RECORDING THE ALBUM...

Recording session went good. Base tracks for all 11 songs are done; despite spending about four hours in the studio, we did manage to do nearly every song in one take—which was the idea. The lesson (which I already knew): practice saves money. Once the levels were set, things moved pretty fast. Vocals on all the songs were “scratch” vocals, intended to be re-done, but Mike says he’ll keep the one on “She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself” because it’s about perfect.

Need to record Doc’s harmonica, too (he was out of town, but Mike had wanted to record him separately anyway). There are two or three songs where I might want to record me doing lead guitar—“plinks,” actually, nothing fancy—to accent Charlie’s and Doc’s leads. Need to record Raps for (I think) nine of the 11 songs. And there are some songs where I’d really like to have Mike’s backup harmonies. But the hardest part, Mike says, is done. The songs are, in order:

Dead Things in the Shower (co-wrote with Bobbie Gallup)—fast two-step
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock
No Good Songs About the War—slow march
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass
The Dog’s Song—rock ‘n’ roll
Crosses by the Roadside—slow two-step
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself—fast blues
Rotten Candy—fast Gospel
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—deliberate two-step

All in all, it’s a good mix of tempos, styles, and sentiments—a couple of serious songs (wouldn’t want to go overboard with that stuff), a few social issues addressed (not particularly seriously), and of course some dead animals. I hope the buying public likes it.

An invitation, sort of, to play at the Manzanita Farmer’s Market (“sort of” because I contacted them, after hearing they’d been talking about me). They do pay—but it’s a 3-hour gig, too. Talked to the band about it, and they’re interested, but don’t want to do three hours; they’d be willing to do half that, if I could do the other half solo (which might be possible). I’ve also approached the folks I’ve been playing with on Sunday nights, and they’re interested, too. We could create a band for the occasion out of that, I think—and with three or four people trading off the front-man job, three hours wouldn’t be so hard.

The Garibaldi Days organizers (who are different again this year) are reportedly talking about entertainment, too, and I want to make sure they don’t inadvertently overlook the band (they could deliberately reject us, and that’d be fine—though I’d hope some eyebrows would be raised if they did, because we are good). They’ll be meeting, though, as I’m en route to an out-of-town job interview (another interim city-manager gig)—I won’t be able to be there. No recordings to give ‘em to show what the band sounds like, either, because the album isn’t finished yet.

On the other projects: I have John’s bass tracks for the “Sleeping Piggy” soundtrack; still need “whiny” lead—sax or harmonica—and girl vocal. I have all the photos, I think, for the “50 Ways” music video, but still need to record the rest of the instruments—bass, banjo, and musical saw. “Piggy” first—our performance is in only a week.

Joe