Yes, it was good. (These days, I almost expect nothing less.) Mike harmonized on the choruses of most of my songs (and it sounded way better than my monotone), and we had a sax player show up out of the blue, in time to play on our last song, “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad,” and made that sound real good. (And he lives in Tillamook, and would like to play more with us.)
I hope people thought we sounded good. I did notice a number of people seemed to have come specifically to hear us (and left afterwards); I hope if they weren’t fans before, they are now.
Best song—surprise!—was “Free-Range Person”; we actually had the little dance floor packed, to the point where people were bumping into microphone stands. It was the only song we did that had people up and dancing, and it’s a bluegrass song (“rocked up,” of course, like the band has a habit of doing). Next best was “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” then Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street” (a consistent hit), and another surprise: “Love Trails of the Zombie Snails.”
It didn’t occur to me till afterwards—some people were taking pictures, and some folks did film parts of the performance. I don’t know if the sound from one of those little video cameras is any good (they’re so small, I’ve assumed it couldn’t be), but it would be interesting to see in any case; it could be good critiquing material if nothing else. And I’d really like one of the photos. There are no photos at all of the band, and I could use one for promotional purposes.
I hung around long enough to hear an hour of Lannie and the Instigators’ set (it is good to observe the competition). They were good, but I think we were better. I like having a 5-piece band better (the Instigators are a 4-piece band)—having both a “whiny” lead (blues harp) and a “non-whiny” lead (guitar) gives the band a fuller sound, as well as allowing the two lead players to take advantage of each other’s strengths (which Mike and Doc do very well). The Instigators’ harmonica player was also their rhythm guitarist (and also lead vocal), so when he played harp, the lead player had to take over playing rhythm, and you could tell something was missing.
They did do a couple of original songs (good for them), one of which was way better than all of the cover tunes they played. They played mostly classic rock, which does have a tendency to sound all alike after a while. “Deathgrass”’ music is at least diverse: we had country, blues, bluegrass, folk-rock, and rock ‘n’ roll—even a waltz.
So what’s next for the band? Well, we wanted to do another benefit for the Food Pantry in June; there’s Garibaldi Days in July, and I’m angling to get us on the agenda for the big Bay City centennial celebration Labor Day weekend. (That last could be a paying gig—I don’t know.) In addition, the Bay City Arts Center is anxious to do another “Joe Wrabek concert” (it’s in their budget, with its own line item); that would be a paying gig, with us and the Arts Center splitting the gate fee (60% us, 40% them) like we did last year. They’ve budgeted to make rather a lot of money off this, and there are times (like after last night) when I think they just might be right.
And we have the album to finish—again, after June, when John’s done with the budget. I’d like to figure out how to minimize the amount of time needing to be invested in recording the thing, but I’m not sure how. Right now, the main thing that’s going to save us time is the band are very good and can do everything pretty much in one take. I’m just anxious to have the album for sale, because I think there’s a market for it. And I’m curious to see how big it is..
Joe
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
A BLUES WALTZ?
Got to visit Chris at the nursing home; he’s doing lots better. A friend is bringing him a drum pad, which is probably some of the best exercise for the arms he could get. Took him best wishes from everybody.
And I checked out The Landing (first time I’d ever been in the bar part). It’s a little small; fitting the equipment for two bands, the crowd they’re expecting, and tables for food and raffle items is not going to leave a lot of room for dancing. I’m glad everybody’s friendly. The Landing owner’s the one in charge of entertainment for Bay City’s big centennial bash Labor Day weekend, and I would like the band to play, but I only approached her tentatively; I think it’ll have a bigger impact once she’s heard us.
Just Terry and myself at the tavern Wednesday; it was a chance to learn more of his flddle tunes. One I’d like to be playing a lot is “Earl’s Waltz,” by Earl Payne of Noti, Oregon—Terry picked the song up at the Old Time Fiddlers’ Conference. It’s a good tune, and I like to give as much exposure as possible to people who aren’t famous but write good music. (And I don’t think “Earl’s Waltz” has any words. I could remedy that.)
Fiddlers’ repertoires are chock full of waltzes named after states. (There’s even an “Oregon Waltz,” written in 1845 by William B. Bradbury, a relatively famous composer of the era.) However, according to Google, there are still 11 “un-waltzed” states (that ought to be fodder for songwriters). That assumes the “Mosquitos of Dakota Waltz” is, like Google said, a South Dakota waltz and not a North Dakota one.
A similar situation exists with respect to blues. There’s an Alabama Blues (by Diane Ewing—I wrote the music for it), and the famous California Blues by Jimmie Rodgers, and a bunch of others—but there’s no Oregon Blues, and no blues for 14 other states, either. (Some, like New Jersey, would seem to be needing a good blues.) There’s a reason why some states don’t have a blues named after them, of course; the name’s already been taken by or for something else. The Connecticut Blues is the name of a fife and drum corps. Iowa Blues are chickens. So are Delaware Blues. But the other states would seem to be good fodder for songwriters.
My initial thought, though, is: Could I combine the two? A blues waltz, perhaps? I have always liked the Star Trek Approach—going where no man has gone before. I know what the music ought to sound like (it is a little strange), but I don’t have words yet.
The Nashville chapter of the writers’ group Just Plain Folks will be holding a “Nashville Bash” Aug. 20-22, and I’d really like to go. It’d be a chance to connect with all the writers I know back East and down South that I haven’t seen in three years (and to meet in person some new ones I only “know” on line), to perform at a writers’ night or two, to maybe get a couple of demos done inexpensively, and to stop by and impress a couple of the publishers whose mailing lists I’m now on. If the time permits, I’d make the trip by Greyhound—a round-trip ticket costs only $216 (purchased three weeks in advance), about one-quarter what I paid to fly there in 2007, and way safer for the guitar. Takes about the same amount of time, too—airline travel in the U.S. is no longer fast.
First get-together of our local writers’ group, at Jack Graves’ bookstore—me, Jack, and a third fellow whose name I’ll eventually know. Jack wanted us each to share something we’d written; for the third guy, that was part of a diary he’d kept as a young man working on a boat in Alaska. That was fascinating, by the way, and I told the fellow he ought to get it published (I didn’t mention Jack has done some book publishing), and that I’d sure buy it (and Jack told the guy that my offering to buy anything counted for a whole lot). I’ll get to sit in with them again in two more weeks, I think (next week is tied up with the Census).
Joe
And I checked out The Landing (first time I’d ever been in the bar part). It’s a little small; fitting the equipment for two bands, the crowd they’re expecting, and tables for food and raffle items is not going to leave a lot of room for dancing. I’m glad everybody’s friendly. The Landing owner’s the one in charge of entertainment for Bay City’s big centennial bash Labor Day weekend, and I would like the band to play, but I only approached her tentatively; I think it’ll have a bigger impact once she’s heard us.
Just Terry and myself at the tavern Wednesday; it was a chance to learn more of his flddle tunes. One I’d like to be playing a lot is “Earl’s Waltz,” by Earl Payne of Noti, Oregon—Terry picked the song up at the Old Time Fiddlers’ Conference. It’s a good tune, and I like to give as much exposure as possible to people who aren’t famous but write good music. (And I don’t think “Earl’s Waltz” has any words. I could remedy that.)
Fiddlers’ repertoires are chock full of waltzes named after states. (There’s even an “Oregon Waltz,” written in 1845 by William B. Bradbury, a relatively famous composer of the era.) However, according to Google, there are still 11 “un-waltzed” states (that ought to be fodder for songwriters). That assumes the “Mosquitos of Dakota Waltz” is, like Google said, a South Dakota waltz and not a North Dakota one.
A similar situation exists with respect to blues. There’s an Alabama Blues (by Diane Ewing—I wrote the music for it), and the famous California Blues by Jimmie Rodgers, and a bunch of others—but there’s no Oregon Blues, and no blues for 14 other states, either. (Some, like New Jersey, would seem to be needing a good blues.) There’s a reason why some states don’t have a blues named after them, of course; the name’s already been taken by or for something else. The Connecticut Blues is the name of a fife and drum corps. Iowa Blues are chickens. So are Delaware Blues. But the other states would seem to be good fodder for songwriters.
My initial thought, though, is: Could I combine the two? A blues waltz, perhaps? I have always liked the Star Trek Approach—going where no man has gone before. I know what the music ought to sound like (it is a little strange), but I don’t have words yet.
The Nashville chapter of the writers’ group Just Plain Folks will be holding a “Nashville Bash” Aug. 20-22, and I’d really like to go. It’d be a chance to connect with all the writers I know back East and down South that I haven’t seen in three years (and to meet in person some new ones I only “know” on line), to perform at a writers’ night or two, to maybe get a couple of demos done inexpensively, and to stop by and impress a couple of the publishers whose mailing lists I’m now on. If the time permits, I’d make the trip by Greyhound—a round-trip ticket costs only $216 (purchased three weeks in advance), about one-quarter what I paid to fly there in 2007, and way safer for the guitar. Takes about the same amount of time, too—airline travel in the U.S. is no longer fast.
First get-together of our local writers’ group, at Jack Graves’ bookstore—me, Jack, and a third fellow whose name I’ll eventually know. Jack wanted us each to share something we’d written; for the third guy, that was part of a diary he’d kept as a young man working on a boat in Alaska. That was fascinating, by the way, and I told the fellow he ought to get it published (I didn’t mention Jack has done some book publishing), and that I’d sure buy it (and Jack told the guy that my offering to buy anything counted for a whole lot). I’ll get to sit in with them again in two more weeks, I think (next week is tied up with the Census).
Joe
Sunday, April 18, 2010
BAND PRACTICE (AND CHRIS IS BETTER)...
Practice today with the full band—and the band is good. Very, very good. It is an honor to play with these guys. (And to use a hackneyed phrase, I hope it’s as good for them as it is for me.) I would pay money to hear us, and I hope lots of people do. The revised April 24 setlist (1-1/2 hours, played straight through) is:
Dead Things in the Shower (mod. fast two-step)
Armadillo on the Interstate (slow & sleazy)
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse—Gene Burnett (fast two-step)
Tillamook Railroad Blues (deliberate blues)
For Their Own Ends—Southern Pigfish (folk-rock)
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (slow & sleazy quasi-blues)
Welcome to Hebo Waltz (fast waltz)
Test Tube Baby (Elvis-style rock & roll)
Un-Easy Street—Stan Good (mod. two-step)
Duct Tape (mod. speed country)
Hey, Little Chicken (sleazy quasi-blues)
Dance a Little Longer—Woody Guthrie (country rock)
No Good Songs About the War (slow two-step)
Love Trails of the Zombie Snails—Southern Pigfish (folk-rock)
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself (mod. fast blues)
Free-Range Person (fast bluegrass)
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad—Woody Guthrie (fast bluegrass)
A good mix: some blues, some rock, some bluegrass, some country—and even a waltz. Shows off the band’s versatility, I guess. We even have Arrangements for some of the songs. I still have the Rap to re-do—but I succeeded in cutting the setlist by three songs without changing the order of everything else. The Rap may not need a lot of modification.
I think we’re ready for the gig. I will get to play Wednesday afternoon at the tavern (it’s Training Day for the Census—yes, I finally did get accepted for a bottom-level Census job—but it will only last half a day), and I will get to play Friday night at City Hall. The owner of the Tillamook music store wants to start up a Wednesday evening jam session at her store, too, and I said of course I’d be interested in coming; maybe she’ll do that this Wednesday. I do need to make sure I play as frequently as possible this coming week.
Word through the grapevine is the 2nd Street Public Market is NOT interested in having me as a performer. I’ll leave it up to fans to ask why (and hope they do). At my end, as an official of the Bay City Arts Center, I’m interested in cutting a deal with the Market to display our members’ artwork, and I don’t want anything I want personally as a performer to get in the way of that.
A third college is now stalking me—another graphic-design school. Being a bit inured to this “courting” now, I can respond with less excitement. They, too, are expensive, at $350 per credit hour—and how many classes would I need to get a degree in something for which I have absolutely no formal training? I have two years of college as a history major, and roughly two more in computer programming; all my graphic design expertise has been self-taught. It is, as I explained to one of the college recruiters, simply something I can do, and do well. But if I want a degree, I probably should try to pyramid on what I already have part of the credits for—as well as do it somewhere cheaper.
Finally, Chris is out of the hospital, transferred to a nursing facility in Forest Grove (a little over an hour away) where he’ll get 24-hour care. They’d originally expected to keep him there a month, but now say he can come home in two weeks—apparently he’s doing lots better. I plan on visiting Thursday.
Joe
Dead Things in the Shower (mod. fast two-step)
Armadillo on the Interstate (slow & sleazy)
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse—Gene Burnett (fast two-step)
Tillamook Railroad Blues (deliberate blues)
For Their Own Ends—Southern Pigfish (folk-rock)
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (slow & sleazy quasi-blues)
Welcome to Hebo Waltz (fast waltz)
Test Tube Baby (Elvis-style rock & roll)
Un-Easy Street—Stan Good (mod. two-step)
Duct Tape (mod. speed country)
Hey, Little Chicken (sleazy quasi-blues)
Dance a Little Longer—Woody Guthrie (country rock)
No Good Songs About the War (slow two-step)
Love Trails of the Zombie Snails—Southern Pigfish (folk-rock)
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself (mod. fast blues)
Free-Range Person (fast bluegrass)
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad—Woody Guthrie (fast bluegrass)
A good mix: some blues, some rock, some bluegrass, some country—and even a waltz. Shows off the band’s versatility, I guess. We even have Arrangements for some of the songs. I still have the Rap to re-do—but I succeeded in cutting the setlist by three songs without changing the order of everything else. The Rap may not need a lot of modification.
I think we’re ready for the gig. I will get to play Wednesday afternoon at the tavern (it’s Training Day for the Census—yes, I finally did get accepted for a bottom-level Census job—but it will only last half a day), and I will get to play Friday night at City Hall. The owner of the Tillamook music store wants to start up a Wednesday evening jam session at her store, too, and I said of course I’d be interested in coming; maybe she’ll do that this Wednesday. I do need to make sure I play as frequently as possible this coming week.
Word through the grapevine is the 2nd Street Public Market is NOT interested in having me as a performer. I’ll leave it up to fans to ask why (and hope they do). At my end, as an official of the Bay City Arts Center, I’m interested in cutting a deal with the Market to display our members’ artwork, and I don’t want anything I want personally as a performer to get in the way of that.
A third college is now stalking me—another graphic-design school. Being a bit inured to this “courting” now, I can respond with less excitement. They, too, are expensive, at $350 per credit hour—and how many classes would I need to get a degree in something for which I have absolutely no formal training? I have two years of college as a history major, and roughly two more in computer programming; all my graphic design expertise has been self-taught. It is, as I explained to one of the college recruiters, simply something I can do, and do well. But if I want a degree, I probably should try to pyramid on what I already have part of the credits for—as well as do it somewhere cheaper.
Finally, Chris is out of the hospital, transferred to a nursing facility in Forest Grove (a little over an hour away) where he’ll get 24-hour care. They’d originally expected to keep him there a month, but now say he can come home in two weeks—apparently he’s doing lots better. I plan on visiting Thursday.
Joe
Friday, April 16, 2010
THE SOUTHERN PIGFISH ALBUM...
How’s this for a Southern Pigfish album? Not in order, of course:
For Their Own Ends (folk-rock)
Vampire Roumanian Babies (fast country, almost ragtime)
The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot (talking blues)
Love Trails of the Zombie Snails (folk-rock)
Born Again Barbie (Everly Brothers-style rockabilly)
The Dead Sweethearts Polka (polka, of course)
In the Shadows, I’ll be Watching You (mod. slow two-step)
Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep (Johnny Cash-style rock ‘n’ roll)
Naked Space Hamsters in Love (fast bluegrass)
Test Tube Baby (fast Elvis-style rock ‘n’ roll)
Bedpans for Brains (country rock)
That gives us aliens, vampires, zombies (well, zombie snails), and sheep, and we get to discuss religion, politics, serial killers, stalkers, bestiality, the economy, and sex in the laboratory, among other things. Who says music isn’t educational?
Yes, “Shadows” is a two-step, and “Hamsters” is bluegrass, and Southern Pigfish is your classic folk-rock band, but I’m not sure it matters much. Screamin’ Gulch, the punk-rock band I played with in Medford, used to do “Naked Space Hamsters in Love” as a regular part of our repertoire, and it sounded just fine as punk-rock. “Genre” is the bin the music store is going to put your records in after you die. It may not mean much before then. What all the above songs have in common is they’re more than a little outrageous. A lot of them have a political cast as well, which is supposed to be one of Southern Pigfish’s trademarks.
And they are all supposed to be videos as well. (I wanted to be real experimental with this thing, and release the album on a flash drive rather than CD.) “Bedpans” will be the hardest one to film, because I need a cast of five singers (actually, lip-synchers) besides myself—two girls and three guys, all dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz—and I’m not sure where I’m going to get them. (I have a couple of ideas, though.) “Born Again Barbie” I scripted out a couple of years ago, with a cast of (what else?) Barbies, of which there are rather a lot out in the garage. I figured out how to film the whole thing with my digital camera; what I need—that I have located, but haven’t been willing to spend money on—are props: Barbie-sized guitars, and such.
“Quoth” can be filmed Porter Wagoner style, as noted in an earlier blog. “The Dead Sweethearts Polka” could be done much the same way, only using a riverfront scene instead of a beach (and I think I know the perfect location)—and for variety, I’d like to include footage at least of the accordion player. And “For Their Own Ends” pretty much has to be a live performance. Every video needs to be different, just like every song needs to be different. One does not want to be predictable.
Our postmistress had kittens (actually, her cat did), and I’ve arranged to have one of them star in the music video of “The Dog’s Song” when he gets a little older. I need about five minutes’ total footage of the kitten doing Hyperactive Kitten Things, and I have been told there is no doubt this kitten will be able to deliver. That’ll be a few weeks from now, and will give me time to practice with the movie camera before I have to do the work.
Joe
For Their Own Ends (folk-rock)
Vampire Roumanian Babies (fast country, almost ragtime)
The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot (talking blues)
Love Trails of the Zombie Snails (folk-rock)
Born Again Barbie (Everly Brothers-style rockabilly)
The Dead Sweethearts Polka (polka, of course)
In the Shadows, I’ll be Watching You (mod. slow two-step)
Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep (Johnny Cash-style rock ‘n’ roll)
Naked Space Hamsters in Love (fast bluegrass)
Test Tube Baby (fast Elvis-style rock ‘n’ roll)
Bedpans for Brains (country rock)
That gives us aliens, vampires, zombies (well, zombie snails), and sheep, and we get to discuss religion, politics, serial killers, stalkers, bestiality, the economy, and sex in the laboratory, among other things. Who says music isn’t educational?
Yes, “Shadows” is a two-step, and “Hamsters” is bluegrass, and Southern Pigfish is your classic folk-rock band, but I’m not sure it matters much. Screamin’ Gulch, the punk-rock band I played with in Medford, used to do “Naked Space Hamsters in Love” as a regular part of our repertoire, and it sounded just fine as punk-rock. “Genre” is the bin the music store is going to put your records in after you die. It may not mean much before then. What all the above songs have in common is they’re more than a little outrageous. A lot of them have a political cast as well, which is supposed to be one of Southern Pigfish’s trademarks.
And they are all supposed to be videos as well. (I wanted to be real experimental with this thing, and release the album on a flash drive rather than CD.) “Bedpans” will be the hardest one to film, because I need a cast of five singers (actually, lip-synchers) besides myself—two girls and three guys, all dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz—and I’m not sure where I’m going to get them. (I have a couple of ideas, though.) “Born Again Barbie” I scripted out a couple of years ago, with a cast of (what else?) Barbies, of which there are rather a lot out in the garage. I figured out how to film the whole thing with my digital camera; what I need—that I have located, but haven’t been willing to spend money on—are props: Barbie-sized guitars, and such.
“Quoth” can be filmed Porter Wagoner style, as noted in an earlier blog. “The Dead Sweethearts Polka” could be done much the same way, only using a riverfront scene instead of a beach (and I think I know the perfect location)—and for variety, I’d like to include footage at least of the accordion player. And “For Their Own Ends” pretty much has to be a live performance. Every video needs to be different, just like every song needs to be different. One does not want to be predictable.
Our postmistress had kittens (actually, her cat did), and I’ve arranged to have one of them star in the music video of “The Dog’s Song” when he gets a little older. I need about five minutes’ total footage of the kitten doing Hyperactive Kitten Things, and I have been told there is no doubt this kitten will be able to deliver. That’ll be a few weeks from now, and will give me time to practice with the movie camera before I have to do the work.
Joe
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
CHRIS IS BETTER (AND I HAVE A NEW SONG)...
Got to see Chris in the hospital Monday; he’s out of intensive care, and can have visitors. He still can’t talk very good, and was fading in and out of consciousness a lot (I presume that was the drugs); I understand he’s nonetheless doing a lot better than he was. I took him a coffee cup from Tommy Boye the DJ, and best wishes from everybody. Talked to his nurse, too, after I saw a note on the wall saying he was scheduled for discharge the following day—but nurse advised it was not going to happen (thankfully—I don’t think he’s at all ready to be without 24-hour care). He’ll be there a while yet. Chris is hoping to be able to come to the gig on the 24th (though he knows he won’t be able to play).
And the trip into Portland was good for a song (I thought it might be—first long trip I’ve done in the truck in weeks). I now have (I think) my entry for the April challenge of Jon Harrington’s writers’ group over in England. “In the shadows” was supposed to be the theme—so my song ended up being about a stalker.
I’m not sure I like this trend. My last three songs have been sensitive, sympathetic—maybe even celebratory—explorations into the minds of real lowlifes: a mugger (“Last Song of the Highwayman”), a serial killer (“The Dead Sweethearts Polka”), and now a stalker (tentative title “In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You”). Performable in public? Not very; at best, they’d be suitable for a “niche” market—and I’m not sure what niche, either.
I’m also not sure it’s finished. I’ve asked the experts at Just Plain Folks, but virtually nobody’s said anything as this is written. (And it’s always possible they may just say, “Joe, you are one sick puppy.” They’ve said that before.) I was trying—without really saying so—to make both the stalker and stalkee rather similar (and sympathy-generating) characters. What does happen when a stalker picks somebody to obsess about whose life is as boring as his own? Somebody who’s as scared of taking risks as he is himself? I was trying to use just the stalker’s comments about the stalkee to bring that out, and I’m not sure I succeeded.
And speaking of stalkers… I appear to be being stalked by two colleges, both offering degrees in graphic design. (Ooo. I would like that.) My fault, really; that’s what I get for responding to one of those “here’s how to finance your education” ads online. One of the colleges is really costly (I expect the other one is, too). I really enjoy the attention—and I know college has gotten real expensive—but it is still tempting to ask them how many bedrooms their degree has got.
Found another contest to enter—this one soliciting original songs for a putative new TV show, “Please Don’t Stop the Music.” (I searched the Internet, and did not find a TV show by that name, however, either in production or planned.) They say they do not want “singer/songwriters,” just “songwriters,” and I’m not sure why. I probably qualify, since what I do could hardly be characterized as “singing.” The rules are fairly complex and picky, but there’s no entry fee (I like that). And I’m good at following picky rules—I’ve had to do it for a lot of job applications. (I also didn’t see a deadline. Isn’t it normal to have a deadline for these things?)
Notices are out for the April 24 “Deathgrass” benefit concert for Val Folkema; between the “joelist” and Facebook, there are almost 1,100 names now. We start at 6:30, and play for an hour and a half—straight through, I think, unless the organizers say otherwise. Doing it that way means I need to cut only three songs from the setlist—but I still don’t know which ones they should be.
Music Wednesday (at the tavern), Friday (at City Hall), and Saturday (at the library), and band practice Sunday. New strings to put on the guitar. And I really should record the stalker song.
Joe
And the trip into Portland was good for a song (I thought it might be—first long trip I’ve done in the truck in weeks). I now have (I think) my entry for the April challenge of Jon Harrington’s writers’ group over in England. “In the shadows” was supposed to be the theme—so my song ended up being about a stalker.
I’m not sure I like this trend. My last three songs have been sensitive, sympathetic—maybe even celebratory—explorations into the minds of real lowlifes: a mugger (“Last Song of the Highwayman”), a serial killer (“The Dead Sweethearts Polka”), and now a stalker (tentative title “In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You”). Performable in public? Not very; at best, they’d be suitable for a “niche” market—and I’m not sure what niche, either.
I’m also not sure it’s finished. I’ve asked the experts at Just Plain Folks, but virtually nobody’s said anything as this is written. (And it’s always possible they may just say, “Joe, you are one sick puppy.” They’ve said that before.) I was trying—without really saying so—to make both the stalker and stalkee rather similar (and sympathy-generating) characters. What does happen when a stalker picks somebody to obsess about whose life is as boring as his own? Somebody who’s as scared of taking risks as he is himself? I was trying to use just the stalker’s comments about the stalkee to bring that out, and I’m not sure I succeeded.
And speaking of stalkers… I appear to be being stalked by two colleges, both offering degrees in graphic design. (Ooo. I would like that.) My fault, really; that’s what I get for responding to one of those “here’s how to finance your education” ads online. One of the colleges is really costly (I expect the other one is, too). I really enjoy the attention—and I know college has gotten real expensive—but it is still tempting to ask them how many bedrooms their degree has got.
Found another contest to enter—this one soliciting original songs for a putative new TV show, “Please Don’t Stop the Music.” (I searched the Internet, and did not find a TV show by that name, however, either in production or planned.) They say they do not want “singer/songwriters,” just “songwriters,” and I’m not sure why. I probably qualify, since what I do could hardly be characterized as “singing.” The rules are fairly complex and picky, but there’s no entry fee (I like that). And I’m good at following picky rules—I’ve had to do it for a lot of job applications. (I also didn’t see a deadline. Isn’t it normal to have a deadline for these things?)
Notices are out for the April 24 “Deathgrass” benefit concert for Val Folkema; between the “joelist” and Facebook, there are almost 1,100 names now. We start at 6:30, and play for an hour and a half—straight through, I think, unless the organizers say otherwise. Doing it that way means I need to cut only three songs from the setlist—but I still don’t know which ones they should be.
Music Wednesday (at the tavern), Friday (at City Hall), and Saturday (at the library), and band practice Sunday. New strings to put on the guitar. And I really should record the stalker song.
Joe
Sunday, April 11, 2010
BAND PRACTICE AND THE PLAY...
“The Tempest” is now history. Final night played to a packed house, I was told (couldn’t see ‘em with my glasses off), and most of the seats were pre-sold. I understand it was good financially for the Tillamook Assn. for the Performing Arts (TAPA), too. Would I do another play? Sure. Not right away, but sure. (The play TAPA is doing for Christmas has an Evil Uncle in it, and I expect being Evil Uncle would not be much of a stretch.)
Friday night’s performance of the play was videotaped, and there will be DVDs made ($10 each); I’ll get one, plus I’ve ordered DVDs for a couple of folks who weren’t able to get to any of the performances during our three-weekend run. I suggested donating a copy to the library, too—apparently, that’s never been done before.
Band practice was pretty good. Doug, the replacement drummer, is both good and a perfectionist (yay!). We only made it through one set Saturday afternoon; we’ll need to do the whole thing next Sunday, which will be our only remaining practice. The song we did best was—not surprising—Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street,” which just falls together comfortably every time (it usually gets people out of their chairs dancing, too, when we perform it); second best was “Test Tube Baby,” which we do as pretty fast rock ‘n’ roll, and third, “Tillamook Railroad Blues.” John and I had a chance to play around a little with “Love Trails of the Zombie Snails” before Doug got there; John would like to do it as heavy metal, which I agree would be interesting.
There really isn’t anything I’d cut from the first set on the grounds that we don’t do it very well; we did everything pretty good, even the “Welcome to Hebo Waltz” (which I’d like to keep anyway, because it’s our only waltz). If we do the second set as good as the first, I’ll just have to pick things at random to cut. Our 2-hour set (actually, 1-3/4 hours, with a 15-minute break) has to get cut to 1-1/2 hours.
And I need to play more: thanks in part to the play schedule, the only time this past week I got to play was Wednesday afternoon at the tavern, and the lack of practice was apparent (to me, anyway)—plus my fingers got sore really fast. This coming week, I will get to play on Wednesday (at the tavern), Friday (at City Hall), and Saturday (at the library), all 2-hour sessions, and all that should help. I should take time to record Skip Johnson’s “I Wish You Were Here to Hate My Boyfriends” this week as well. .
Drummer Chris is out of intensive care, and I’ll go see him Monday at the hospital in Portland; no word yet when he’ll be released, or be back to normal, and what (if anything) will be done about his liver, which is reportedly what landed him in the hospital in the first place.
Finally, an e-mail from the music publisher in Nashville, looking for material for a Carrie Underwood Christmas album and new songs for somebody named Jake Owen. I doubt any of my Christmas songs would be Carrie Underwood material (dead animals and injured Santas don’t seem to be her style), but I thought this Owen dude might be worth a shot.
He appears to be decent long-hair-and-beard-and-plays-country-music eye candy, with nearly all female fans (his material is mostly love songs). It does appear he wrote all 10 songs on his last CD, though, and people like that aren’t usually interested in outside material. I wonder what the publisher is up to. I can send them “Duct Tape”; it’s a lost-love song rather than a love song, but the music is probably the closest I have to what the kid plays. And it doesn’t cost anything to respond to the call.
Joe
Friday night’s performance of the play was videotaped, and there will be DVDs made ($10 each); I’ll get one, plus I’ve ordered DVDs for a couple of folks who weren’t able to get to any of the performances during our three-weekend run. I suggested donating a copy to the library, too—apparently, that’s never been done before.
Band practice was pretty good. Doug, the replacement drummer, is both good and a perfectionist (yay!). We only made it through one set Saturday afternoon; we’ll need to do the whole thing next Sunday, which will be our only remaining practice. The song we did best was—not surprising—Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street,” which just falls together comfortably every time (it usually gets people out of their chairs dancing, too, when we perform it); second best was “Test Tube Baby,” which we do as pretty fast rock ‘n’ roll, and third, “Tillamook Railroad Blues.” John and I had a chance to play around a little with “Love Trails of the Zombie Snails” before Doug got there; John would like to do it as heavy metal, which I agree would be interesting.
There really isn’t anything I’d cut from the first set on the grounds that we don’t do it very well; we did everything pretty good, even the “Welcome to Hebo Waltz” (which I’d like to keep anyway, because it’s our only waltz). If we do the second set as good as the first, I’ll just have to pick things at random to cut. Our 2-hour set (actually, 1-3/4 hours, with a 15-minute break) has to get cut to 1-1/2 hours.
And I need to play more: thanks in part to the play schedule, the only time this past week I got to play was Wednesday afternoon at the tavern, and the lack of practice was apparent (to me, anyway)—plus my fingers got sore really fast. This coming week, I will get to play on Wednesday (at the tavern), Friday (at City Hall), and Saturday (at the library), all 2-hour sessions, and all that should help. I should take time to record Skip Johnson’s “I Wish You Were Here to Hate My Boyfriends” this week as well. .
Drummer Chris is out of intensive care, and I’ll go see him Monday at the hospital in Portland; no word yet when he’ll be released, or be back to normal, and what (if anything) will be done about his liver, which is reportedly what landed him in the hospital in the first place.
Finally, an e-mail from the music publisher in Nashville, looking for material for a Carrie Underwood Christmas album and new songs for somebody named Jake Owen. I doubt any of my Christmas songs would be Carrie Underwood material (dead animals and injured Santas don’t seem to be her style), but I thought this Owen dude might be worth a shot.
He appears to be decent long-hair-and-beard-and-plays-country-music eye candy, with nearly all female fans (his material is mostly love songs). It does appear he wrote all 10 songs on his last CD, though, and people like that aren’t usually interested in outside material. I wonder what the publisher is up to. I can send them “Duct Tape”; it’s a lost-love song rather than a love song, but the music is probably the closest I have to what the kid plays. And it doesn’t cost anything to respond to the call.
Joe
Saturday, April 10, 2010
UPDATES...
One final performance of “The Tempest.” I find I will miss it when it’s over. The guys and girls in the cast and crew are very good at what they do, and I appreciate being part of professionalism. Even when they flub lines (and I apparently have the whole play memorized enough that I can tell when someone flubs a line), they do it in character. I expect I will be using Elizabethan slang for a while myself.
I have another book to add to the Music Library—“The Indie Bible,” a resource directory of publishers, &c., that a lot of songwriters swear by. Got it from Marcy White, a songwriter in Florida. Will it help? I have no idea. It probably can’t hurt. I’d like to send Skip Johnson’s latest song, once musicated, to Dolly Parton, for instance—I think it’d be perfect for her, and if she didn’t do it herself, she might know someone who would—and “The Indie Bible” would tell me where and how to do that. What it doesn’t (and maybe can’t) tell me is how to prevent my submission from being rejected out of hand or (worse) ignored, which is what happens to most material sent to artists and publishers.
And were I a publisher, I would be doing the same thing—not because I’d want to deliberately ignore people, but because I wouldn’t be able to deal with the volume of submissions I’d get (most of which, I’m afraid, would be from people with egos way larger than their abilities). It’s like sifting through the sewage treatment plant for the rare diamond you know is there somewhere—it wouldn’t be a productive use of my time, and I bet it isn’t for most publishers. I would instead have a “stable” of writers whose work I could count on being consistently good (and I still wouldn’t use all of it), and do some hunting myself, because I know what’s good and I can find it easier than by sifting through submissions. That does beg the question how an unknown writer—like me—gets somebody’s attention. I still don’t know.
Neither “Duct Tape” nor Stan Good’s “Take-Out Food” made the finalist round in the MerleFest’s songwriting contest. I wasn’t expecting a lot out of the contest, after finding out the judges were all Nashville music industry professionals, and I suppose I got what I expected. They didn’t bother to notify me I wasn’t picked—I had to glean that information off their Website. I think that indicates they were treating their contestants primarily as a source of income (a lot of contests do that). I haven’t found any more contests yet that I see any point in entering this year.
Band practice this Saturday, and then eight days later, on Sunday. These will be our only two chances to practice before the April 24 gig. I’m holding off (as usual) sending notice to the “joelist” about the concert until after our first practice—I want (as usual) to be sure I’m inviting people to something worthwhile. We won’t have Doc at Saturday’s practice—he’s out of town—but we’ll have him the next Sunday. And I haven’t heard from Mike at all. I hope (as usual) it’ll all work out.
I need to cut three songs from the setlist—the organizers want us to play for just 1-1/2 hours, because of the volume of raffle items. I suppose the best way is to find out at practice which songs the band has the most trouble with, and cut those.
Elsewhere: The Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. will have just two Summer Concert evenings this year—on August 20 & 27—and I’ve asked to be one of their performers. With different people in charge of the organization (and people competing for fewer slots), I don’t know what they’ll require. If they want me to audition, I can probably handle it—I just won’t have a band until the last minute, if prior years are any indication.
Joe
I have another book to add to the Music Library—“The Indie Bible,” a resource directory of publishers, &c., that a lot of songwriters swear by. Got it from Marcy White, a songwriter in Florida. Will it help? I have no idea. It probably can’t hurt. I’d like to send Skip Johnson’s latest song, once musicated, to Dolly Parton, for instance—I think it’d be perfect for her, and if she didn’t do it herself, she might know someone who would—and “The Indie Bible” would tell me where and how to do that. What it doesn’t (and maybe can’t) tell me is how to prevent my submission from being rejected out of hand or (worse) ignored, which is what happens to most material sent to artists and publishers.
And were I a publisher, I would be doing the same thing—not because I’d want to deliberately ignore people, but because I wouldn’t be able to deal with the volume of submissions I’d get (most of which, I’m afraid, would be from people with egos way larger than their abilities). It’s like sifting through the sewage treatment plant for the rare diamond you know is there somewhere—it wouldn’t be a productive use of my time, and I bet it isn’t for most publishers. I would instead have a “stable” of writers whose work I could count on being consistently good (and I still wouldn’t use all of it), and do some hunting myself, because I know what’s good and I can find it easier than by sifting through submissions. That does beg the question how an unknown writer—like me—gets somebody’s attention. I still don’t know.
Neither “Duct Tape” nor Stan Good’s “Take-Out Food” made the finalist round in the MerleFest’s songwriting contest. I wasn’t expecting a lot out of the contest, after finding out the judges were all Nashville music industry professionals, and I suppose I got what I expected. They didn’t bother to notify me I wasn’t picked—I had to glean that information off their Website. I think that indicates they were treating their contestants primarily as a source of income (a lot of contests do that). I haven’t found any more contests yet that I see any point in entering this year.
Band practice this Saturday, and then eight days later, on Sunday. These will be our only two chances to practice before the April 24 gig. I’m holding off (as usual) sending notice to the “joelist” about the concert until after our first practice—I want (as usual) to be sure I’m inviting people to something worthwhile. We won’t have Doc at Saturday’s practice—he’s out of town—but we’ll have him the next Sunday. And I haven’t heard from Mike at all. I hope (as usual) it’ll all work out.
I need to cut three songs from the setlist—the organizers want us to play for just 1-1/2 hours, because of the volume of raffle items. I suppose the best way is to find out at practice which songs the band has the most trouble with, and cut those.
Elsewhere: The Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. will have just two Summer Concert evenings this year—on August 20 & 27—and I’ve asked to be one of their performers. With different people in charge of the organization (and people competing for fewer slots), I don’t know what they’ll require. If they want me to audition, I can probably handle it—I just won’t have a band until the last minute, if prior years are any indication.
Joe
Sunday, April 4, 2010
CONCERT SEASON...
Happy Easter, all of you within earshot (or eyeshot). A TV news report has advised there are more calories in the ears of a chocolate rabbit than most other parts. Obviously, that was essential information, or they wouldn’t have devoted time to it on the TV news with everything else that’s going on.
As this is written, drummer Chris is still in intensive care, and I understand it’s been touch and go. He’s reportedly still not allowed visitors. Doug Rowland, the drummer from “Lannie and the Instigators,” the other band on the billing for the April 24 concert, volunteered to fill in for Chris (and I’ll make him an “I Am Not Chris” T-shirt for the occasion). He’s coming out from Portland to pick up setlists and CDs Monday, and we’ll plan on practicing this weekend.
It may not be that much of a change. “Lannie and the Instigators” is (as I expected) a rock band, and Doug says he’s a perfectionist, too. I warned him that what I write is mostly country music, but it don’t sound like country music when the band gets done with it. I have a feeling that’ll still be the case.
It is time—already—to start organizing Summer Concert Season. Nothing with the band will happen before mid-June, to give John time to finish the city budget. We wanted to do another “Failed Economy Show” benefit for the Food Pantry in June (that’d probably be the third Saturday—the square dance club already has the City Hall Dance Floor reserved for the second and fourth Saturdays), and I am assuming we’ll be on the agenda at Garibaldi Days the last weekend in July (I’m on the entertainment committee this year). Both those are freebies.
I’d like us to be playing at the Bay City Centennial celebration Labor Day weekend (whether or not it’s a paying gig), and I’d like to do a Garibaldi Museum concert again—ideally, on a weekend when there’s less competition than we had last time.
And there’s the Bay City Arts Center. I reviewed their draft 2010 budget, and it’s got a line item for another “Joe Wrabek concert”—as a semi-major fund-raiser, in fact. (We didn’t generate them near that much money last year. Do we have that big a reputation now?) Both the Museum and Arts Center would be paying gigs, which would be neat. That is rather more than the one gig a month we did in 2009. There’s the album to finish, too. I wonder for how much of that we’re going to need a substitute drummer.
“Me gigs,” too. I need to fit into the schedule a Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. concert—either August 20 or 27 (the only two concert dates they’ve got this year). What I’ve done in the past is round up an impromptu band of people I know down in southern Oregon, who are familiar with the material, and practice beforehand if we can. I’d like to do that again. I do not know if the 2nd Street Market in Tillamook will be contacting me about playing there (the building’s supposed to be open for business by July); I do have my doubts. That’s one gig that would be fun to do with a partner. So would the Neskowin School Harvest Festival (in late September/early October); that was normally my last performance of Concert Season, but it didn’t happen last year because they never called. I could probably get myself or the band inserted into their schedule if I worked at it.
I have had a couple of years where I was playing somewhere every single weekend during Concert Season, and it would be nice if 2010 were another one of those years. It is not like I’m doing anything else important.
Joe
As this is written, drummer Chris is still in intensive care, and I understand it’s been touch and go. He’s reportedly still not allowed visitors. Doug Rowland, the drummer from “Lannie and the Instigators,” the other band on the billing for the April 24 concert, volunteered to fill in for Chris (and I’ll make him an “I Am Not Chris” T-shirt for the occasion). He’s coming out from Portland to pick up setlists and CDs Monday, and we’ll plan on practicing this weekend.
It may not be that much of a change. “Lannie and the Instigators” is (as I expected) a rock band, and Doug says he’s a perfectionist, too. I warned him that what I write is mostly country music, but it don’t sound like country music when the band gets done with it. I have a feeling that’ll still be the case.
It is time—already—to start organizing Summer Concert Season. Nothing with the band will happen before mid-June, to give John time to finish the city budget. We wanted to do another “Failed Economy Show” benefit for the Food Pantry in June (that’d probably be the third Saturday—the square dance club already has the City Hall Dance Floor reserved for the second and fourth Saturdays), and I am assuming we’ll be on the agenda at Garibaldi Days the last weekend in July (I’m on the entertainment committee this year). Both those are freebies.
I’d like us to be playing at the Bay City Centennial celebration Labor Day weekend (whether or not it’s a paying gig), and I’d like to do a Garibaldi Museum concert again—ideally, on a weekend when there’s less competition than we had last time.
And there’s the Bay City Arts Center. I reviewed their draft 2010 budget, and it’s got a line item for another “Joe Wrabek concert”—as a semi-major fund-raiser, in fact. (We didn’t generate them near that much money last year. Do we have that big a reputation now?) Both the Museum and Arts Center would be paying gigs, which would be neat. That is rather more than the one gig a month we did in 2009. There’s the album to finish, too. I wonder for how much of that we’re going to need a substitute drummer.
“Me gigs,” too. I need to fit into the schedule a Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. concert—either August 20 or 27 (the only two concert dates they’ve got this year). What I’ve done in the past is round up an impromptu band of people I know down in southern Oregon, who are familiar with the material, and practice beforehand if we can. I’d like to do that again. I do not know if the 2nd Street Market in Tillamook will be contacting me about playing there (the building’s supposed to be open for business by July); I do have my doubts. That’s one gig that would be fun to do with a partner. So would the Neskowin School Harvest Festival (in late September/early October); that was normally my last performance of Concert Season, but it didn’t happen last year because they never called. I could probably get myself or the band inserted into their schedule if I worked at it.
I have had a couple of years where I was playing somewhere every single weekend during Concert Season, and it would be nice if 2010 were another one of those years. It is not like I’m doing anything else important.
Joe
Friday, April 2, 2010
VIDEO THOUGHTS (AND THE DRUMMER'S IN THE HOSPITAL)...
Heard this morning our drummer, Chris, is in ICU in a Portland hospital. I’ll go in to see him as soon as he’s out of intensive care, but I have a feeling he’s not going to be able to drum at the April 24 gig. We will have to find a substitute. (I can make said substitute an “I Am Not Chris” T-shirt for the occasion.)
About the only good news this week is Roland, the new guitarist who’s been coming to our Wednesday acoustic jam sessions at the Garibaldi Pub, seems to be interested in doing some performing—with me. That’d be nice. Roland is a good guitarist, and if we were doing shows together, we could trade singing, and play lead on each other’s stuff. I’d much rather do that than play solo. He has my phone numbers; we’ll see what happens.
I don’t think Roland has any PA equipment, and I don’t, either—my teeny amps are barely sufficient for playing guitar through at the Library. I could create a PA relatively easily, I think; Radio Shack still has the cheap little 4-channel mixers like the Dodson Drifters used 30 years ago, and all I’d need is a decent amp and speaker. I have the mikes, stands, and cords. I would have to do it for just about no money, because just about no money is what I have.
I saw a great (and simple) music video by a British duo. Their song’s lyrics were all front-page headlines from the London Daily Mail, and the video consisted simply of one fellow playing guitar and singing while the other displayed and discarded the newspapers with the headlines. Very simple, and very well done. It is time to do more of my songs as video—like Lorelei Loveridge said, “Video is the new radio.” I see more new songs on YouTube than I hear as *.mp3 files.
Not all my songs can—or should—be done simply as film of a live performance; a different treatment is in order, for variety if nothing else. However, it has to be simple and cheap—free, in fact. Absolutely nothing is what I can afford these days.
The model, I think, needs to be the Porter Wagoner video of “Committed to Parkview,” which may have been the last song he wrote before he died. It’s about an asylum—but they didn’t film an asylum: they simply shot footage of him and the band playing in various places around an abandoned building that might have been a hospital, once. Very simple. I could do the same sort of thing.
One song I could see this working well with is “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot,” the surprisingly popular Southern Pigfish talking blues. “Quoth” takes place partly on a beach, and partly in a tavern, and I happen to have both close by. (Could even do the tavern shots outside the tavern, and not have to worry about the lighting.) There’s a parrot in the song, of course, but he doesn’t have to appear in the video.
I’d need some footage of both locations with no “actors” in it, “on location” footage of me singing (actually lip-synching along with the recorded track), and footage of the band “finger-synching” along with the music. And then I can put it all together. I have two cameras—I just need someone to run them. First step is to record the song. And that begs the question whether I should try to have a whole different crew of musicians “play” Southern Pigfish. I maybe could.
Joe
About the only good news this week is Roland, the new guitarist who’s been coming to our Wednesday acoustic jam sessions at the Garibaldi Pub, seems to be interested in doing some performing—with me. That’d be nice. Roland is a good guitarist, and if we were doing shows together, we could trade singing, and play lead on each other’s stuff. I’d much rather do that than play solo. He has my phone numbers; we’ll see what happens.
I don’t think Roland has any PA equipment, and I don’t, either—my teeny amps are barely sufficient for playing guitar through at the Library. I could create a PA relatively easily, I think; Radio Shack still has the cheap little 4-channel mixers like the Dodson Drifters used 30 years ago, and all I’d need is a decent amp and speaker. I have the mikes, stands, and cords. I would have to do it for just about no money, because just about no money is what I have.
I saw a great (and simple) music video by a British duo. Their song’s lyrics were all front-page headlines from the London Daily Mail, and the video consisted simply of one fellow playing guitar and singing while the other displayed and discarded the newspapers with the headlines. Very simple, and very well done. It is time to do more of my songs as video—like Lorelei Loveridge said, “Video is the new radio.” I see more new songs on YouTube than I hear as *.mp3 files.
Not all my songs can—or should—be done simply as film of a live performance; a different treatment is in order, for variety if nothing else. However, it has to be simple and cheap—free, in fact. Absolutely nothing is what I can afford these days.
The model, I think, needs to be the Porter Wagoner video of “Committed to Parkview,” which may have been the last song he wrote before he died. It’s about an asylum—but they didn’t film an asylum: they simply shot footage of him and the band playing in various places around an abandoned building that might have been a hospital, once. Very simple. I could do the same sort of thing.
One song I could see this working well with is “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot,” the surprisingly popular Southern Pigfish talking blues. “Quoth” takes place partly on a beach, and partly in a tavern, and I happen to have both close by. (Could even do the tavern shots outside the tavern, and not have to worry about the lighting.) There’s a parrot in the song, of course, but he doesn’t have to appear in the video.
I’d need some footage of both locations with no “actors” in it, “on location” footage of me singing (actually lip-synching along with the recorded track), and footage of the band “finger-synching” along with the music. And then I can put it all together. I have two cameras—I just need someone to run them. First step is to record the song. And that begs the question whether I should try to have a whole different crew of musicians “play” Southern Pigfish. I maybe could.
Joe
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