SOUL SEARCHING...

Soul searching (where did I leave that dang thing?)… It appears precisely none of the city-manager jobs I put in for are going to pan out, and I’m told by the experts that shouldn’t surprise me; I’ve been out of the business too long, and the “market” assumes I have forgotten everything I know. I haven’t—but as in songwriting, the market is always right and I have nothing to say about it. I will have to do something else for a living—provided someone is willing to hire me to do something else; I haven’t proven that yet.

This week, though, I’ll try not to worry about it. This is Video Week, time to finish off the “Remembering Tillamook County” documentary. The World Premiere is December 29. Writing and recording the soundtrack is my responsibility. Doable? Of course—but I need to see the whole film first, and that hasn’t happened yet. I have seen pieces of it… What I envision myself doing is recording a base track, basically playing appropriate-sounding chord progressions over the entire length of the film, and then muting the sound when other audio (like interviews or narration) has to take precedence—which will be most of the time. I would like to rope in other musicians to help at strategic points—but that means I have to have my part done early.

Since I like using familiar tools, I anticipate doing all the recording on the Tascam and where I’m dealing with more than four channels, doing the mixing in Audacity. The Arts Center’s Macintoshes have more sophisticated audio software, but I really don’t have time to deal with a learning curve.

There are three “pre-recorded” pieces I want to fit in the film, too. Parts of Deathgrass’ rendition of “Tillamook Railroad Blues” for the opening and closing credits (with train footage and historical train photos for the backdrop). Part of a Kid Siegal song about hunting and fishing, that Charlie recorded at the Wheeler Summerfest. And Native American dance music for the about-the-Indians section (a large part of the funding for the documentary came from a Native American foundation).

Along with the premiere of the documentary, the Arts Center’s having an auction, and of course there’s a Deathgrass CD in among the goodies to be auctioned off. Some folks have offered services, too, from fishing trips to vacation rentals, and I’ve added me to that list, too. “Win me” in the auction and Joe will come perform an hour-long solo concert at your home or business or other place of your choice (I drew the line at “outside in the rain,” though). I wonder whether anyone would be interested in something like that? Every now and then, I get impressions I might have at least some people out there who think having me perform somewhere might draw people in instead of drive them away—and I pointedly do not discourage them. Might be a plus to do this; it’s not like I’m getting many paying gigs places—heck, I’m not getting unpaid ones, either. It could stimulate the market to do more of this.

Late-breaking news: I got tapped to do a Cristmas show at the Netarts Community Club next Tuesday (Dec. 20). They want all Christmas songs—and that means I’ll need to learn some more; besides my six (not all of which are good inclusions for a Christmas show), I can do good renditions of “Blue Christmas,” “White Christmas,” and (of course) “Santa, Baby.” They’d probably like some more traditional stuff. With the deliberate intent of doing some covers (including those mentioned), I am avoiding getting paid; yes, the Ugly Orange Bucket, with its “Tipping Is Not a City in China” label, will accompany me—but I insist on being a stickler for copyrights even if no one else I know is. If this were a paying gig, I would not do any covers—but I don’t have enough Christmas songs of my own to fill an hour’s show.

Joe