WELCOME...

This blog is the outgrowth of a songwriting workshop I conducted at the 2006 "Moograss" Bluegrass Festival in Tillamook, Oregon. It presumes that after 30-odd years of writing and playing music, I might have something to contribute that others might take advantage of. If not, it may be at least a record of an entertaining journey, and a list of mistakes others may be able to avoid repeating. This blog is intended to be updated weekly. In addition to discussions about WRITING, it will discuss PROMOTION--perhaps the biggest challenge for a writer today--as well as provide UPDATES on continuing PROJECTS, dates and venues for CONCERTS as they happen, how and where to get THE LATEST CD, the LINKS to sites where LATEST SONGS are posted, and a way to E-MAIL ME if you've a mind to. Not all these features will show up right away. Like songwriting itself, this is a work in progress. What isn't here now will be here eventually. Thank you for your interest and your support.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

UPDATES...

Helped teach Beach Art to pre-teens at the Arts Center for two days. Incredibly tiring work, but tons of fun—and these are extremely creative kids. I accomplished very little beyond that. The third (and last) city that’s looking at me as an interim city manager won’t be making a decision for another week, and I can’t stay on pins and needles that long; I will just not worry about it, and keep busy. There’s plenty to do. Concert Season presently looks like this:

July 16 (Saturday): Both Deathgrass and 45 Degrees North, at the Wheeler Summerfest. 90-minute sets, each.
July 23 (Saturday): 45 degrees North at the Rainbow Lotus in downtown Nehalem. 2-hour set.
July 28 (Thursday): Solo, at Bridgeport Whole Foods in Tigard for the Willamette Writers Conference. A little over an hour.
July 30 (Saturday): Deathgrass at Garibaldi Days, at the Old Mill Clubhouse in Garibaldi. 1-hour set.
August 6 (Saturday): With Dan Doshier at the Southern Oregon Songwriters Summer Concert, in Talent. Dan and I will be splitting 40 minutes.
Sept. 18 or 19 (exact date & time still TBA): Deathgrass at the Rocktoberfest in Rockaway Beach. 90-minute set.

The ringleaders behind the “Rails 100” celebration October 1-2—commemorating the 100th anniversary of completion of the railroad to the Coast—were talking about wanting “period” music. Hits from 1911, in other words. Turns out “Steamboat Bill,” which Deathgrass performed at the Bay City Centennial last year (it was one of the top songs of 1910), was also one of the top songs of 1911. Probably need to make sure it’s on all our local setlists (local setlists is actually the only kind we have).

I’ve been approached by the 2nd Street Market (finally); we—and I think that means either Deathgrass or 45 Degrees North, or both—can have our pick of Fridays or Saturdays in July. Fridays 5-7 p.m., Saturdays 1-3 p.m. We have to provide our own sound system, and it is unpaid. More of a consideration is there aren’t many Saturdays left in July that I have available.

For bring-your-own-PA situations like this, Deathgrass has a good sound system we can borrow, but 45 Degrees North does not: we’ve got a PA, and a 6-channel mixer, but we need speakers—good, decent-sized ones. The little PA can handle pretty big speakers. Affording them when one has no money, however, is a challenge, to say the least.

45 Degrees North will perform at the Bay City Arts Center’s open mike Saturday—another showcase/practice-in-front-of-a-crowd opportunity. We’ll do::

Manzanita Moon—soft jazz (Candice)
Road to Lisdoonvarna [NEW]—fast Irish love song (Jane)
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy (me)
Wagon Wheel (Dylan)—mod. tempo country (Candice)

“Lisdoonvarna” was surprisingly easy to learn. It’s considered a love song (though it doesn’t sound at all like one) because little Lisdoonvarna (pop. 842) on the Irish coast is the site of one of Europe’s largest matchmaking festivals. The other songs are all standards, and we do them well. We will nonetheless practice one more time before the event.

I did get advised that “Hearts of Country Radio,” an Internet radio station in Princeton, Texas, is playing five of my songs—“Rotten Candy,” “The Dog’s Song,” “Crosses by the Roadside,” “Bluebird on My Windshield” and “Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up.” Heard two of ‘em while I was listening. Link is
http://www.krykey.com/Radio/PRSPage.aspx?id=2451

Joe

Saturday, June 25, 2011

WILLAMETTE WRITERS SETLIST...

Tentatively, the Willamette Writers’ Group setlist looks like this:

Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step
Pole Dancing for Jesus—slow & sleazy two-step
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass
Writer’s Block Blues—slow & sleazy
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—mod. speed Gospel
Crosses by the Roadside—slow two-step
Twenty-Four Seven—fast waltz
Rotten Candy—fast Gospel
The Taboo Song—slow & sleazy
When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies—fast bluegrass
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
I May Write You from Jupiter—fast bluegrass
Leavin’ It to Beaver—fast bluegrass (but starts slow)
Last Song of the Highwayman—medieval two-step
Earwigs in the Eggplant—Irish drinking song
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Born-Again Barbie—fast Gospel
The Cat with the Strat—talking blues
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy

19 songs. Works out over an hour (there’s nobody on after me), but probably less than an hour and a half. (I maintain people like me best in small doses.) Includes a couple of my oldest songs (“Beaver” was written when I played with the Dodson Drifters, almost 35 years ago) and my newest (“Earwigs”). There are songs about writing, songs about food, and one for kids (“Cookies”); nearly all the songs on the setlist were actually written deliberately, for one reason or another (so much for my “oh, they just happen” claim), and the Rap talks a little about that.

I could include more, but one has to draw the line somewhere. I can make plenty of “but you included this one—why not that one?” arguments; while those are fine coming from someone else—that lets me know what songs people consider favorites—I tend to dismiss them when it comes from me. Whether I like a particular song is irrelevant—the only determinant of “good” is whether an audience likes it. In this case, all of the songs on the setlist are intended to make a point; the Rap is a sort of miniature lecture on writing, so the setlist includes a couple of songs I don’t play very often.

I’ll need some “gig infrastructure” for this one; they are expecting me to bring my own amplification. I have the mike and stand, but that little amp has only one input—it can handle guitar or voice, but not both. I need to find (or borrow) either a 2-channel amp, or speakers that’ll work with the little 2-channel PA I got from Carol.

A quieter (well, less musical) week ahead… That’s good—I have a few meetings to attend, work to do on the house, and it’d be nice to change strings on the guitar without having to play it right away. Writers’ Guild meets Thursday night; I help teach Beach Art week at the Arts Center Wednesday and Thursday; and it appears I’m hosting the open mike at the Arts Center Saturday night. I’ve been rejected for two of the three interim city manager jobs I was waiting on—still one to go.

Joe

Friday, June 24, 2011

THE WRITERS' GUILD & THE PUPPET SHOW...

Six folks at the first get-together of the “writers’ guild.” Two came, I think, because of the notice in the paper; one the result of invitation. (And the other three were us who started the whole thing.) We traded backgrounds, and ideas, and what we expected to get out of being in the group, and we’ll meet again in a week—and bring instruments.

Ages ranged from a guy still in high school to, well, me. There’s a bass player (who also sings and plays guitar) and a keyboardist/drummer, as well as the usual run of guitar players. One guy’s got what sounds like a decent recording setup (which he may still be learning how to use). Some of us have performed before; others, not. And a wide range of backgrounds: rock, folk, jazz, heavy metal, country, and reggae. Yes, this could be a lot of fun.

Film of the “Cinderpiggy” puppet show is basically done; titles and credits have been added, volume enhanced (we should use more mikes and a bigger amp next time), the footage slightly edited (I removed a couple of long dead spots), and converted to *.m4v (which I guess is a Macintosh video format).

I created a YouTube account for the Arts Center, but couldn’t post the video there. It is, YouTube says, too long (19 minutes 52 seconds, and no, I can’t cut any of it, really). YouTube has a maximum time limit of 15 minutes—good to know for next time, but I have to worry about this time. There are other video hosting sites out there; it appears we might be able to use Vimeo—they don’t have a time limit, but they do have a size limit of 500MB (I don’t know—because I haven’t checked—how big the “Cinderpiggy” video is). YouTube may be the most famous of the video hosting sites, but I don’t need to worry about famosity—I just need a place we can tell people to link to.

The “Cinderpiggy” play is surprisingly well done, considering we had all of two rehearsals. The dialogue is snappy (and the audience seemed to catch most of the jokes), the flying pumpkin was a hit, and Chewy the Wookie (aka “Dad,” the Evil Step-Wookie) was definitely the star of the show.

I did a little further tweaking—the opening title and credits now include a short sound clip from Southern Pigfish’s “Darth Vader Blues,” the soundtrack for the credits in the first “Pig Wars” video. It’s an instrumental, which is deal for an opening. I didn’t want to use the whole thing—it’s over 3 minutes long, but I only needed 40 or so seconds. So another of the things I learned in the process was how to clip audio tracks and “overlay” them in the film.

Lessons for the future? In the future, I don’t think I’d use country music for the soundtrack. Rock ‘n’ roll is better. Our little piggies need something more raucous to perform to. Got a time limit to work with—15 minutes, including title and credits, if I want the thing to go on YouTube. (I actually don’t care—but having a time limit is a good thing.)

And the next sock-puppet play? (Of course, there will be a next one—these little piggies are starting to become famous.) “Hansel and Gretel” doesn’t have enough actors (I need parts for all of our “troupe”—Luke, Hansolo, Princess Leah, Chewy, Yoda, and Darth), and “Snow White” has too many (though I could always have Luke and Hansolo say the “other dwarfs” were at work). “Little Red Riding Hood,” perhaps? (Chewy could be the Big, Bad Wookie.)

Poster for my solo Willamette Writers Group performance is done, as is the one for 45 Degrees North for the Wheeler Summerfest. (Still have a Deathgrass poster to do for the summerfest.) Now that the Pirate Festival in Rockaway is over, I should be able to nail down a time for Deathgrass for the Rocktoberfest, too. Still working on the Rap for the Willamette Writers: I want it to be a talk on writing, with the songs illustrating points made in the Rap, but I don’t want to be obvious about it—the songs are supposed to be the focus, after all.

Joe

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

THE MID-YEAR REALITY CHECK...

Life gets interesting… I’m informed there are now three cities considering me (among other folks) as their interim city manager. I don’t know if any of them will decide on me, of course—perhaps none will—but it does feel good to have somebody consider me worth something. I may know in a week. Preferences? I have no preferences; in this job-hunting game, the rule is whoever gets me first, gets me. I would not have applied for those jobs if I weren’t prepared to take and keep every one of them.

It is almost July—time for the Mid-Year Reality Check. I assigned myself a Worklist at the beginning of the year. How well am I doing?

WRITING. Not as good as I’d like. I have three “keepers” in the first six months of 2011, which isn’t great—I like to see a song a month, on average. “Pole Dancing for Jesus,” “Selling Off My Body Parts,” and “Earwigs in the Eggplant” are all good; “Earwigs” is a deliberately Irish tune, so it’s part of the “explore different genres” program, too. I have not done any co-writes.

ALBUMS. The Deathgrass album is done—recorded, mastered, manufactured, and for sale. The Southern Pigfish album (also on the Worklist) is not. It’s more problematic, because all those songs are supposed to be videos; I have run into a potential videographer, though. I’ve talked about doing the Gospel album, but thus far, that’s just talk. There is no money.

MARKETING. I did get the CDBaby account (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/deathgrass), and have had a few sales of the Deathgrass album that way. Three retail outlets are selling the CD, too. No Joe Website yet. Never did a CD Release Event, either. Still haven’t managed to get any video footage either of me solo, or of Deathgrass in concert. I did acquire a portable DVD-rewritable drive, that can be switched back and forth between computers, but it’s not installed yet.

VIDEO. Two more music videos done, both of them good: “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” I also have the soundtracks for a couple more videos. Took a video class starting in February to learn how to use a real video camera, and I’ve processed, titled and credited some film. Haven’t pushed the “fan-generated” Southern Pigfish video idea.

MORE (AND MORE PAYING) GIGS. Yes. I’ll be doing the Willamette Writers this summer (performing at one of their fund-raisers), and I’ve done Whitney Streed’s comedy club (and she’d like me back). Deathgrass has been offered two paying gigs thus far this summer (Wheeler Summerfest and the Rocktoberfest), plus Garibaldi Days (a freebie). And I’m playing with a second band, 45 Degrees North, that’s been getting gig offers (they are good).

STAYING IN TOUCH WITH EVERYBODY. I’m still having trouble doing that—and if I end up getting a job, it’ll be that much harder. I’ll get down to southern Oregon at least once this summer, though, for a Southern Oregon Songwriters concert—and like last year, I’ll be doing it in conjunction with Dan Doshier. Haven’t been back to McMinnville since my Lafayette job ended—and I don’t want those people to forget me.

THE WORLD TOUR. I still don’t know how to pull that off. It’s been suggested I could attend some of the Coventry Songwriters get-togethers in England via Skype, and I will try that for starters. The key, I think, is having enough fans around when you get Over There to make the trip worthwhile.

So, some measurable progress—for a change. That should make me redouble efforts to accomplish the rest of the Worklist.

THINGS THAT WEREN’T ON THE LIST. I’ve written two more sock-puppet plays, both with “theme songs,” and both got filmed. Playing with a second band, and they do different stuff (but we’re still playing some of my tunes). Found some more places to play (and expose my stuff to different audiences). And I’m in on the ground floor of formation of a local “writers’ guild” that I hope will be helpful.

Joe

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

AND THE WHEELER SUMMERFEST...

Time to plan for the Wheeler Summerfest. Both the bands I’m in are on the agenda—and on the same day. 1-1/2 hour sets each. Main concern I need to have is both bands are performing some of my material, and in no case should they be playing the same song. So it’s necessary to do a “who plays which” shuffling. DEATHGRASS is easier to script for, because we only need to worry about one singer—me. Not in order, I think we could do:

Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock
Crosses By the Roadside—slow two-step
Rotten Candy—fast bluegrass
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock
No Good Songs About the War—slow march
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself—fast blues
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—folk-rock
Distraction (Diane Ewing)—slow two-step
The Dog’s Song—rock ‘n’ roll
Duct Tape—mod. tempo country
Selling Off My Body Parts—fast bluegrass [NEW]
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—mod. two-step

Only one of those is new. 10 of the 18 songs are off the album (45 Degrees North will do “Armadfillo”); four are staples of the Failed Economy shows, and one—“Distraction”—we did at daughter’s wedding. One Woody Guthrie tune; might want to close with another—“Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad,” which is a real uptempo rocker—if so, I should take out one of the two-steps.

And for 45 DEGREES NORTH—my part, anyway—we can do:

Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy
Pole Dancing for Jesus—slow two-step
Hey, Little Chicken—quasi-blues
Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz

All of those we’ve practiced (and “Armadillo,” with the Heavenly Chorus, is one of the group’s favorites). Need to include one more—to be fair, each of us should have five songs—but I’m not sure what (yet); it should be an uptempo number—the band does enough slow stuff, and I don’t need to add to it further. The others will need to decide what they want to perform—I don’t want to make that decision (though I’ll happily mix it up into a workable arrangement, and script out the Rap). To the extent uptempo numbers are needed, I can always substitute uptempo-er ones of mine for slower ones of mine on the list.

45 Degrees North plays the Pine Grove potluck tomorrow (Tuesday) night—unplugged. Two cities are reportedly thinking of me as their interim city manager, and I might hear from one or the other (or both) in the next couple of days. And Thursday is the first get-together of the “writers’ guild” at the Bay City Arts Center. I don’t want to miss that.

Joe

Monday, June 20, 2011

WILLAMETTE WRITERS GIG THOUGHTS...

The Willamette Writers gig in late July is a barbecue to benefit the children’s program. So… an hour’s worth of songs about writing (they specifically requested “The Writer’s Block Blues”), songs about food, and songs for kids. I looked through the “catalog,” and yes, I think I can do that.

The Rap can talk both about the craft of writing, and about inspiration. I did this some years back—gave a seminar on songwriting at the “Moograss” bluegrass festival, and used my performance later that day to illustrate points I’d made in the seminar.

Unlike a lot of writers, I deal in sound bites—my “stories,” as Eric John Kaiser calls them, have to fit in a 3.5-to-5-minute “box” and still express a complete thought with no loose ends. What that thought is is where inspiration comes in. How I deal with it is the craft. The humor, the looking at things sideways, the playing against type (songs about death need to be happy and upbeat, for instance) and expressing things in terms of roadkill are deliberate (and probably just attention-getting tactics).

I can give them examples of my more deliberate writing. (It really doesn’t all “just happen.”) “Leavin’ It to Beaver” was a counter to Jeff Tanzer’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (his song was a bunch of images from old movies, so mine was titles of old TV shows). “Twenty-Four Seven” sought to write a song that was entirely cliches (and incorporate the Plain English Society’s “worst cliches” list). “The Taboo Song” included the 15 things the Times of London said you couldn’t put in a song. And “The Writer’s Block Blues” was a deliberate (and successful) attempt to end a spate of writer’s block.

“Hey, Little Chicken” tried to answer the question, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” (It’s also a song about acquiring food—and this is a barbecue.) ”Earwigs in the Eggplant” was a love song combining an alphabetical list of garden vegetables, fruits and flowers with an alphabetical list of garden pests (and was the result of a suggestion that 45 Degrees North do “something about vegetables” at the Farmers Market gig).

Some of these answer the question, “Where does inspiration come from?” Like I said in one of the “Joe Show” videos, it comes from everywhere—you just have to keep eyes and ears open, and remember the world is a very strange place and people very weird critters.

“Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues” resulted from a discussion on a writers’ site about the blues (it’s also about food, since the dog gets eaten). “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas” came from a comment by Steve Goodman at a Bob Dylan concert, and “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” from a comment somebody made after Bobbie Gallup and I wrote “Dead Things in the Shower” (I better include that one on the setlist, too). “Born-Again Barbie” happened because of a comment I made on one writers’ group’s announcement of a song contest about women of the Bible. And “The Cat with the Strat” was a poem—a Dr. Seuss parody I ended up having to set to music because a band wanted to record it.

Other lessons in all this? Don’t operate in a vacuum—people need to know what you do. (Other people have become the major source of my ideas.) Hang out, one way or another, with other writers; they’re peer review, and alternate perspectives. (And like economist Ben Stein used to say on his TV show, “Stay tuned—you might learn something.”) And be different. (They probably already know this.) You have to either be saying something new, or saying something old in a new way. There are umpty-billion people on the planet, and there’s a woman in China giving birth every 20 seconds. (Yes, I know—we must find this woman and stop her.) Why should people listen to you, and not somebody else?

That enough, maybe?

Joe

Sunday, June 19, 2011

ILWACO POST-MORTEM...

First Big Gig for 45 Degrees North was Saturday night in Ilwaco, at the River City Theater. Nice place, by the way—it’s an old American Legion hall, so it’s got a decent-sized auditorium, stage, kitchen, et al. The Peninsula Players, the TAPA-like community theater troupe that owns the building, are a nice bunch of people, too. They asked us to do two hours instead of three, and we were able to re-arrange the setlist without too much headache.

We ended up using our own sound system (good that we brought everything—we needed it) because the theater’s was way worse than ours. (They do have bigger speakers, though, and for next time—there will be a next time—I learned how to hook them up to our PA system.) Having the setlist in big print on a board behind one of the mikes worked well. Got all six channels working on the antique mixer (that thing continues to surprise me—it must be 40 years old). I did the emcee work (since I had a Rap scripted out for everything), and it was okay. And the Ugly Orange Bucket with its “Tipping Is Not A City in China” sign did get some tips—without us ever having to mention it was there.

On the distaff side, I did get a number of helpful comments. Our energy level could be higher (we were all insecure about the show); when the Crazed Weasels mandolin and fiddle players joined us for a trio of songs, the energy level went up several notches—and people did notice. I was told we should play more uptempo stuff—people like it better. I should look up more (instead of worrying about the setlist, and whether I had the Rap memorized well enough). Candice should belt more—she has a real good voice. And Kathryn’s mike wasn’t delivering a clear sound (I couldn’t hear that from on stage, and I don’t know if the problem was with the speakers (ours are real small), with being too close to the mike (which distorts), or whether the singing mikes should be plugged into something other than the mixer (there are two more inputs on the front of the PA amp, and I’ll have to try those, I guess).)

Original songs went over a lot better with the audience than covers. Since one wants to deliver what audiences want to hear, I’d say that means we should phase out covers as quickly as possible. (I don’t like to do covers anyway. Besides the copyright issues—which admittedly most cover bands never encounter because enforcement of copyright laws is so lax—I see no point in enhancing the famosity of already-famous people. I would rather promote unknowns—including ourselves.)

I’d make only two exceptions, I think: Candice and Kathryn’s rendition of “Moon River” is impeccable (and the song is a Broadway show tune rather than a standard jukebox number), and Gram Parsons’ “Sin City” is topical because of the local tsunami scares (it’s also really obscure). Anything “traditional” is fair game, of course—no copyright problems there—and that incorporates most (though not all) of the Celtic and bluegrass fiddle tunes we do.

Next steps: We have another performance Tuesday night, at the Pine Grove potluck in Manzanita; I’ve given everybody suggestions for the songs we should do, and I think they’re okay. Need to assemble them into a setlist, script out a Rap, &c. We should gather at Pine Grove early and set up and test the sound. (We will be needing to use our system again, I think.)

This is Week Two From Hell coming up, but it’s not all music: I have a couple of meetings to attend (one of which may be deciding whether to offer me a temporary job), and the film footage from the “Cinderpiggy” puppet show to convert to video, with titles and credits. What we’re calling “the writers’ guild” will be meeting for the first time Thursday night at the Arts Center. Willamette Writers gig to firm up (I know what night it is, and how long it is, but I don’t know time or location). And now that the Manzanita Farmers Market is open, I need to check it out—45 Degrees North is playing there August 12.

Joe

Friday, June 17, 2011

PUPPET SHOW (AND THIRSTY LION) POST-MORTEM...

Thirsty Lion: done. Puppet show: done. One more this week—Ilwaco tomorrow (Saturday) with 45 Degrees North—and then… rest? No; another gig with 45 Degrees North Tuesday night. At least that one will be shorter—one hour instead of three.

The “Cinderpiggy” puppet show was a hit, I think. We had an audience of about 35, kids and adults, and I think we had humor appealing to both groups. Biggest hit was Chewy, who’s a one-word Wookie—he can only say “Cookie,” though with different inflections (conceptually, he’s a cross between Animal and Cookie Monster). And we had little kids running around afterwards shouting “Cookie!” at everything—just like Chewy does. Paying gig, that one was (have to wait for the county library to tell me how to bill them). It was suggested the show ought to be “taken on the road” and performed at the Main Library—and sure, we’d do that. Somebody just needs to ask.

Next play? I don’t know. “Snow White” would be an obvious choice (no, we don’t have enough dwarves, but some of them could be at work, I suppose). On the other hand, we could do something completely local. In the course of my interviews for the video class, I ran across the legend of a local treasure, a hoard of pirate gold buried on Neahkahnie Mountain beneath the bodies of dead Negro slaves (that was supposed to keep the Indians away); local folks hunted for the treasure for decades, unsuccessfully. The sock-puppet troupe could do “The Treasure of Neahkahnie Mountain: The Musical.”

I managed to fix the soundtrack for the “Cinderpiggy” puppet show about an hour and a half before showtime. Both the Tascam and “Alice” the ‘puter are having technical difficulties which I think are age-related. Both are actually seven years old now (Alice is going on eight).

The Thirsty Lion gig June 14 went well—it usually does (this was the sixth time I’ve played there). This time, the “Songwriters’ Showcase” was on the heels of a “gold cup” soccer match, so there was a good crowd that hadn’t had time to leave before the music started. My stuff went exactly 25 minutes, the sound was okay (even though I couldn’t hear myself—folks in the audience told me so), and people did seem to be listening (and applauding). No, I didn’t win their prize—but I wasn’t expecting to, either. Didn’t sell any CDs, either, even though both I and host Eric mentioned I had them.

The 21 June performance at the Pine Grove Potluck in Manzanita is an hour’s show. I assume it’s a generally older, wealthier audience, inclined toward more uptempo and out-of-the-ordinary stuff. Not slow, ballady things, in other words. Since there are four of us, an hour’s worth of music works out to about three songs apiece. I’d make the inclusions (1) our best stuff, but (2) concentrate on originals and traditionals to the extent possible—I’d really like to get us away from cover songs. (And I think it is the originals—by Kathryn and myself—that the group actually does best.)

For June 21, though, we need to pick from the Ilwaco setlist—two days is not enough time to learn new material. Later—for the Wheeler Summerfest July 16, perhaps—it may be possible to do more. I would like to hear “Crosses By the Roadside,” Stan Good’s “Don’t Remind Me You’re On My Mind,” April Johns’ “Family Photo,” and Jody Dickey’s “Down at the Blue Haven” done with Candice’s voice. I think every single one of them would be stunning.

Joe

Monday, June 13, 2011

A LOCAL WRITERS' GROUP?

I realized about mid-afternoon that this week is a day shorter because of the all-day trip to Portland Tuesday. Had to get the column for the paper done early—and I still have lots of stuff to do before I go. I won’t be back until late Tuesday, but Wednesday morning early I’m following up on a job, then rehearsing (for the first and probably last time) for the puppet show; Thursday morning, we take the stage to City Hall (because I’m anal about performances, and want everything set up in advance for the show on Friday at 1 p.m.). I still need to get the harmonica part recorded for the “Cinderpiggy” theme song, “My Happily Ever After”; maybe I can drop a CD by Doc’s house on my way to Portland, and then record him Thursday. I won’t have time any other day.

And because I’m busy, I end up running into fun new things to do on top of everything else. (That’s how it goes, I’ve decided.) So when Vaughn Andrew announced at the Arts Center’s board meeting that he wanted to start a local writers’ group, I immediately offered to help. (And I wasn’t the only one. Songwriter Jim Nelson, who’s also on the BCAC Board, was interested too.) We agreed we’d try to rope in other writers we know. Our first get-together will be Thursday, June 23, 7 p.m. at the Arts Center.

What does one do with a writers’ group? Three things, I think. Peer review—everybody’s getting their material critiqued constructively by other writers. That those other writers may be (or are) approaching from completely different perspectives is (my opinion) a plus. Performance tips and experience—one of the best things the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. did (and does) is provide opportunities for writers to perform their material for other writers. I’d want us to critique each other’s performance, too. And a resource base—who’s a bass player, who knows someone with a recording studio, &c. (I myself can design album covers, for instance.) This is the materiel from which bands and albums can be made. And of course, we have the Arts Center to use as a performance center.

When I first moved to the Coast, 11 years ago, I was the only writer I knew (or that anyone I knew, knew). I found other musicians—I can do that—but one reason I sought out online writers’ groups (one in England, in fact) was there weren’t any around here, and I have to have feedback in order to progress. I have run across more writers in recent years; some of them were like me, unaware there was anyone else around, and some of them were operating in near-total vacuums. So I think the group will help.

I have cautioned my cohorts not to expect this to be a path to big-time commercial success—not with the way the music industry is run these days. What one can—and should—expect is that we will all become better at what we do as a result of doing this. (And really, that ought to be sufficient reward in itself.) It might be reasonable to hope that we, or the bands and recordings we generate, could help fill the void that cries for entertainment—entertainment that the Big Boys can’t provide because nobody in these Troubled Times can afford what they’re selling. But we can deliver records people can afford to buy, and concerts people can afford to attend. We just have to become better at what we do so people will want to buy it.

Very tentative (and belated) approach from the Willamette Writers Group, about playing somewhere around their summer conference. It’d be one or two days before an already-scheduled gig in Garibaldi, so it’s doable. And busy is good, right?

Joe

ANATOMY OF AN ALBUM...

Gene Burnett posted recently the steps involved in getting his latest album to production. Good idea. Here’s mine (which are a little different, but not by much):

THE SONGS. I had those picked out a year beforehand. By January 2011, we’d taken just one off the list, and added one. 11 songs, with a mix of musical styles showing off the capabilities of the band, arranged as a sort of mini-concert. Two co-writes this time (which are the band’s normal opening and closing songs at shows). I’m not as prolific as Gene, but I write a fair amount; by the time the list was finalized, everything had been played in public enough so I knew which were the best crowd-pleasers (and therefore potential album-sellers). And I have enough new crowd-pleasers for another album.

THE MUSICIANS. Deathgrass were obviously the musicians for the record. I like having a 5-piece band, so one can have both a “whiny lead” (harmonica) and “non-whiny lead” (guitar or mandolin) both in performance and on the record. All these songs were practiced a lot, because they were performed a lot. Everything was note perfect when we went into the studio, because it’d been note-perfect on stage.

THE STUDIO. Had to be local, since the band don’t travel well (three of them still have jobs). For a long time, there were no commercial studios on the Coast, but when Mike Simpson became the school music teacher, he had one (Calden West Studios, in Rockaway Beach). Mike has a good ear, and a good sense of arrangements, and has decent equipment and knows how to use it. (Teaches music, after all.) Studio’s got to have a room big enough to fit the band in and still semi-isolate their tracks. Got that, too.

THE RECORDING. Patsy Cline style (live and in one or two takes) shaves about 85% off the studio cost, and the only prerequisite is the band’s got to be practiced. Yes, do-overs are a pain—but we mostly didn’t need to do any. My “scratch” vocal was recorded in a separate room (the band and I couldn’t see each other, but we didn’t need to); Mike was going to re-record the vocal later, but on nine of the 11 songs, we didn’t need to. We added Doc’s blues harp later, because he couldn’t be there the same day everybody else was. And Mike added backup vocals by himself on a bunch of the songs, too.

MIXING, MASTERING, &C. I left that up to Mike—he’s got professional ears, and I don’t. My interest is in giving the engineer the “pieces” to mix and match into a good product. I think the final product is as good as or better than anything the Big Boys could put out.

LABEL, COVER & LINER NOTES. I did all that; graphic design is one of the things I can do. I collected a bunch of CDs, imitated things that looked good, and avoided things that didn’t. (I’ve done this before.)

PICKING A CD MANUFACTURER ended up being one of the hardest tasks. A lot of CD outfits want you to use their design templates, and I wasn’t going for it; I wanted someone to process my designs, and not screw them up. I ended up using DiskFaktory, an outfit in Orange County (CA) I’d used before. (About a 2-week turn-around, by the way.) Submitted the designs online, and mailed them the master. Bought the bar code from them, too. Total cost was a little more than if I’d done it all myself, but the product is shrink-wrapped—which I couldn’t do myself.

SETTING UP ONLINE SALES. I used CDBaby for that: http://www.cdbaby/cd/deathgrass is the link. Other folks (including DiskFaktory) offer the service, too.

OTHER STUFF: I sent my two co-writers their royalty checks directly. Rest is PROMOTION, which I haven’t done a lot of. A few retail outlets are selling the CD; some radio stations have it, as does the county library. And there have been some sales—some online, some through the retail outlets, some directly, and one by mail. Need more (of course). And still need to do that CD Release Event, even though the things been for sale for a month now.

Joe.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

45 DEGREES NORTH DOG PLACE POST-MORTEM...

45 DEGREES NORTH had our “public practice” in the courtyard of the dog grooming place in downtown Nehalem, and people actually showed up to hear us, and seemed to actually enjoy it. (And the dog grooming lady would like to have us back.) That said, we still have work to do.

Good things: The material is pretty much okay. We did mostly two of our three Ilwaco setlists, and with a couple of exceptions (amplified below), it’s good. Nobody really flubbed anything (not so the audience would notice), and we were strung out in a line on the Dog Place porch, and couldn’t see each other—and didn’t have to. And the hour sets took pretty much an hour. (I had worried about that.)

What we need (my opinion) to get down is our professionalism. A lot of bands dress up in clothes that look alike; I maintain that’s unnecessary, but what one should be doing is probably characterizable as mental dress-up. The Da Kine surfboard company summed it up as “Attitude Is Everything”: when you walk on stage, you are Performer—you know exactly what you are doing (in my case, because you have scripted everything out and rehearsed it), you have the audience’s attention, and you are not going to give it back.

Somebody opens the show, thanks everybody, introduces the band, and triggers the launch into the first song—I can do that if necessary. I like having a Rap for every song—but between songs is probably a better way to put it: one is not necessarily giving a “backstory” on the song (though sometimes I’ll do that), but rather inserting something short and cogent, to prevent silence. (I know one performer who tells jokes.) You have strategic places in the script where the “Rap space” is used to promote the mailing list and upcoming concerts (we do have a few of those).

Now, I’m the one who harps on organization and abhors silence; I’m also inclined to fill vacuums myself just to make sure they get filled. I’d be okay being the one that grabs the mike after a song, thanks the audience, and turns things over to the next person, offering a comment or two if and as necessary. And I can script that out for myself if that’s what the rest want me to do; it’s not hard, because I’m used to it. I don’t really want to be front man—everybody else in this group is way prettier than I am—it’s just the “must fill vacuum” thing. I’d want to be as “unfronty” as possible in the process.

I had a copy of the setlist, but I had to keep referring to it and reminding everybody what was next. There’s a setlist trick I do with Deathgrass I’d like to try here: I’ll print an abbreviated list, just title, genre and key, in big type and tack it to a little scrap piece of corkboard propped by a mike stand (where everybody can see it), and then we never have to mention it. (And of course, the Rap usually signals what we’re going to play next, anyway.)

We did make a couple of substitutions in the setlist, and I think they were good. We sould start out with something we do really well, and Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” is a good choice. There are a couple of songs—“Walking After Midnight” and ”Crazy,” both originally intended as set-beginners—where we really need to do more with the song. I can probably play an acceptable lead if somebody else plays rhythm, or I can play rhythm if someone else does lead, but I can’t do both—and the songs are too short, and have to have lead breaks. I cannot make what the rhythm guitar is doing interesting enough to hold anyone’s attention. (“Silver Wings” is probably in this category, too.) And there are a couple of fiddle tunes I still can’t play without the sheet music. I need to get those down.

I need to pick up a couple of props while I’m in Portland for the Thirsty Lion gig Tuesday: I need a 3-ring binder for the mailing list, and I need a replacement for the Big Yellow Bucket (the one that says “Tipping Is Not A City In China”) because I can’t find the original one. Beyond that, practice, practice, practice, and I think 45 Degrees North will be ready. I’ve got three nights available this week, and wouldn’t mind using all of them.

Joe

Friday, June 10, 2011

UPDATES...

A day off? Not really; I have a partially-assembled computer upstairs, a partially-pruned fruit tree outside, a dryer and washer full of laundry, and places to caulk on the siding all reminding me that there is in fact plenty to do. I just haven’t done any of it. I’ll get to play music tonight in Garibaldi for the first time in a week, which will be nice; I have managed to play six out of seven nights this past week, and it definitely improves my playing—I noticed at the Tsunami last night I was able to play guitar well enough (and consistently enough) to get folks’ attention.

Charlie can film the puppet show June 17. We can have video! I want to re-record the “Cinderpiggy” theme song, “My Happily Ever After,” though, to make it a little slower; I think it’ll sound better that way. (I also want more time for the rolling of the credits.)

And once the video’s done? It goes on YouTube, of course, but what I really want to do is incorporate a “play this video” link on the Arts Center’s Website. It would be good to have “play this video” links for every performance event the Arts Center does. Coming up in late June is a concert by jazz guitarist John Stowell (he’s performing with a guy from Sweden), and there’s another open mike at the beginning of July. The Arts Center has been very good about filming things; next step is to do something with the films.

Do we have filmed (or filmable) performances on a regular enough schedule so we could ask for time on the regional cable TV channel? We might. An hour a month, perhaps? We’ve got “in the can” (with titles and credits added, and converted to DVD) the junior high school’s “Y-Stars” after-school drama group’s performance of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and that’s about an hour; the May open mike at which the Tillamook Community Chorus performed “Stephenopera Malheurensis,” Jim Nelson’s endangered plant ballad, and The Impromptus (now 45 Degrees North) debuted, might have an hour’s good footage, too. Do I know how to do this? Only in part—but as I’m fond of telling folks, “I know people.”

Half my playing-music nights lately have been practice with 45 Degrees North, and it’s starting to pay off. A lot of the material is starting to sound really good. We’ll take two nights off before playing a 2-hour set Saturday, but one of those nights (Friday), the crew is going to come down to Garibaldi for some experience playing in front of (and with) other people.

Poster’s done, I think, for the Ilwaco gig. Ideally, it’s adaptable to other gigs. One wants a promotional icon of sorts that gets repeated constantly and is instantly recognizable—so when people see a poster, they’ll say, “Oh, those guys! Where are they playing now?” Need a poster for the Pine Grove Potluck performance June 21, and one for the Rainbow Lotus performance June 26; we’re also playing Saturday, June 11, in Nehalem (in the courtyard in front of the dog grooming place), but that’s officially a practice—we’re just going to be practicing in public, in the middle of town, on the main street. (The fact the newspaper published an announcement is irrelevant.)

The Big Week—actually, a Big Couple Weeks—starts tomorrow. Thirsty Lion Tuesday night, a job interview (of sorts) Wednesday, puppet show Friday (and we haven’t practiced with the stage yet), Ilwaco on Saturday, Pine Grove Tuesday, and the Rainbow Lotus performance Sunday. A good five meetings I need to be at during that time, too. And when do I find time to put new strings on the guitar?

Joe

Sunday, June 5, 2011

13 DAYS...

5:30 a.m. and it’s already way too hot—summer has hit the Oregon Coast with a vengeance, much like it used to do back East when I was a kid. It’s little comfort that I predicted that would happen (especially since I managed to be completely unprepared for it). Probably little comfort, too, that if my predictions are right, summer will be short as well as brutal. It’ll still be brutal.

13 days, now, until 45 Degrees North’s Big Gig in Ilwaco. The time for planning is over; all energy from here on out needs to go into rehearsal. We should consider the setlist frozen—no more changes, additions or deletions. What we got is what we got, and we concentrate on making what we got come out as perfect as possible. We should know by now—though it’s taken a while to get there—what key each of the songs is in; we should know, too, when lead breaks are, and how long and what progressions (verse or chorus) they follow—though I’m not sure we know that as well as we should.

There are some of the songs that are not long enough, and they’ll need to be “padded,” with repetition or additional lead breaks. Key there is to get everybody used to doing the song “our way,” not how it is on somebody else’s record, so it’s automatic when we’re on stage. Part of my insistence on leaving absolutely nothing to chance. (I want to hear—and critique—everybody’s Raps, too.)

Got to insist on that now, because I am going to run out of time myself. In the 13 days between now and the Big Gig, I also have to fit in practice for the puppet show (which is June 17), my own solo gig in Portland (June 14), the video class (June 7), filming for the video class, and one or two news stories to cover for the paper, too. If I get called for a job interview during that time, it’ll eat up what little time I have left. .

One piece of prep work I didn’t do, and miss having done, and will do for the future as time permits, is the CDs For The Band, with the setlist in order, with each song arranged in draft form exactly the way we’re going to do it on stage. It’s a big time-saver, and probably would have been a big frustration-saver, too. That’s actually easy to do for Deathgrass, because I’m (for better or worse) the lead singer, and we’re doing mostly my stuff, and I can pop out a quick and dirty recording of a song the way it’s going to be sung, because I’m singing it.

It gets a bit more complicated when there’s three other lead singers (I consider the fiddle a “singer”). I can’t sing their stuff—they have to sing it. That means recording them in situ, and dealing with the Tascam’s one-song-at-a-time and guitar-and-vocal-separate limitations (I have figured out work-arounds for both, I think). And then merging those recordings, roughly mastered, into a Setlist CD. I didn’t do any of that, and at this point there is probably not the time to do it. I will do it, though, for next time. We have a couple of Next Times coming up: the Pine Grove Potluck June 21 (for an hour), and the Rainbow Lotus June 24 (2 hours). As noted earlier, spending an afternoon apiece with each of the performers would probably be sufficient. We don’t need perfection. We need a “this is how it goes.”

I would like over time to get us away from doing covers. Originals, traditionals and songs by other unknowns are actually easier to deal with if one is doing the Setlist CDs; one doesn’t get confused by an Already-Famous Person’s rendition of a song (which would be in the wrong key anyway), because there isn’t one. I already have in The Catalog some co-writes (musications) that I’d love to have 45 Degrees North perform; they’d do a fine job, and the writing is better than anything on the commercial market these days. And I think if I put out a call to people I know, saying “Hey, we’ve got this pool of talent here—have you anything you’d like us to perform?” I’d get stuff. Lots of it, probably.

Joe

Friday, June 3, 2011

CONCERT SEASON...

Right now, Concert Season looks like:

TUESDAY, JUNE 14: Solo at the Thirsty Lion Pub in Old Town Portland. Show starts 8:30; I’m on after 9 p.m. 25-minute set.

FRIDAY, JUNE 17: The Great Intergalactic Puppet Theatre (Bay City Arts Center) performs “Cinderpiggy” at Garibaldi City Hall, 1 p.m. The play will have my song “My Happily Ever After,” performed by the sock puppet band. (I wrote the script, too.)

SATURDAY, JUNE 18: With 45 Degrees North at the River City Theater, Ilwaco (WA), 7 p.m. 3-hour show.

TUESDAY, JUNE 21: With 45 Degrees North at the Pine Grove Potluck in Manzanita (OR), 7:30 p.m. 1 hour (I think). No pay, but it sounds like we’ll get fed.

SATURDAY, JULY 16: With Deathgrass (11:30 a.m.) and 45 Degrees North (3:30 p.m.) at the Wheeler (OR) Summer Festival. Both are 90-minute sets.

SATURDAY, JULY 30: With Deathgrass at Garibaldi Days, 3 p.m. 1-hour set.

SATURDAY, AUG. 6: With Dan Doshier at the Southern Oregon Songwriters’ Summer Concert, Talent (OR) Community Center. 6:20 p.m. 40-minute set; half the songs will be Dan’s, and half mine.

Either SAT. SEPT. 17 or SUN. SEPT. 18: With Deathgrass at the Rocktoberfest, Rockaway Beach (OR) Wayside. Time (as well as date) won’t be firmed up until later in June, but it’ll be a 90-minute set.

So there are still a few weekends left I could fill. The fun part? Five of those gigs are PAID. That hasn’t happened in years. I am not one of those who won’t play unless they’re paid; I think a certain amount of one’s performances need to be for charity and/or publicity purposes. But in a capitalist society, where value is expressed in monetary terms, it’s nice that someone is willing to assign a dollar value to what I (or we) do.

Gave away two more CDs, at a meeting I was at that was trying to organize a 100th anniversary celebration for the train (the railroad finally made it through the Coast Range in late 1911, though the tracks were seriously damaged in a 2007 storm and have never been repaired). One CD went to a promoter who organizes jazz-and-blues train excursions (never country music, though I keep suggesting it); the other I gave to local railroad fanatic Pat Patterson. Pat’s favorite song is the “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” which is on the CD, and I have no doubt he’ll talk the thing up incessantly once he hears Deathgrass’ rendition.

I will manage, I think, to play music every night this week; it’s good finger-strengthening exercise. By mid-month, I need to be able to play a solid three hours without my fingers getting sore—not an easy task. The crowd at the Tsunami Grill is developing an appreciation for country music (though the only country music they’ve been exposed to is mine); they request “Pole Dancing for Jesus” every time I show up, and they know the words to “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” It is probably time to teach them something new. “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas,” perhaps?

Joe