I did hear from the Video Lady, and I think she’s going to do it! Helps that the Senator is coming the same day (yes, it’s official), though not to the concert, and she wants to film his meeting. I got the Failed Economy show poster blown up to 2-feet-by-3-feet size to hang on the Dance Floor’s front door; everybody’s going to see it. If it happens—I hope it does—we’ll be broadcast throughout the county (just this county—Charter Communications finally compartmentalized their cable-TV system, alas). And the broadcast will include contact information for all the local Food Pantries in the county (there are four, I believe, including the one in Garibaldi).
If it happens—I hope it happens—there will finally be video of Deathgrass performing in public, and I will one way or another get copies. It’d be nice if copies could be sold—proceeds, after costs, going to the Food Pantry, or maybe to all four of them—and I’ll suggest it. I could work up costs for me doing the whole thing, for Video Lady providing the copies and me doing the packaging (I have sources for that stuff now), and for sending it out (again, to sources I know) for reproduction and packaging in quantity. I may just know enough about the business now to be able to pull it off.
Solicited “staff support” help from both the Food Pantry and the Lions Club; somebody has to take food and money donations, greet people, &c., and it can’t be the band—we’ll be performing. I want to bake lots of cookies to have for refreshments, along with coffee and punch, and I’d like the minister who runs the Food Pantry to make a pitch to the crowd during the band’s potty break—this time, I don’t want anybody to have an opportunity to sneak off.
This event will either be big or not, and I don’t know which scares me the worst—having nobody show up, or having the whole county show up. We’re not going to get to practice until the Wednesday night before the gig.
In the meantime, I am playing out as much as possible, to strengthen the fingers and make sure I’m used to playing in public. Thursday night was at the Tsunami Grill’s “country jam” in Wheeler; then the Friday Night Group in Garibaldi; Saturday, there’s the library in the afternoon (if I get back to town early enough), plus a “talent show” up north in Manzanita (benefit for the local Hoffman Center); and Sunday, an “acoustic jam” in Wheeler. And of course, every one of those is an opportunity to promote the Failed Economy Show, too. (The lesson: Never stop selling.)
The “country jam” isn’t really country (or maybe, as one Canadian songwriter I know put it, it’s just a different country). Rather a lot of rock music, some of it very progressive (i.e., I can’t follow it) rock music; some blues. I knew some of the musicians; rather more people—people I didn’t know—seemed to know who I was. I didn’t try to perform anything, just tried to follow the rest of ‘em, and hoped I did okay; next time—because I will go back—I might give ‘em some blues; the blues tunes I know (all of which are ones I’ve written) are pretty simple and traditional, but should still be acceptable. A thought: if brave enough, I could suggest “Angel in Chains,” the Southern Pigfish country death-metal anthem. That group in Wheeler could do it well. And I don’t have to tell them the band Southern Pigfish doesn’t really exist…
Ex-local DJ Tommy Boye’s latest venture, http://www.tillamookcow.com, debuts 1 March, and he’s interested in some Deathgrass music; we should have the album finished well before then. It is time to start planning the CD release party—when, where, how many CDs to have on hand, yada yada. I wonder if we could do the event at the Arts Center?
Joe
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
SOME UPDATES...
What did Robert Burns say about the best-laid plans of mice?” They “aft gae agley”? Drummer Chris will be out of town until after the weekend; that won’t leave a lot of opportunities for practice before the Big Event Feb. 5. I admit I’m the paranoid one; these guys are good, and the one gig we did last summer without any practice at all came off just about perfect. I still like the reassurance of me knowing for sure that we’re going to sound perfect. We may have a big crowd coming for this (I hope we have a big crowd coming for this).
I’m signed up for Wil Duncan’s video class at the Bay City Arts Center—Tuesday evenings for 16 weeks, plus field work. The product will be a half-hour documentary film on Tillamook County. The outcome for me will be experience storyboarding, lighting, using a professional camera, and editing—all of which I want to apply to music-video work. In addition, I and two other musicians in the class will have the job of writing and recording the musical score (something I’ve always wanted to do).
I have all but a couple of the photos for the “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” music video. People have been really helpful. I have multiple copies of some of the shots I need, and won’t be able to use all of them—but everybody will get thanks in the credits.
And I’m not sure what to use as a backdrop for the credits that’ll run during the instrumental break. I have over a minute to work with, and I have some very pretty scenery—this is a beautiful area I live in, after all—but I also have stark, disturbing snapshots of abandoned homes, derelict cars, vacant and deteriorating storefronts, even abandoned boats. Both are real—and current. I could combine them, I suppose: I could show that behind all that beauty is hiding an awful lot of pain—and maybe show, too, that amid the pain there’s rather a lot of hope. I’d have to be really obvious about it, though; this is a protest song, after all (despite the tongue being firmly planted in cheek), and subtlety doesn’t enter the picture.
Distributed more Failed Economy Show posters; rather a lot of people I didn’t think I knew seemed to know who I was, and I don’t know why. On the plus side, I do have an interview on local radio the Friday morning before the concert (and they asked me to bring my guitar—I don’t know what I should play); still trying to get an interview on the station further south that ex-local DJ Tommy Boye now manages. On the minus side, the Video Lady has not returned phone calls or e-mails for a week, which does not bode well for getting the event filmed. (And that’s an argument for my going through Wil’s class, and encouraging others to do so also. There needs to be more than one person in the community who can do this stuff.)
NEW STUFF: The writers’ group is starting up again (not because I’m back in town, but because one of the writers is out of the hospital), and I’ve been invited; I’ll go. I’m not sure what to take them for review. Down the road, I’d like their input and suggestions for the burlesque play I want to write, “Last of the Red-Hot Nutcrackers,” but I haven’t written anything yet.
There’s an all-girl “air band” supposedly forming, and I’ve offered to film them performing one of my songs—their pick (though my suggestion, I think, would be the death metal anthem, “Angel in Chains”—I can see that being performed by an all-girl air band real easily). It’ll be a good use for the film skills I’ll be learning in Wil Duncan’s class.
Joe
I’m signed up for Wil Duncan’s video class at the Bay City Arts Center—Tuesday evenings for 16 weeks, plus field work. The product will be a half-hour documentary film on Tillamook County. The outcome for me will be experience storyboarding, lighting, using a professional camera, and editing—all of which I want to apply to music-video work. In addition, I and two other musicians in the class will have the job of writing and recording the musical score (something I’ve always wanted to do).
I have all but a couple of the photos for the “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” music video. People have been really helpful. I have multiple copies of some of the shots I need, and won’t be able to use all of them—but everybody will get thanks in the credits.
And I’m not sure what to use as a backdrop for the credits that’ll run during the instrumental break. I have over a minute to work with, and I have some very pretty scenery—this is a beautiful area I live in, after all—but I also have stark, disturbing snapshots of abandoned homes, derelict cars, vacant and deteriorating storefronts, even abandoned boats. Both are real—and current. I could combine them, I suppose: I could show that behind all that beauty is hiding an awful lot of pain—and maybe show, too, that amid the pain there’s rather a lot of hope. I’d have to be really obvious about it, though; this is a protest song, after all (despite the tongue being firmly planted in cheek), and subtlety doesn’t enter the picture.
Distributed more Failed Economy Show posters; rather a lot of people I didn’t think I knew seemed to know who I was, and I don’t know why. On the plus side, I do have an interview on local radio the Friday morning before the concert (and they asked me to bring my guitar—I don’t know what I should play); still trying to get an interview on the station further south that ex-local DJ Tommy Boye now manages. On the minus side, the Video Lady has not returned phone calls or e-mails for a week, which does not bode well for getting the event filmed. (And that’s an argument for my going through Wil’s class, and encouraging others to do so also. There needs to be more than one person in the community who can do this stuff.)
NEW STUFF: The writers’ group is starting up again (not because I’m back in town, but because one of the writers is out of the hospital), and I’ve been invited; I’ll go. I’m not sure what to take them for review. Down the road, I’d like their input and suggestions for the burlesque play I want to write, “Last of the Red-Hot Nutcrackers,” but I haven’t written anything yet.
There’s an all-girl “air band” supposedly forming, and I’ve offered to film them performing one of my songs—their pick (though my suggestion, I think, would be the death metal anthem, “Angel in Chains”—I can see that being performed by an all-girl air band real easily). It’ll be a good use for the film skills I’ll be learning in Wil Duncan’s class.
Joe
Sunday, January 23, 2011
GIG POST-MORTEM (&C.)...
The gig was fun. Audience of 9, in a little group home up north. I was told they wanted to hear Cole Porter songs (they’re from that era), but I didn’t know any and didn’t have time to learn any; I told them instead, “But I know some Skip Johnson tunes” (not mentioning that Skip is still alive)—and gave ‘em “Next Time, I’m Gonna Get a Goldfish,” which really would be Dixieland jazz if someone other than me was playing it, and “Donohue,” which is straight old-time bluegrass.
Most everything else was original: “The Frog Next Door,” “Dead Things in the Shower,” “Bluebird on My Windshield,” “Hey, Little Chicken,” and “Armadillo on the Interstate.” Closed with Woody Guthrie’s “Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More”—and “Happy Birthday,” because this whole gig was a birthday party for one of the residents. And I did get, from the Birthday Girl, what may be the nicest compliment yet: “This was worth getting to 98 years old for.” Left ‘em a CD. Hope this happens again.
Recalls what a couple of professional (i.e., actually doing this full-time for money) musicians told me: “Taverns are fun, but the real money is in private parties.” True, I think, but I don’t have any influence at all in the private-parties network (if there is one). I got this gig because a friend told someone he knew that I did this, and they asked. With luck, it was as much fun for them as it was for me, and they’ll tell other people. I think that’s how it has to work.
Music at the library was good, too; nice crew of musicians, not all of whom show up regularly. Got to hear “The Dead Sweethearts Polka” perfomred probably the best it’s ever been done—but we did have a professional accordion player with us who can and does do polkas. It’s a good polka. You can dance to it… And it was fun seeing the audience all tapping their feet and feeling guilty about it. Interesting that this group of musicians does “Tillamook Railroad Blues” the same way Deathgrass does it, automatically, with the stops in the right places, and the harmonies, and the bass run… Maybe the song just defaults to that arrangement.
Sore fingers, though, after playing less than three hours of music in one day… I need to play more before our concert Feb. 5, to strengthen up my fingers. I don’t know if there’ll be the acoustic jam Wednesday afternoon this week at the Garibaldi Pub, but there’s supposedly a country jam (electric) in Wheeler Thursday night, and I know a couple of the musicians (that’s important), and I’d like to go. Band practice Friday night—just one week until the concert—and music at the library again on Saturday. Is that enough?
I am slowly but surely collecting the photos for the video of “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” Took one more on Gig Day, plus I found one in the archives that’ll work; two the day before, plus I got two e-mailed to me from Colorado. I still need the photos of the bank (or piggy bank), the semi, and someone paying (or collecting) a bill. I’ve tapped “Chippewa Bob” to be the “whiny lead” on the recording, playing the saw. Five parts (or six—I might add me on the Electric Banjo to make the sound a little fuller) means I have to mix the thing on the computer. I guess I’m ready.
Joe
Most everything else was original: “The Frog Next Door,” “Dead Things in the Shower,” “Bluebird on My Windshield,” “Hey, Little Chicken,” and “Armadillo on the Interstate.” Closed with Woody Guthrie’s “Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More”—and “Happy Birthday,” because this whole gig was a birthday party for one of the residents. And I did get, from the Birthday Girl, what may be the nicest compliment yet: “This was worth getting to 98 years old for.” Left ‘em a CD. Hope this happens again.
Recalls what a couple of professional (i.e., actually doing this full-time for money) musicians told me: “Taverns are fun, but the real money is in private parties.” True, I think, but I don’t have any influence at all in the private-parties network (if there is one). I got this gig because a friend told someone he knew that I did this, and they asked. With luck, it was as much fun for them as it was for me, and they’ll tell other people. I think that’s how it has to work.
Music at the library was good, too; nice crew of musicians, not all of whom show up regularly. Got to hear “The Dead Sweethearts Polka” perfomred probably the best it’s ever been done—but we did have a professional accordion player with us who can and does do polkas. It’s a good polka. You can dance to it… And it was fun seeing the audience all tapping their feet and feeling guilty about it. Interesting that this group of musicians does “Tillamook Railroad Blues” the same way Deathgrass does it, automatically, with the stops in the right places, and the harmonies, and the bass run… Maybe the song just defaults to that arrangement.
Sore fingers, though, after playing less than three hours of music in one day… I need to play more before our concert Feb. 5, to strengthen up my fingers. I don’t know if there’ll be the acoustic jam Wednesday afternoon this week at the Garibaldi Pub, but there’s supposedly a country jam (electric) in Wheeler Thursday night, and I know a couple of the musicians (that’s important), and I’d like to go. Band practice Friday night—just one week until the concert—and music at the library again on Saturday. Is that enough?
I am slowly but surely collecting the photos for the video of “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” Took one more on Gig Day, plus I found one in the archives that’ll work; two the day before, plus I got two e-mailed to me from Colorado. I still need the photos of the bank (or piggy bank), the semi, and someone paying (or collecting) a bill. I’ve tapped “Chippewa Bob” to be the “whiny lead” on the recording, playing the saw. Five parts (or six—I might add me on the Electric Banjo to make the sound a little fuller) means I have to mix the thing on the computer. I guess I’m ready.
Joe
Monday, January 17, 2011
THREE THINGS...
I’ve heard a number of folks comment, “Boy, you’re sure playing out a lot.” I’m probably not. I just talk about it a lot. I figure if there’s an audience out there, they probably need to know what you’re doing. Every now and then, I think I may just know enough about marketing to be able to teach it—and then I decide I ought to wait until I’ve had some success at it first. (And I am still waiting.)
I figure if you’re going to compete effectively against the Big Boys, you have to (1) come across like you know what you’re doing, (2) do things better than they do, and (3) do things they can’t.
Acting like you know what you’re doing is a matter of imitation—with quality. So the posters are uber-professional, the CDs look like what you’d buy in a store, and performances—solo and with the band—are rehearsed within an inch of perfection. That’s why Outside Services Ltd. will get revived this year as a publishing company: successful writers are supposed to be published, so I’ll get a publisher if I have to invent him myself. Ditto for the record company.
One way I see to perform better than the Big Boys is act fast. This is the lesson of the historic battle between the mammals and the dinosaurs. The mammals were smaller, but they could move quickly. The Big Boys will spend months (and millions) producing an album; the Deathgrass album will be done, start to finish, in a few weeks—and cheaply. (We won’t have to press millions of copies at a time, either.)
And one big thing the Big Boys can’t do is communicate. In these times of fragmentation and isolation, people need personal connections; they need to not only feel they know “their” artist, but know that person knows them, personally. That’s possible to do when one is operating on a small scale. (It’s going to be a challenge if/when one ever becomes bigger time, but no less important.) It’s an ability the Big Boys lost a long time ago.
Some updates:
RECORDING: The band is ready to record Friday, Feb. 11, I think. Got a look at Mike’s studio, and it’ll work. We’ll need to overlay the vocal and harmonica (we’ll do a “scratch” vocal when we record the material live), but everything else can be done Patsy Cline style—live and (hopefully) in one take. Charlie’s been practicing with his new electric mandolin, and we’ll use that on some of the songs (have to figure out which ones).
FAILED ECONOMY SHOW: The media and “joelist” have been notified of the Feb. 5 Failed Economy Show concert, and the Food Pantry’s been alerted, too—thought it would be good if they knew. (Turns out they still remember how much food and money we raised the last time. I’d like to beat that record.) The concert poster got distributed everywhere I went over the weekend, but there’s still more outlets that need it. I’ve e-mailed the Video Lady to see if we can get the performance on cable TV this time; still need to schedule some radio interviews.
THE VIDEO: Got some of the photos I need for “50 Ways to Cure the Depression,” and put out a call (via the blog, Just Plain Folks, and Facebook) for the rest; what photos I don’t have by the middle of the week I’ll take myself. While I’m waiting, I can re-record the song. Bass player’s in; I need to talk to our two leads (one of whom I’ll see Tuesday). It’ll entail some traveling around with the Tascam, but that’s easy—it’s portable.
Joe
I figure if you’re going to compete effectively against the Big Boys, you have to (1) come across like you know what you’re doing, (2) do things better than they do, and (3) do things they can’t.
Acting like you know what you’re doing is a matter of imitation—with quality. So the posters are uber-professional, the CDs look like what you’d buy in a store, and performances—solo and with the band—are rehearsed within an inch of perfection. That’s why Outside Services Ltd. will get revived this year as a publishing company: successful writers are supposed to be published, so I’ll get a publisher if I have to invent him myself. Ditto for the record company.
One way I see to perform better than the Big Boys is act fast. This is the lesson of the historic battle between the mammals and the dinosaurs. The mammals were smaller, but they could move quickly. The Big Boys will spend months (and millions) producing an album; the Deathgrass album will be done, start to finish, in a few weeks—and cheaply. (We won’t have to press millions of copies at a time, either.)
And one big thing the Big Boys can’t do is communicate. In these times of fragmentation and isolation, people need personal connections; they need to not only feel they know “their” artist, but know that person knows them, personally. That’s possible to do when one is operating on a small scale. (It’s going to be a challenge if/when one ever becomes bigger time, but no less important.) It’s an ability the Big Boys lost a long time ago.
Some updates:
RECORDING: The band is ready to record Friday, Feb. 11, I think. Got a look at Mike’s studio, and it’ll work. We’ll need to overlay the vocal and harmonica (we’ll do a “scratch” vocal when we record the material live), but everything else can be done Patsy Cline style—live and (hopefully) in one take. Charlie’s been practicing with his new electric mandolin, and we’ll use that on some of the songs (have to figure out which ones).
FAILED ECONOMY SHOW: The media and “joelist” have been notified of the Feb. 5 Failed Economy Show concert, and the Food Pantry’s been alerted, too—thought it would be good if they knew. (Turns out they still remember how much food and money we raised the last time. I’d like to beat that record.) The concert poster got distributed everywhere I went over the weekend, but there’s still more outlets that need it. I’ve e-mailed the Video Lady to see if we can get the performance on cable TV this time; still need to schedule some radio interviews.
THE VIDEO: Got some of the photos I need for “50 Ways to Cure the Depression,” and put out a call (via the blog, Just Plain Folks, and Facebook) for the rest; what photos I don’t have by the middle of the week I’ll take myself. While I’m waiting, I can re-record the song. Bass player’s in; I need to talk to our two leads (one of whom I’ll see Tuesday). It’ll entail some traveling around with the Tascam, but that’s easy—it’s portable.
Joe
Sunday, January 16, 2011
MUSIC VIDEO PROPOSAL...
I’m going to do a music video of “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” (which is a popular song right now, with the state the economy’s in). Going to do it cheap, of course—like, for zero cost—but very competently. I think that’s possible with what I know now. There is a draft of the song out there (www.soundclick.com/share?songid=7419157), but I’m going to re-record it for the video, on my equipment but with some good musicians. As noted earlier, the video will be done “French style,” as a fast-moving slide show rather than film.
The song’s three choruses all make suggestions for things one can do to cure the Depression. All thoroughly tongue-in-cheek, of course (I have a reputation to uphold, after all). There are 17 suggestions (not 50, and I do apologize for that in the song). What I want to do is have 17 photos of 17 different people illustrating those 17 things (tongue-in-cheekly, again, because a lot of the suggestions are quite illegal). And I will thank the people in the photos in the credits that’ll be shown during the instrumental break. The choruses are the only place in the video where people will show up—the photography for the verses will be deliberately people-less.
I have taken some photos over the past two days: Karen with the gigantic BCAC donation jar (“learn how to beg, Greg”), Jason with my “Free Writing Class” poster (“learn how to forge, George”), and Jim at the piano (“write a new song, Hmong”).
I already have a photo of Deathgrass in concert (“strike up the band, Stan”) and one of two Union police officers in duck hats (“make a lot of bucks, Ducks”). The City of Garibaldi still has those Publishers Clearing House-style gigantic checks from the building of the sewer plant, and I can get a photo of someone holding one (“write some big checks, Lex”). I have a selection of photos to pick from of groups of people doing things (“Let’s do it together, Heather”).
What I’m still looking for is:
A photo of somebody standing in front of a bank (“knock off a bank, Frank”)
Someone standing by one of those “How’s My Driving?” bumperstickers, ideally on the rear of a semi (“hijack a truck, Chuck”)
Somebody standing at the front-loading washers in a laundromat (“launder some money, Honey”)
Somebody paying a bill at a counter (“pay off the bills, Phil”)
Someone standing by or holding one of those posters warning about identity theft or some other fraud (“try a new scam, Pam”)
Somebody standing in front of a church (“start up a church, Lurch”)
Someone holding a flowerpot with something growing in it (“grow a little pot, Dot”)
Somebody—a couple, perhaps—standing in a really desolate-looking landscape (“I think we’re on our own, Joan”)
Someone either packing a vehicle or standing at an obviously packed vehicle ready to go somewhere (“take it on the road, Joad”)
Somebody with a plate or container of cookies (“we could be famous, Amos”)
So here’s the deal. If any of you within eyeshot have (or can get quickly) a photo that you think would work for one of these things, and are willing to be “featured” in the video, e-mail it to me (spacehamster@embarqmail.com). Make sure to identify whoever’s in the photo, so I can put it in the credits. High-resolution *.jpg or *.tif files, please.
Yes, I can stage most of those photos if I have to—and I will, for any that I can’t get. Just thought you folks out there might be interested in helping. And it’s “quickly” because I want to put this together this week, in my spare time (which there isn’t much of, by the way). As noted above, this is being done for no cost. It’s just one of those Things That Need To Be Done.
Joe
The song’s three choruses all make suggestions for things one can do to cure the Depression. All thoroughly tongue-in-cheek, of course (I have a reputation to uphold, after all). There are 17 suggestions (not 50, and I do apologize for that in the song). What I want to do is have 17 photos of 17 different people illustrating those 17 things (tongue-in-cheekly, again, because a lot of the suggestions are quite illegal). And I will thank the people in the photos in the credits that’ll be shown during the instrumental break. The choruses are the only place in the video where people will show up—the photography for the verses will be deliberately people-less.
I have taken some photos over the past two days: Karen with the gigantic BCAC donation jar (“learn how to beg, Greg”), Jason with my “Free Writing Class” poster (“learn how to forge, George”), and Jim at the piano (“write a new song, Hmong”).
I already have a photo of Deathgrass in concert (“strike up the band, Stan”) and one of two Union police officers in duck hats (“make a lot of bucks, Ducks”). The City of Garibaldi still has those Publishers Clearing House-style gigantic checks from the building of the sewer plant, and I can get a photo of someone holding one (“write some big checks, Lex”). I have a selection of photos to pick from of groups of people doing things (“Let’s do it together, Heather”).
What I’m still looking for is:
A photo of somebody standing in front of a bank (“knock off a bank, Frank”)
Someone standing by one of those “How’s My Driving?” bumperstickers, ideally on the rear of a semi (“hijack a truck, Chuck”)
Somebody standing at the front-loading washers in a laundromat (“launder some money, Honey”)
Somebody paying a bill at a counter (“pay off the bills, Phil”)
Someone standing by or holding one of those posters warning about identity theft or some other fraud (“try a new scam, Pam”)
Somebody standing in front of a church (“start up a church, Lurch”)
Someone holding a flowerpot with something growing in it (“grow a little pot, Dot”)
Somebody—a couple, perhaps—standing in a really desolate-looking landscape (“I think we’re on our own, Joan”)
Someone either packing a vehicle or standing at an obviously packed vehicle ready to go somewhere (“take it on the road, Joad”)
Somebody with a plate or container of cookies (“we could be famous, Amos”)
So here’s the deal. If any of you within eyeshot have (or can get quickly) a photo that you think would work for one of these things, and are willing to be “featured” in the video, e-mail it to me (spacehamster@embarqmail.com). Make sure to identify whoever’s in the photo, so I can put it in the credits. High-resolution *.jpg or *.tif files, please.
Yes, I can stage most of those photos if I have to—and I will, for any that I can’t get. Just thought you folks out there might be interested in helping. And it’s “quickly” because I want to put this together this week, in my spare time (which there isn’t much of, by the way). As noted above, this is being done for no cost. It’s just one of those Things That Need To Be Done.
Joe
Saturday, January 15, 2011
MORE VIDEO...
Today is the day the Oregon Coast is supposed to get six inches of rain—not that anyone would really notice: my rain gauge (a 5-gallon bucket) already has a foot of water in it, and sunshine is kind of a dim memory. Lots to do besides watching the floodwaters rise, however.
After the apparent success of the video of “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes,” I got excited about doing another one. This one will be “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” A recording of the song already exists, but it’s only a draft, and I’ll re-record it. I’ll still do it on the Tascam, but I’ll enlist the members of the band if possible to play different tracks. (The band will be performing it at the Failed Economy Show Feb. 5, but I don’t have any way to record it there.) I don’t want to invest money—or, for that matter, time—in what will be essentially an experiment.
The video will be done “French” style, as a fast-moving slide show with sound track and captions rather than actual film; this song lends itself well to captured images. I’ve done that twice before, but this time, I’ll use exclusively photos I’ve taken myself—that way, I can control the resolution.
I have scripted the thing out, and know where and how I can take most of the photographs. The other new thing I want to do here is enlist other people—making the video more of a community project, as it were. The choruses (3 of them) all describe things one can do to cure the Depression (17 of them, in fact). What I’d like to do is have 17 different people in the photographs that reference those 17 different things. (The song, after all, talks about “We’ve got to help each other in our struggle to be free.”) During the instrumental break, besides identifying the band, I can give “special thanks” to those folks for being in the video.
Since just about all the material can be photographed locally, I can (hopefully) enlist 17 local folks I know to be subjects. I’ll raise the issue when I perform the song at the Bay City Arts Center’s open mike (that way, they’ll have heard the song, and can decide if they really want to participate—my music, as many have noted, is an acquired taste, and not everybody’s interested in acquiring it).
All I’m doing here is refining technique, really—making sure that when I do this “for real” (in making the Southern Pigfish videos), that I can create a salable product quickly and competently, with the tools I have at hand. The same thing I already do with my graphic-design stuff. If I do want this to be one of the Southern Pigfish videos later, I can easily substitute their soundtrack for mine—one of the advantages of using a slide show rather than film.
Started giving out posters for the Feb. 5 Failed Economy Show; hard to tell if people are interested because (1) they’ve heard and like the band, (2) they remember the last Failed Economy Show and how great it was, or (3) they’re attracted to the eye-catching poster, but they do appear to be interested. The notice is done, too—and a “media” list of newspapers, magazines and radio stations to get it along with the “joelist.” I’d like this to be the biggest event of February (a month that, ‘tis true, is not known for big events).
Joe
After the apparent success of the video of “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes,” I got excited about doing another one. This one will be “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” A recording of the song already exists, but it’s only a draft, and I’ll re-record it. I’ll still do it on the Tascam, but I’ll enlist the members of the band if possible to play different tracks. (The band will be performing it at the Failed Economy Show Feb. 5, but I don’t have any way to record it there.) I don’t want to invest money—or, for that matter, time—in what will be essentially an experiment.
The video will be done “French” style, as a fast-moving slide show with sound track and captions rather than actual film; this song lends itself well to captured images. I’ve done that twice before, but this time, I’ll use exclusively photos I’ve taken myself—that way, I can control the resolution.
I have scripted the thing out, and know where and how I can take most of the photographs. The other new thing I want to do here is enlist other people—making the video more of a community project, as it were. The choruses (3 of them) all describe things one can do to cure the Depression (17 of them, in fact). What I’d like to do is have 17 different people in the photographs that reference those 17 different things. (The song, after all, talks about “We’ve got to help each other in our struggle to be free.”) During the instrumental break, besides identifying the band, I can give “special thanks” to those folks for being in the video.
Since just about all the material can be photographed locally, I can (hopefully) enlist 17 local folks I know to be subjects. I’ll raise the issue when I perform the song at the Bay City Arts Center’s open mike (that way, they’ll have heard the song, and can decide if they really want to participate—my music, as many have noted, is an acquired taste, and not everybody’s interested in acquiring it).
All I’m doing here is refining technique, really—making sure that when I do this “for real” (in making the Southern Pigfish videos), that I can create a salable product quickly and competently, with the tools I have at hand. The same thing I already do with my graphic-design stuff. If I do want this to be one of the Southern Pigfish videos later, I can easily substitute their soundtrack for mine—one of the advantages of using a slide show rather than film.
Started giving out posters for the Feb. 5 Failed Economy Show; hard to tell if people are interested because (1) they’ve heard and like the band, (2) they remember the last Failed Economy Show and how great it was, or (3) they’re attracted to the eye-catching poster, but they do appear to be interested. The notice is done, too—and a “media” list of newspapers, magazines and radio stations to get it along with the “joelist.” I’d like this to be the biggest event of February (a month that, ‘tis true, is not known for big events).
Joe
Thursday, January 13, 2011
A VIDEO AND A THIRSTY LION...
The re-done music video of “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” is okay. Link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShwUFt8_UPc and as this is written, it’s had 30 “hits” since it got posted two days ago. The video was an opportunity to dust off my cartoonist skills—hadn’t really had a chance to use them since I was a newspaper editorial cartoonist, over 30 years ago—and make sure I hadn’t lost my touch.
The question was asked (inevitably) whether I could do an encore. My initial reaction is “Probably not.” I can’t think of any other of my songs that would lend themselves to a cartoon interpretation—but I’m open to suggestions. I am also trying to stick to my rule that each video has got to be different. Having done this one this way, and having had it come out (I think) competent, I am disinclined to do another one the same way. (Of course, I am always capable of breaking my own rules, too.)
For the video of the “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” I don’t think we can do footage of us playing on the train; the train doesn’t have 110-volt power, and I don’t want the hassle and expense of getting a generator. I got rid of the Dodson Drifters’ old battery-powered PA amp back in 2008 (thing still worked, after 30 years—Radio Shack made good stuff) and never thought I’d need something like that again. We can film the band playing at either Garibaldi or Wheeler Station (where there is electricity), and meld that with footage of and from the train; that should work. The key is competence: it is fine to be understated—one just needs to be professionally understated.
We’re on for SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 for the Failed Economy Show benefit for the Food Pantry. The City Hall Dance Floor’s been reserved, the first media announcement has been made (in my column for the newspaper), and the poster’s done and ready to be distributed. Saturday, at the Arts Center’s open mike, I should be able to talk to our would-be fiddle player and backup singer and see if they’re interested in being part of the show. Practice will be Friday night, Jan. 28. Tentatively, we’re scheduled to record the album the Friday after the show (Feb. 11).
It’s probably good that all this is taking place as fast as it is—I have a job interview Friday, Jan. 21, and while I refuse to be hopeful (I have been rejected too many times), there is always a chance they could hire me. That job is in the Willamette Valley, again—just far enough away to make commuting infeasible. If the job is offered, I’m taking it—applying the Standard Rule of “whoever gets me first, gets me.” I can do lots of stuff, and am quite comfortable doing any of it.
A brief post-mortem on the Thirsty Lion gig—about all it deserves: it was fun, primarily because I like playing; financially, it was a bust—either the predicted ice storm (which did hit while I was there) or the prospect of having to listen to me sing kept people away in droves, as it were, and I was playing to a mostly empty house. Two people did come specifically to hear me (thanks, Kym and Tony); the other performer, a blues ukelelist(!) named Patrick, had a bigger cheering section (he was quite good) and probably got the prize. (The other two scheduled performers didn’t come, presumably because of the bad weather.) Far more exciting than the gig itself was the 4-hour trip home—two hours of which was spent just extricating myself from Portland, which was the only place that had any ice. Would I do it again? Probably not in the winter again.
Lots of music this week—Friday night at City Hall, Saturday afternoon at the library, Saturday night at the Arts Center. There’s talk of re-starting the all-acoustic Wednesday afternoon jam session at the Garibaldi Pub, now that I’m back in town (nice compliment there, I think).
Joe
The question was asked (inevitably) whether I could do an encore. My initial reaction is “Probably not.” I can’t think of any other of my songs that would lend themselves to a cartoon interpretation—but I’m open to suggestions. I am also trying to stick to my rule that each video has got to be different. Having done this one this way, and having had it come out (I think) competent, I am disinclined to do another one the same way. (Of course, I am always capable of breaking my own rules, too.)
For the video of the “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” I don’t think we can do footage of us playing on the train; the train doesn’t have 110-volt power, and I don’t want the hassle and expense of getting a generator. I got rid of the Dodson Drifters’ old battery-powered PA amp back in 2008 (thing still worked, after 30 years—Radio Shack made good stuff) and never thought I’d need something like that again. We can film the band playing at either Garibaldi or Wheeler Station (where there is electricity), and meld that with footage of and from the train; that should work. The key is competence: it is fine to be understated—one just needs to be professionally understated.
We’re on for SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5 for the Failed Economy Show benefit for the Food Pantry. The City Hall Dance Floor’s been reserved, the first media announcement has been made (in my column for the newspaper), and the poster’s done and ready to be distributed. Saturday, at the Arts Center’s open mike, I should be able to talk to our would-be fiddle player and backup singer and see if they’re interested in being part of the show. Practice will be Friday night, Jan. 28. Tentatively, we’re scheduled to record the album the Friday after the show (Feb. 11).
It’s probably good that all this is taking place as fast as it is—I have a job interview Friday, Jan. 21, and while I refuse to be hopeful (I have been rejected too many times), there is always a chance they could hire me. That job is in the Willamette Valley, again—just far enough away to make commuting infeasible. If the job is offered, I’m taking it—applying the Standard Rule of “whoever gets me first, gets me.” I can do lots of stuff, and am quite comfortable doing any of it.
A brief post-mortem on the Thirsty Lion gig—about all it deserves: it was fun, primarily because I like playing; financially, it was a bust—either the predicted ice storm (which did hit while I was there) or the prospect of having to listen to me sing kept people away in droves, as it were, and I was playing to a mostly empty house. Two people did come specifically to hear me (thanks, Kym and Tony); the other performer, a blues ukelelist(!) named Patrick, had a bigger cheering section (he was quite good) and probably got the prize. (The other two scheduled performers didn’t come, presumably because of the bad weather.) Far more exciting than the gig itself was the 4-hour trip home—two hours of which was spent just extricating myself from Portland, which was the only place that had any ice. Would I do it again? Probably not in the winter again.
Lots of music this week—Friday night at City Hall, Saturday afternoon at the library, Saturday night at the Arts Center. There’s talk of re-starting the all-acoustic Wednesday afternoon jam session at the Garibaldi Pub, now that I’m back in town (nice compliment there, I think).
Joe
Monday, January 10, 2011
THE NEW (DRAFT) MUSIC VIDEO...
ZA draft of the “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” video is on YouTube. I won’t include the link, because I think I can re-make the video better. I was after enough funkiness to be charming, but what I got is too much; it needs to be competent as well, and the draft is very short on competence.
Problem is with the scanner, I think: using the scanner was supposed to make all the images the same size, but it didn’t—the paper was the same size, but the scanner only caught the part of the paper that had drawing on it. I can fix that problem, I think, by having something in the corners of each piece of paper—the scanner will be forced to consider that part of the “drawing.” (There is an advantage to having tools that aren’t too intelligent.) That should make each drawing the size of the paper, and will give me the consistency I need.
Hardest part may actually be forcing myself to re-do it. I tend to not like re-doing stuff. I like having it perfect the first time because I don’t want to go back to it.
In this case, re-doing shouldn’t be a long and painful process. It only took about three hours to do the line drawings and scanning, and less than an hour to put it all together. Of course, this one was easy. Other music videos will necessarily take longer, because they will entail actually using a camera and doing captioning. And I will be more insistent about being perfect the first time.
I do have the luxury, if one can call it that, of not having to work on just one thing at a time. I have laden myself up with enough “I’ll do this when I’m unemployed again” work that I can (and should) be doing several things at once, all the time. Just like I did when I was working as a city manager. So along with this first video, the Deathgrass album cover has been designed, along with the CD label (both stark and simple, and eye-catching), practice with the band for the album and the “Failed Economy Show” concert mostly arranged, and some of the publicity lined up.
I have a draft poster for the Failed Economy Show, too, though I’m still not sure of the date (I think it’ll be February 5). It helps to be able to do this stuff fast. This coming Tuesday night is the Thirsty Lion gig, and I’ll be doing at least a couple of other things on the trip to Portland, to be as efficient as possible. I will be avoiding the snow on the way there, too. I don’t have time to worry (which is another luxury, I guess).
I looked up the copyrights for the songs on the album, and with one exception they’re all between 2005 and 2009, so they’re all post-Santa’s Fallen music. (The “Tillamook Railroad Blues” (2002) was on the first, solo album I did, but has never been recorded with a band.) I wonder if I should include lyrics? Back in the days of vinyl LPs, I always liked having lyrics on album covers; that’s how I learned to play a lot of those songs. If I could fit everything on an 8x14 sheet, it’d work (8x11 paper can’t be folded properly to fit inside a CD case). I’d have to do my own packaging if I did that—no outside service would be able to do it—but I’m probably going to have to do my own packaging anyway, to save money. It might be easier to include a coupon instead, for a “2011 edition” of the Joe Songbook (which has all the lyrics, and chords, too) at a discount price. The coupon would be a nice giveaway at gigs, too.
Whatever I do has to be uber-professional, though; if I can’t make what I do the equal of anything out on the commercial market, I don’t want to do it. If I’m going to compete in the same marketplace as the Big Boys, I have to be able to do everything as good as they do. And mostly, I can. (And that’s why I’ll re-do that video of “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” Soon. It did get 13 “hits” the first day, though.)
Joe
Problem is with the scanner, I think: using the scanner was supposed to make all the images the same size, but it didn’t—the paper was the same size, but the scanner only caught the part of the paper that had drawing on it. I can fix that problem, I think, by having something in the corners of each piece of paper—the scanner will be forced to consider that part of the “drawing.” (There is an advantage to having tools that aren’t too intelligent.) That should make each drawing the size of the paper, and will give me the consistency I need.
Hardest part may actually be forcing myself to re-do it. I tend to not like re-doing stuff. I like having it perfect the first time because I don’t want to go back to it.
In this case, re-doing shouldn’t be a long and painful process. It only took about three hours to do the line drawings and scanning, and less than an hour to put it all together. Of course, this one was easy. Other music videos will necessarily take longer, because they will entail actually using a camera and doing captioning. And I will be more insistent about being perfect the first time.
I do have the luxury, if one can call it that, of not having to work on just one thing at a time. I have laden myself up with enough “I’ll do this when I’m unemployed again” work that I can (and should) be doing several things at once, all the time. Just like I did when I was working as a city manager. So along with this first video, the Deathgrass album cover has been designed, along with the CD label (both stark and simple, and eye-catching), practice with the band for the album and the “Failed Economy Show” concert mostly arranged, and some of the publicity lined up.
I have a draft poster for the Failed Economy Show, too, though I’m still not sure of the date (I think it’ll be February 5). It helps to be able to do this stuff fast. This coming Tuesday night is the Thirsty Lion gig, and I’ll be doing at least a couple of other things on the trip to Portland, to be as efficient as possible. I will be avoiding the snow on the way there, too. I don’t have time to worry (which is another luxury, I guess).
I looked up the copyrights for the songs on the album, and with one exception they’re all between 2005 and 2009, so they’re all post-Santa’s Fallen music. (The “Tillamook Railroad Blues” (2002) was on the first, solo album I did, but has never been recorded with a band.) I wonder if I should include lyrics? Back in the days of vinyl LPs, I always liked having lyrics on album covers; that’s how I learned to play a lot of those songs. If I could fit everything on an 8x14 sheet, it’d work (8x11 paper can’t be folded properly to fit inside a CD case). I’d have to do my own packaging if I did that—no outside service would be able to do it—but I’m probably going to have to do my own packaging anyway, to save money. It might be easier to include a coupon instead, for a “2011 edition” of the Joe Songbook (which has all the lyrics, and chords, too) at a discount price. The coupon would be a nice giveaway at gigs, too.
Whatever I do has to be uber-professional, though; if I can’t make what I do the equal of anything out on the commercial market, I don’t want to do it. If I’m going to compete in the same marketplace as the Big Boys, I have to be able to do everything as good as they do. And mostly, I can. (And that’s why I’ll re-do that video of “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” Soon. It did get 13 “hits” the first day, though.)
Joe
Friday, January 7, 2011
SOME PUBLICITY, SOME PLANS & SOME STATISTICS...
Nice write-up in Oregon Music News (http://www.oregonmusicnews.com --it’s in their “This Just In” section). I hope it brings some traffic to the Thirsty Lion gig—it’d be real fun if it did. (It would also indicate that a lot of people read the Oregon Music News, which would also be good to know.) The article also mentioned Deathgrass and the upcoming Failed Economy Show, giving me an opening to talk to them again.
Is there a lesson there? Persistence, maybe; I had attempted to contact them before—but this time, I wasn’t promoting a performance on the Coast, but rather one in Portland (yes, the Visiting Artist From Out of Town thing). So this time there was the right nexus, too. And the “Portland Songwriter Showcase,” which I don’t think they’ve reported on before, is something they ought to know about and be interested in.
Still waiting on the date for the Failed Economy Show; it’s going to depend on whether Charlie (our lead guitarist) manages to bring jazz guitarist John Stowell out to the Arts Center for another seminar—if he does, the Stowell seminar will be Jan. 29, and we’ll do the Failed Economy Show on Feb. 5. Setlist for the show is done, and distributed to the band; Rap is almost done; and I have another Depression photo from the Farmer’s Home Administration archives to use on the poster.
And we might have a fiddle player with us, too! (Actually, there’s a chance I could also enlist a girl singer—she sang with us at the wedding—and a saxophonist—who played with us at the benefit for Val Folkema last April. We could have quite an ensemble.)
I discovered that Google’s Blogspot keeps STATISTICS. They do make for a fascinating (if incomprehensible) snapshot. I knew, for instance, that some people were actually reading “The Writer’s Blog.” Apparently, since I started, 1,537 people have done so. Thank you, whoever you are (or were).
Biggest number of “hits” happened this past October (the month that daughter got married, and the band played the reception), and the “issue” that got the most reads was the Rocktoberfest post-mortem (Sept. 19, 2010). In fact, three of the top five “issues” in readership were concert post-mortems.
The demographics of the “audience” are a little strange. That 671 readers were from the U.S. is understandable; I live there, too. I can understand having readers from England (52), Canada (51), and Germany (132), because I do know people in those places (I don’t know that many, though). But 133 in Russia? Apparently there’s a Russian service that’s been re-broadcasting the blog in Russian—why, I have no idea. And I have no explanation for the readers in Luxembourg (44?), China (39?), Poland (32?), Brazil (28?), and Latvia (27?). I hadn’t planned on visiting those countries when I did the World Tour, but maybe I should.
Of course, I have no way of knowing who those people are, or how to reach them; the Internet, alas, is like that. Knowing those readers are out there (or at least that Google thinks they are) is tantalizing, but I don’t know how to take advantage of that information. (I suppose I could always do an issue of the blog in, say, Latvian, and see what happened.)
Since the Friday Night Group was short-handed this week, I was the only lead guitarist, which was both fun and challenging. Music Saturday afternoon at the library—and I saw a poster advertising a Saturday night jam session in (of all places) teeny little Hebo, Oregon. Tempting to go just to play them the “Welcome to Hebo Waltz.” It’s never been played in Hebo.
Joe
Is there a lesson there? Persistence, maybe; I had attempted to contact them before—but this time, I wasn’t promoting a performance on the Coast, but rather one in Portland (yes, the Visiting Artist From Out of Town thing). So this time there was the right nexus, too. And the “Portland Songwriter Showcase,” which I don’t think they’ve reported on before, is something they ought to know about and be interested in.
Still waiting on the date for the Failed Economy Show; it’s going to depend on whether Charlie (our lead guitarist) manages to bring jazz guitarist John Stowell out to the Arts Center for another seminar—if he does, the Stowell seminar will be Jan. 29, and we’ll do the Failed Economy Show on Feb. 5. Setlist for the show is done, and distributed to the band; Rap is almost done; and I have another Depression photo from the Farmer’s Home Administration archives to use on the poster.
And we might have a fiddle player with us, too! (Actually, there’s a chance I could also enlist a girl singer—she sang with us at the wedding—and a saxophonist—who played with us at the benefit for Val Folkema last April. We could have quite an ensemble.)
I discovered that Google’s Blogspot keeps STATISTICS. They do make for a fascinating (if incomprehensible) snapshot. I knew, for instance, that some people were actually reading “The Writer’s Blog.” Apparently, since I started, 1,537 people have done so. Thank you, whoever you are (or were).
Biggest number of “hits” happened this past October (the month that daughter got married, and the band played the reception), and the “issue” that got the most reads was the Rocktoberfest post-mortem (Sept. 19, 2010). In fact, three of the top five “issues” in readership were concert post-mortems.
The demographics of the “audience” are a little strange. That 671 readers were from the U.S. is understandable; I live there, too. I can understand having readers from England (52), Canada (51), and Germany (132), because I do know people in those places (I don’t know that many, though). But 133 in Russia? Apparently there’s a Russian service that’s been re-broadcasting the blog in Russian—why, I have no idea. And I have no explanation for the readers in Luxembourg (44?), China (39?), Poland (32?), Brazil (28?), and Latvia (27?). I hadn’t planned on visiting those countries when I did the World Tour, but maybe I should.
Of course, I have no way of knowing who those people are, or how to reach them; the Internet, alas, is like that. Knowing those readers are out there (or at least that Google thinks they are) is tantalizing, but I don’t know how to take advantage of that information. (I suppose I could always do an issue of the blog in, say, Latvian, and see what happened.)
Since the Friday Night Group was short-handed this week, I was the only lead guitarist, which was both fun and challenging. Music Saturday afternoon at the library—and I saw a poster advertising a Saturday night jam session in (of all places) teeny little Hebo, Oregon. Tempting to go just to play them the “Welcome to Hebo Waltz.” It’s never been played in Hebo.
Joe
Thursday, January 6, 2011
SETLIST FOR THE FAILED ECONOMY SHOW...
The Failed Economy show will be either JAN. 29 or FEB. 5—both are Saturdays. Tentatively, the setlist for the 2-hour show looks like this:
SET #1 (11 songs):
Dead Things in the Shower (with Bobbie Gallup)—fast two-step **
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—country rock
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues **
Things Are Getting Better Now that Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself—fast blues **
No Good Songs About the War—slow, marching two-step **
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock **
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy **
Rotten Candy—fast Gospel **
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—deliberate two-step **
SET #2 (11 songs):
Have a Good Day (Frank Pappas)—country rock
Final Payment (Gem Watson)—mod. speed Gospel
The Dog’s Song—rock ‘n’ roll **
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly
Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)—fast two-step
So 20th Century (Coleman & Lazzerini)—ragtime
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass **
Crosses by the Roadside—slow two-step **
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)—fast bluegrass
11 of those 22 songs are also going to be on the album—also intended to be done in January—so our practices (next weekend, tentatively) can do double duty. (I’ve told the band two practices ought to do it.) Publicity still to do; I seem to have acquired a couple of media contacts now, that I can maybe use to advantage. This time, I want to have refreshments at the break, to discourage the crowd from drifting away—my cookies, and (if I can locate her—her boyfriend, who’s in his 90s, has been sick) Jeannette’s cinnamon-rolls-to-die-for. And this time, I’d like to have the event videotaped. The publicity this time will extend to a couple of additional counties, and it’d be fun to have the event on TV.
Oregon Music News did e-mail me back, and I sent (at their request) my version of an electronic press kit—a couple of photos, the “Joe is Great!” text from the Songbook CD, and links to the two Soundclick “pages.” Couldn’t give them any videos of me playing, but I sent links to the music videos of “The Taboo Song,” “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” and “Me and Rufus, and Burning Down the House.” Sounds like they’ll say something about the Thirsty Lion gig. Can I get them to say anything about the Failed Economy Show and the album? We’ll see.
The open mike at the Bay City Arts Center Jan. 15 wants to focus on freedom (it being Martin Luther King weekend), so I think I’ll give them “The Writer’s Block Blues,” “Free-Range Person,” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” They’re all about freedom (albeit a little tongue-in-cheek), and the last one specifically says (a la Paul Simon), “We’ve got to help each other in our struggle to be free.” If there’s time, the Arts Center crowd can have “Song for Charity (and Faith, and Hope)”—I think that’s the only one nobody there has heard yet. And that show will get videotaped. I’ll see if I can extract my part to use for promotional purposes.
Yes, it’s busy—deliberately so: not only did I save up a lot of stuff do do while I was working, but I really enjoyed being constantly busy while I was working, and would like to keep it up. ‘Sides, as I’ve been telling folks, I could get employed again at a moment’s notice. I don’t know if that will happen, but I hope it does.
Joe
SET #1 (11 songs):
Dead Things in the Shower (with Bobbie Gallup)—fast two-step **
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—country rock
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues **
Things Are Getting Better Now that Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself—fast blues **
No Good Songs About the War—slow, marching two-step **
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock **
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy **
Rotten Candy—fast Gospel **
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—deliberate two-step **
SET #2 (11 songs):
Have a Good Day (Frank Pappas)—country rock
Final Payment (Gem Watson)—mod. speed Gospel
The Dog’s Song—rock ‘n’ roll **
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly
Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)—fast two-step
So 20th Century (Coleman & Lazzerini)—ragtime
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass **
Crosses by the Roadside—slow two-step **
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)—fast bluegrass
11 of those 22 songs are also going to be on the album—also intended to be done in January—so our practices (next weekend, tentatively) can do double duty. (I’ve told the band two practices ought to do it.) Publicity still to do; I seem to have acquired a couple of media contacts now, that I can maybe use to advantage. This time, I want to have refreshments at the break, to discourage the crowd from drifting away—my cookies, and (if I can locate her—her boyfriend, who’s in his 90s, has been sick) Jeannette’s cinnamon-rolls-to-die-for. And this time, I’d like to have the event videotaped. The publicity this time will extend to a couple of additional counties, and it’d be fun to have the event on TV.
Oregon Music News did e-mail me back, and I sent (at their request) my version of an electronic press kit—a couple of photos, the “Joe is Great!” text from the Songbook CD, and links to the two Soundclick “pages.” Couldn’t give them any videos of me playing, but I sent links to the music videos of “The Taboo Song,” “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” and “Me and Rufus, and Burning Down the House.” Sounds like they’ll say something about the Thirsty Lion gig. Can I get them to say anything about the Failed Economy Show and the album? We’ll see.
The open mike at the Bay City Arts Center Jan. 15 wants to focus on freedom (it being Martin Luther King weekend), so I think I’ll give them “The Writer’s Block Blues,” “Free-Range Person,” and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” They’re all about freedom (albeit a little tongue-in-cheek), and the last one specifically says (a la Paul Simon), “We’ve got to help each other in our struggle to be free.” If there’s time, the Arts Center crowd can have “Song for Charity (and Faith, and Hope)”—I think that’s the only one nobody there has heard yet. And that show will get videotaped. I’ll see if I can extract my part to use for promotional purposes.
Yes, it’s busy—deliberately so: not only did I save up a lot of stuff do do while I was working, but I really enjoyed being constantly busy while I was working, and would like to keep it up. ‘Sides, as I’ve been telling folks, I could get employed again at a moment’s notice. I don’t know if that will happen, but I hope it does.
Joe
Sunday, January 2, 2011
BEING BACK: PART I...
Started to write the blog this morning, and ended up writing a job application instead. That’s a hopeful sign for the future. A lot of Monday’s activities will be job-related, too—I want to stop by the newspaper office and meet the new editor, and see if she might have additional work for me, let the folks at West Coast Temps know I’m available again, and check with the unemployment office (now that I’m unemployed again). On the not-job-related front, I’ll try to get signed up for a slot on the 2nd Street Public Market’s stage, attend the Bay City Arts Center’s board meeting for the first time in months, and make the rounds in person to collect stuff for the newspaper column—again, for the first time in months.
Looks like we can record the Deathgrass album in January; I’ll see two of the band in person Monday, and will call the other two. I want to do this Patsy Cline style—live and in one take—so we’ll need to be thoroughly practiced before we go into the studio. I’d like to do the recording in one evening if possible—then, the rest of the time can be Mike’s, doing the mixing and mastering. The Album List looks like this (still):
Dead Things in the Shower (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 marching two-step
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
I’m assuming Charlie on lead guitar (because Mike will be sound engineer—but I want Mike’s harmonies on “Tillamook Railroad Blues” and “Un-Easy Street”). A good half of those songs show off Doc’s blues harp playing. There’s one—“No Good Songs About the War”—where I’d really like to play lead guitar (I did it on the cut we sent to the “Doing Dylan” contest in England), but I think I’ll let it pass; almost anybody can play lead better than I can, and the goal is to have a good product, not for me to show off. I write stuff. That’s enough.
And—wanting to be as efficient as possible—practice for the album can do double duty for practice for the Failed Economy Show. I just don’t know when that concert will be. Third Saturday of January is out, but that Sunday might be okay (it’s a holiday weekend); the two or three following Saturdays might be okay, too. I’d like to have a month to work on the publicity, and I haven’t done anything to date (being employed, and all). Again, I want to do it in January, because I don’t know what February may bring (I keep hoping it’ll bring another job).
The recording will provide tracks for a couple of music videos, too. “The Dog’s Song” I’ve already mentioned; for “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” ideal would be to shoot footage of the band playing on the train (and I’ve been angling for a “Deathgrass cruise” event on the train this coming summer).
Music Friday and Saturday this week; next Tuesday’s the Thirsty Lion gig in Portland. No response from Oregon Music News to my message about the Thirsty Lion (I am not surprised—they don’t seem to accept outside input well), but I did hear from the Willamette Writers group—hopefully, some of them will come. Might have a familiar face or two at the show after all.
Joe
Looks like we can record the Deathgrass album in January; I’ll see two of the band in person Monday, and will call the other two. I want to do this Patsy Cline style—live and in one take—so we’ll need to be thoroughly practiced before we go into the studio. I’d like to do the recording in one evening if possible—then, the rest of the time can be Mike’s, doing the mixing and mastering. The Album List looks like this (still):
Dead Things in the Shower (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 marching two-step
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
I’m assuming Charlie on lead guitar (because Mike will be sound engineer—but I want Mike’s harmonies on “Tillamook Railroad Blues” and “Un-Easy Street”). A good half of those songs show off Doc’s blues harp playing. There’s one—“No Good Songs About the War”—where I’d really like to play lead guitar (I did it on the cut we sent to the “Doing Dylan” contest in England), but I think I’ll let it pass; almost anybody can play lead better than I can, and the goal is to have a good product, not for me to show off. I write stuff. That’s enough.
And—wanting to be as efficient as possible—practice for the album can do double duty for practice for the Failed Economy Show. I just don’t know when that concert will be. Third Saturday of January is out, but that Sunday might be okay (it’s a holiday weekend); the two or three following Saturdays might be okay, too. I’d like to have a month to work on the publicity, and I haven’t done anything to date (being employed, and all). Again, I want to do it in January, because I don’t know what February may bring (I keep hoping it’ll bring another job).
The recording will provide tracks for a couple of music videos, too. “The Dog’s Song” I’ve already mentioned; for “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” ideal would be to shoot footage of the band playing on the train (and I’ve been angling for a “Deathgrass cruise” event on the train this coming summer).
Music Friday and Saturday this week; next Tuesday’s the Thirsty Lion gig in Portland. No response from Oregon Music News to my message about the Thirsty Lion (I am not surprised—they don’t seem to accept outside input well), but I did hear from the Willamette Writers group—hopefully, some of them will come. Might have a familiar face or two at the show after all.
Joe
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