to playing the gig at the Garibaldi Museum in June, and the Failed Economy Concert as well, and want things in between; I need to avoid the month of April, because Dick will be having an operation, but he expects to be fine afterwards. Over here, we’ve got that Sunday Market starting up in Astoria in May, the Saturday one in Tillamook, and Garibaldi Days at the end of July, for starters.
Got a number of Failed Economy Song submissions; some fall into the “too depressing” category (sad is okay, but if it’s sad, it’s got to be uptempo), and one song, alas, is just too complicated to learn in time. There are a bunch that are really good fits, though. (I do know some very good writers.) In addition, there’s two of mine that are inclusions for the show, and two, maybe three, Woody Guthrie tunes.
My new one—“50 Ways to Cure the Depression”—is coming together nicely. I’ve had a lot of suggestions for “ways,” though we’re not up to 50. Structurally, the song hangs together okay with 27, but people have asked if I’m interested in more “ways,” and I’ve told them, “Sure.” The more ideas for curing the Depression, the better—that’s what the song is trying to encourage, after all, along with the “we’re on our own, Joan” mindset.
The only rules I’ve been applying are (1) they have to make money—we are “curing the Depression,” after all—(2) they should be outrageous enough to make people think, and (3) they have to follow the “stab her in the back, Jack” pattern used by “Big Bob” Provus in “50 Ways to Kill Your Lover.” (Bob’s song is more important than the Paul Simon one it parodied, because Bob really did have 50 ways. Paul Simon didn’t.)
This is one instance where I don’t think I’ll worry about length. With 6 verses, 5 choruses (with 27 ways—thus far—to cure the Depression) and an instrumental break, the song is guaranteed to exceed the 5-minute limit, even though it’s going to move fast. I don’t think it will matter. This is one that has to be performed, and if I’m right, that Gospel beat will have people up dancing. They are unlikely to mind being kept dancing a little longer. We can do it as the second-to-last song, and then close out the evening with—what else?—“Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad.”
I think the band has the makings of a working PA system of our own, too, for the Failed Economy Concert (where we’ll have to bring our own sound system), and other future gigs—and also if the Arts Center’s PA is non-functional for some reason. My mike for vocals, Jeff’s mike for harmonica, John’s 2-channel amp and big speakers, and my old 6-channel mixer. No additional investment (yay!). Yup, some of the equipment is bona fide antiques—but so are some of the band.
The one extra copy of the “Broken Record” CD (I miscounted when I burned them) is being auctioned off as a benefit to Just Plain Folks; as this is written, the bidding is over $50, with more than two weeks to go before the deadline. Of course, it’s a collector’s item—only 21 copies were ever made, and the other 20 went to the lyricists, composers and producers who contributed material to the album—but still, it feels good to have people putting that high a price on the product. Makes me want to do more of that.
Joe
Sunday, March 1, 2009
AND 50 (SORTA) WAYS TO CURE THE DEPRESSION...
The “Failed Economy Concert” is going to fly, I think. Bass player’s in, and I think the rest of the band will follow. Our postmistress (who is president of the local Lions Club) is excited about the idea, and offered the Lions’ sponsorship; we can do the concert on the Dance Floor at Garibaldi City Hall—second-biggest meeting space in the county (it’ll hold 500 people if they’re friendly), and the Lions will pay the City the rent for the building.
Haven’t talked dates yet. I’ve told everybody I want to wait until after the Big Bay City Concert (Saturday, 7 March) to do anything. Of course, I think about dates anyway. Can’t do it too soon—the band is going to need a little time to practice two hours of mostly brand-new material. Best would be sometime between St. Leif’s Day (3/29) and May Day (5/1), and ideally on a Saturday, because I still don’t know what (if anything) I may be doing for a living.
I did send out a call for material to the “joelist,” and also posted it on most of the writers’ sites I subscribe to: Just Plain Folks, the Muse’s Muse, Soundclick, MusesK, Songstuff (British), Whitby Shores (Canadian), Confessionally Speaking, and (the latest one I joined) the New Red Lion (also British). I also managed to get it on MySpace as a “bulletin.”
I told folks I was after one to two hours’ worth of upbeat and/or uptempo songs about or related to the Failed Economy, that were performable by a competent 4-piece bluegrass/blues/country band. (We could end up being a 5-piece band. John is trying to get us a drummer.) I did get sent a bunch of songs almost immediately, and (as expected) some of them are really good. Most of the responses came from the “joelist” and from Just Plain Folks (where the earlier “Broken Record” project got a whole lot of attention).
The variety of responses does prompt the question what DOES one look for in a Depression song? It needs to be upbeat, and if not upbeat, at least uptempo; both upbeat and uptempo is really good. Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity in the Hindu pantheon, was the Lord of the Dance (and also, I believe, Lord of Laughter); ol’ Elephant-head used to maintain there was no situation that could not be improved by dancing. If you couldn’t make the situation better, at least you could make yourself feel better. I think that’s the attitude we want to take here.
And maybe that’s what prompted the new song. (At least, I think it’s a new song. We’ll see what the Peer Reviewers think of it.) Started out as a frank parody of “Big Bob” Provus’ “50 Ways to Kill Your Lover,” which was itself a parody of a Paul Simon song, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” which actually didn’t have 50 ways in it (Bob’s song did). Why not 50 ways to fix the Depression? (Lessee. We could rob a bank, Hank; hijack a truck, Chuck…)
I only listed 20; at that point, I had four choruses (with the “ways” in them) and five verses, and figured I was pushing the 5-minute limit. I did include an invitation in the last verse for people to add more, and maybe they will. If it passes muster, it can be an inclusion in the Failed Economy Show.
While I did keep to Bob’s (and Paul’s) meter and pattern, the music is going to be different. I looked up Paul Simon’s chords, and they’re awful fruity, jazz-type stuff. Mine will be “straight” country music, with a good Gospel-style beat to get people on their feet dancing.
UPDATES: Had a bass player sit in Wednesday night at the Ghost Hole, and another guitarist promised to bring his axe next week. One of the old-timers playing pool was recalling fondly for us the days when the Ghost Hole had live music three nights a week. We could make that happen again.
Got to play music Friday at City Hall, Saturday at the library, and Sunday at the Forestry Center, and distributed Bay City concert flyers each place. Handed ‘em out at Saturday night’s square dance, too. And I heard the concert is being advertised in a paper in Lincoln City, too, a whole county away. I didn’t do that. I wonder who did?
Joe
Haven’t talked dates yet. I’ve told everybody I want to wait until after the Big Bay City Concert (Saturday, 7 March) to do anything. Of course, I think about dates anyway. Can’t do it too soon—the band is going to need a little time to practice two hours of mostly brand-new material. Best would be sometime between St. Leif’s Day (3/29) and May Day (5/1), and ideally on a Saturday, because I still don’t know what (if anything) I may be doing for a living.
I did send out a call for material to the “joelist,” and also posted it on most of the writers’ sites I subscribe to: Just Plain Folks, the Muse’s Muse, Soundclick, MusesK, Songstuff (British), Whitby Shores (Canadian), Confessionally Speaking, and (the latest one I joined) the New Red Lion (also British). I also managed to get it on MySpace as a “bulletin.”
I told folks I was after one to two hours’ worth of upbeat and/or uptempo songs about or related to the Failed Economy, that were performable by a competent 4-piece bluegrass/blues/country band. (We could end up being a 5-piece band. John is trying to get us a drummer.) I did get sent a bunch of songs almost immediately, and (as expected) some of them are really good. Most of the responses came from the “joelist” and from Just Plain Folks (where the earlier “Broken Record” project got a whole lot of attention).
The variety of responses does prompt the question what DOES one look for in a Depression song? It needs to be upbeat, and if not upbeat, at least uptempo; both upbeat and uptempo is really good. Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity in the Hindu pantheon, was the Lord of the Dance (and also, I believe, Lord of Laughter); ol’ Elephant-head used to maintain there was no situation that could not be improved by dancing. If you couldn’t make the situation better, at least you could make yourself feel better. I think that’s the attitude we want to take here.
And maybe that’s what prompted the new song. (At least, I think it’s a new song. We’ll see what the Peer Reviewers think of it.) Started out as a frank parody of “Big Bob” Provus’ “50 Ways to Kill Your Lover,” which was itself a parody of a Paul Simon song, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” which actually didn’t have 50 ways in it (Bob’s song did). Why not 50 ways to fix the Depression? (Lessee. We could rob a bank, Hank; hijack a truck, Chuck…)
I only listed 20; at that point, I had four choruses (with the “ways” in them) and five verses, and figured I was pushing the 5-minute limit. I did include an invitation in the last verse for people to add more, and maybe they will. If it passes muster, it can be an inclusion in the Failed Economy Show.
While I did keep to Bob’s (and Paul’s) meter and pattern, the music is going to be different. I looked up Paul Simon’s chords, and they’re awful fruity, jazz-type stuff. Mine will be “straight” country music, with a good Gospel-style beat to get people on their feet dancing.
UPDATES: Had a bass player sit in Wednesday night at the Ghost Hole, and another guitarist promised to bring his axe next week. One of the old-timers playing pool was recalling fondly for us the days when the Ghost Hole had live music three nights a week. We could make that happen again.
Got to play music Friday at City Hall, Saturday at the library, and Sunday at the Forestry Center, and distributed Bay City concert flyers each place. Handed ‘em out at Saturday night’s square dance, too. And I heard the concert is being advertised in a paper in Lincoln City, too, a whole county away. I didn’t do that. I wonder who did?
Joe
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