LEFTOVERS DAY SETLIST...

Setlist is done for the Leftovers Day show. We have:

SET ONE (11 songs):
Pole Dancing for Jesus—slow & sleazy Gospel
Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass
Hank’s Song—deliberate two-step
Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—mod. tempo Gospel
The Occupation Song—ragtime
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
Santa, Baby (Javits, Springer & Springer)—slow, sleazy quasi-jazz
Abomination Two-Step—fast polka
Take-out Food (Stan Good)—slow, sleazy quasi-blues

SET TWO (10 songs):
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy
Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Rotten Candy—fast Gospel
Christmas Roadkill—slow two-step
Bluebird on My Windshield—fast bluegrass
Always Pet the Dogs—slow two-step
Naked Space Hamsters in Love—fast bluegrass
Writer’s Block Blues—slow & sleazy
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy

Second set is all love songs (defining “love” loosely, as usual). Still have two Christmas songs, plus three dead dogs, a dead cat, dead bird, dead armadillos (who were in love), and unspecified dead things by the side of the road. Love and dead things seem to go together, I guess.

First set’s got two Christmas songs, too—one of them my one and only cover, “Santa, Baby,” the oh-so-sleazy Javits/Springer/Springer song that Eartha Kitt made famous. It was my most-requested song a couple of Christmases ago, and people started requesting it again last week. The two local-color songs, three “religious” numbers, two about food (one with dead animals) since it’s Leftovers Day, “The Occupation Song” for social commentary and “Hank’s Song” just for fun.

Overall, the setlist tries to show off the fiddle—Jane is a great fiddle player. Some of the songs I’ll be doing in a different key than usual to give the fiddle more range (and a couple of them I’ve found are actually easier to sing in the “new” key). Next step: setlist CDs (I need to re-record four of the songs in the “new” key and record two more from scratch), and the Rap. Need to arrange to borrow amplification for the occasion, and need to get photos for the poster. (Must have a poster.) And we should invest an evening or two before the gig to practice.

Elsewhere: the “Jedi Pigs of Oz” script is done with revisions and it’s okay; got the theme song to record, too. I’m not sure when we get to perform it—maybe not until January. News stories to cover this week for the paper; square dance classes to help arrange; Friday’s the big trip to Portland, and it looks like I’ll have to go the long way ‘round to avoid the snow. Applied for yet another job—and since this one’s Something Completely Different, I’m sure that if they reject me it won’t be for the usual reasons.

Joe