After all the musicians bailed out early from the Tsunami jam session, I let myself be persuaded to play some songs by myself. So I did a few that come off well solo, and that I didn’t care whether anybody heard or liked. I played “One Gas Station”—and people applauded. I think they listened. So they also got “Leavin’ It to Beaver” (which Jane now wants to do in the NCRD comedy show), “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot,” “Song for Charity (and Faith, and Hope)” and for a finale, “Meet Me at the Stairs.” All words-heavy (but I did remember the words). And it appeared the audience listened to all of them.
The lesson? (There’s always a lesson.) Don’t pass up an opportunity to play. There’s always hope someone might hire you later on. I’ve been known at the Tsunami primarily as a lead guitarist—something I’m not particularly good at, but am at least enthusiastic about. Yes, there are a couple of country-music songs of mine the other musicians know and can play, and we always do play them. Maybe some of them now know I can write other stuff.
The New Band’s got a gig May 11 at the 2nd Street Market. Unpaid, but I know how to parlay that into a little attention and maybe some tips so it ain’t a total loss. 2-hour show and we need to provide our own PA (the Market should really get its own PA system).
First invite of Concert Season for Deathgrass—and that one’s a paying gig (yay!). I’ve been pondering a new setlist for 2012. We’ve done basically the same songs the last two years, and I don’t want us to get boring (or bored). I don’t want to change everything; we should continue to do what I think are the best of our “standards”:
Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock
Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
The train song because it’s “local color”; the Pigfish song because the band enjoys it so much (they like rock ‘n’ roll, and this does rock); and ditto for Gene’s song. “Dead Things” has become our standard opening number, and I see no reason to change that.
And beyond that? I’m really not sure. The New Band wants to do “Spend the End of the World with Me,” “Pole Dancing for Jesus,” “Armadillo on the Interstate,” and Odd Vindatad’s “Simple Questions,” so I don’t want them in Deathgrass’ set; there are going to be some opportunities this summer when both bands are going to be playing the same venue, and they shouldn’t be playing the same songs. The only other new one that’d be appropriate for a band would be “Selling Off My Body Parts,” which is bluegrass (but won’t come out that was when Deathgrass plays it). We could do a few older songs we haven’t done in a long time:
Hey, Little Chicken—slow, sleazy quasi-blues
Angel in Chains—country death metal (played at the Rocktoberfest)
Bluebird on My Windshield—fast bluegrass (with trucker rhythm)
--and one we’ve never done, Diane Ewing’s “Alabama Blues” (which is actually a two-step). That still leaves quite a few to come up with; we need 12 songs for an hour-long show, 18 for an hour-and-a-half show.
New Band practices Friday night; comedy show Saturday night; marimba practice Sunday afternoon and (hopefully) the Rapture Room Sunday night. I am staying busy. Wish there was an income in it.
Joe
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
ST. LEIF'S DAY...
It’s St. Leif’s Day! One should be playing music on St. Leif’s Day—he being the patron saint of bagpipes, and all—and there will be music tonight at the Tsunami in Wheeler. And at home, I’ll make popcorn (the traditional St. Leif’s Day snack).
No music at City Hall Friday; The New Band will practice instead—and figure out setlists, too. It’ll be a chance to run through “Quoth” again, too, before the comedy show Saturday. NCRD has announced a “dress rehearsal” for the comedy show on Friday, too (it’d be before our practice); I understand I do not have to bring a dress.
(I do have a Gig Shirt, though, that I bought at the square dancers’ rummage sale last week—a very garish, crudely painted Hawaiian shirt. A blues guitarist I know in California had a habit of buying an ugly Hawaiian shirt at a thrift store before every paying gig; he’d wear the “Gig Shirt” just once, at the performance, and then put it away. I think he ended up with quite a collection. So now I have a Gig Shirt, too. Of course, Saturday’s not a paying gig, so I might not wear it. It is very ugly, though, and might be a nice touch for a comedy show.)
For the Song-a-Month Experiment: I need a service (CDBaby?) that’ll let me upload a single and charge for it, without charging me a bundle for doing it; I might want several such services if I can find them. First upload will be “Hey, Little Chicken,” I believe—I have a decent Tascam recording of that song in the Catalog, with my friend Dan Doshier playing lead harmonica and mandolin. I don’t want to release any of the co-writes yet, because I’m not sure how to do the split of copyright revenues on online sales yet. Down the road, sure.
I figure this gives me a couple of weeks to get something else recorded. Focusing on new stuff, I’d really like to get a professional recording of “Spend the End of the World with Me.” It’s timely, and audiences like it—but the home recording I’ve got is simply not very good. Would be fun to try to do it with the band.
28 people at the “Introduction to Western Style Pattern Dancing” class Wednesday night at the Elks Lodge; there was quite a bit of interest in line dancing (and some folks there who were really good at it), so Gwen (who teaches line dancing among other things) is going to teach a line dance class there next Wednesday. That may take away a lot of my “guinea pigs” I’ve been using for caller practice on Wednesday nights at the Arts Center, and I might have to find a different night to do it. One of the guys there was a drummer, and plays with a band; talked to him about the summer concerts. His and two other bands will be playing a benefit concert April 21, and I’ll go to see what they sound like. I told him I’m less interested in what they have on records than in how they handle a crowd, and what the crowd thinks of them.
And a complete aside. Got contacted by a company that does vacation rentals, asking if we’d be interested in having them manage our house in Cascade Locks. It is an attractive idea. I’m not sure how viable the place is as a long-term rental; there are no jobs in town any more, and with $5-a-gallon gas, commuting to a job somewhere else is no longer attractive. If I got the city manager job in Cascade Locks, I could live there—but that job is far from a sure thing, and I won’t find out for a long time. Capitalizing on the house’s location in a supposedly prime recreation area may be the way to go. (That “prime recreation area” does get 125 inches of rain, however.) I’ll be meeting with the company’s head dude next week to look over things, and he’ll tell me what they need. I have references to check out, too.
I figure one of the things we’ll have to do is furnish the place, and that’ll be fun. Basically, we’d be setting it up with all the comforts of home, as if we were going to pop out and use it on a weekend (which we might well do). I’ve got some stuff already, the result of having to keep up two households in three out-of-town city manager jobs since 2004—but I’d like the Vacation House to be classy, not funky.
Joe
No music at City Hall Friday; The New Band will practice instead—and figure out setlists, too. It’ll be a chance to run through “Quoth” again, too, before the comedy show Saturday. NCRD has announced a “dress rehearsal” for the comedy show on Friday, too (it’d be before our practice); I understand I do not have to bring a dress.
(I do have a Gig Shirt, though, that I bought at the square dancers’ rummage sale last week—a very garish, crudely painted Hawaiian shirt. A blues guitarist I know in California had a habit of buying an ugly Hawaiian shirt at a thrift store before every paying gig; he’d wear the “Gig Shirt” just once, at the performance, and then put it away. I think he ended up with quite a collection. So now I have a Gig Shirt, too. Of course, Saturday’s not a paying gig, so I might not wear it. It is very ugly, though, and might be a nice touch for a comedy show.)
For the Song-a-Month Experiment: I need a service (CDBaby?) that’ll let me upload a single and charge for it, without charging me a bundle for doing it; I might want several such services if I can find them. First upload will be “Hey, Little Chicken,” I believe—I have a decent Tascam recording of that song in the Catalog, with my friend Dan Doshier playing lead harmonica and mandolin. I don’t want to release any of the co-writes yet, because I’m not sure how to do the split of copyright revenues on online sales yet. Down the road, sure.
I figure this gives me a couple of weeks to get something else recorded. Focusing on new stuff, I’d really like to get a professional recording of “Spend the End of the World with Me.” It’s timely, and audiences like it—but the home recording I’ve got is simply not very good. Would be fun to try to do it with the band.
28 people at the “Introduction to Western Style Pattern Dancing” class Wednesday night at the Elks Lodge; there was quite a bit of interest in line dancing (and some folks there who were really good at it), so Gwen (who teaches line dancing among other things) is going to teach a line dance class there next Wednesday. That may take away a lot of my “guinea pigs” I’ve been using for caller practice on Wednesday nights at the Arts Center, and I might have to find a different night to do it. One of the guys there was a drummer, and plays with a band; talked to him about the summer concerts. His and two other bands will be playing a benefit concert April 21, and I’ll go to see what they sound like. I told him I’m less interested in what they have on records than in how they handle a crowd, and what the crowd thinks of them.
And a complete aside. Got contacted by a company that does vacation rentals, asking if we’d be interested in having them manage our house in Cascade Locks. It is an attractive idea. I’m not sure how viable the place is as a long-term rental; there are no jobs in town any more, and with $5-a-gallon gas, commuting to a job somewhere else is no longer attractive. If I got the city manager job in Cascade Locks, I could live there—but that job is far from a sure thing, and I won’t find out for a long time. Capitalizing on the house’s location in a supposedly prime recreation area may be the way to go. (That “prime recreation area” does get 125 inches of rain, however.) I’ll be meeting with the company’s head dude next week to look over things, and he’ll tell me what they need. I have references to check out, too.
I figure one of the things we’ll have to do is furnish the place, and that’ll be fun. Basically, we’d be setting it up with all the comforts of home, as if we were going to pop out and use it on a weekend (which we might well do). I’ve got some stuff already, the result of having to keep up two households in three out-of-town city manager jobs since 2004—but I’d like the Vacation House to be classy, not funky.
Joe
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
THIRSTY LION POST-MORTEM (&C.)...
Thirsty Lion show was good. It was really nice having Denise for backup vocals and lead; one thing she pointed out was in our arrangement, the accordion player (her) got to be the “straight man,” which never happens—and probably threw people off balance. (Precisely what I like to do.) We actually had fans there: Ji Tanzer came (just to see us), and a couple friends of Denise’s—no, not enough to make us winners of the “contest,” but still nice to see.
I think we were better than the competition. That’s not to diss the other performers, two of whom were quite good musicians, and quite versatile—but I think our repertoire was better written. One problem other writers have—and this is true of nearly all those who perform at the Songwriter Showcases—is they’re writing in a vacuum: they’re not getting outside input or critiques, and their stuff is just not as good as it could be. A number of people did say they listened to our stuff, and liked it.
I don’t think I could point to any particular song as “best” or “worst.” I hadn’t organized the setlist with reference to what I thought folks would like, this time: I wanted to do “The Six-Legged Polka” because St. Leif’s Day was only two days away, and “Invitation to St. Patrick” because St. Patrick’s Day was ten days past, and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” because I was upset about the economy (like everybody else, I think) and wanted to be tongue-in-cheek about it (as usual). A couple of “religious” songs to fill the setlist out that I knew were popular; I’d played “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” there before (though not with a lead player and harmony vocals), but not “Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus.” It was all good, really. And I noticed they listened to the Rap for the St. Leif’s Day song (which I had thought was a little long—but they listened anyway).
Next? The NCRD comedy show Saturday, with Jane on fiddle. We’ll be doing “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” (for the kids) and “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot” (for the adults). Would be good to practice them a little more before Gig Day. I can arrange to play both at the Tsunami Thursday night.
The Mercantile is interested in having The Other Band (me, Jane on fiddle, Clint on bass, and Ken on lead guitar) play a show there, but say they don’t have openings until July. July could be a little problematic; I think I (or we) have gigs three of the four Saturdays in July—the Relay for Life the first weekend, the Wheeler Summerfest the second, and Garibaldi Days the fourth. August, perhaps? That might be easier.
April is coming up (always happens just a couple of days after St. Leif’s Day—I should have noticed), and that’s when I wanted to start the Song-a-Month Experiment. I still have no idea what to release first. I haven’t managed to get professional recordings of anything new, except for the three me-and-solo-guitar numbers I did at the Influence Music Hall last month (and I’ve decided I’m not really happy with any of those). There are, as noted before, a handful of recordings done on the Tascam that I think came out professional; they are mostly co-writes, however—Diane Ewing’s “Alabama Blues,” Odd Vindstad’s “Simple Questions” and Rev. Skip Johnson’s “Tune the Strings of My Soul” come immediately to mind. The recording of “Hey, Little Chicken” with Dan Doshier isn’t bad; maybe I can use that. Most of my home recordings, though, have “cringe” moments, where I find myself saying “OMG I did that? I could do that way better.” I don’t want to release anything that’s not as absolutely perfect as it can be. And once I’ve started, I want to be consistent: there will be a song a month, no matter what.
Job interview’s over (I might find out within a week); two more jobs to apply for today, square dance lessons tonight—and tomorrow I can play music. One is supposed to celebrate St. Leif’s Day by playing music.
Joe
I think we were better than the competition. That’s not to diss the other performers, two of whom were quite good musicians, and quite versatile—but I think our repertoire was better written. One problem other writers have—and this is true of nearly all those who perform at the Songwriter Showcases—is they’re writing in a vacuum: they’re not getting outside input or critiques, and their stuff is just not as good as it could be. A number of people did say they listened to our stuff, and liked it.
I don’t think I could point to any particular song as “best” or “worst.” I hadn’t organized the setlist with reference to what I thought folks would like, this time: I wanted to do “The Six-Legged Polka” because St. Leif’s Day was only two days away, and “Invitation to St. Patrick” because St. Patrick’s Day was ten days past, and “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” because I was upset about the economy (like everybody else, I think) and wanted to be tongue-in-cheek about it (as usual). A couple of “religious” songs to fill the setlist out that I knew were popular; I’d played “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” there before (though not with a lead player and harmony vocals), but not “Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus.” It was all good, really. And I noticed they listened to the Rap for the St. Leif’s Day song (which I had thought was a little long—but they listened anyway).
Next? The NCRD comedy show Saturday, with Jane on fiddle. We’ll be doing “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” (for the kids) and “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot” (for the adults). Would be good to practice them a little more before Gig Day. I can arrange to play both at the Tsunami Thursday night.
The Mercantile is interested in having The Other Band (me, Jane on fiddle, Clint on bass, and Ken on lead guitar) play a show there, but say they don’t have openings until July. July could be a little problematic; I think I (or we) have gigs three of the four Saturdays in July—the Relay for Life the first weekend, the Wheeler Summerfest the second, and Garibaldi Days the fourth. August, perhaps? That might be easier.
April is coming up (always happens just a couple of days after St. Leif’s Day—I should have noticed), and that’s when I wanted to start the Song-a-Month Experiment. I still have no idea what to release first. I haven’t managed to get professional recordings of anything new, except for the three me-and-solo-guitar numbers I did at the Influence Music Hall last month (and I’ve decided I’m not really happy with any of those). There are, as noted before, a handful of recordings done on the Tascam that I think came out professional; they are mostly co-writes, however—Diane Ewing’s “Alabama Blues,” Odd Vindstad’s “Simple Questions” and Rev. Skip Johnson’s “Tune the Strings of My Soul” come immediately to mind. The recording of “Hey, Little Chicken” with Dan Doshier isn’t bad; maybe I can use that. Most of my home recordings, though, have “cringe” moments, where I find myself saying “OMG I did that? I could do that way better.” I don’t want to release anything that’s not as absolutely perfect as it can be. And once I’ve started, I want to be consistent: there will be a song a month, no matter what.
Job interview’s over (I might find out within a week); two more jobs to apply for today, square dance lessons tonight—and tomorrow I can play music. One is supposed to celebrate St. Leif’s Day by playing music.
Joe
Saturday, March 24, 2012
FINALLY...
Good stuff… I have a job interview (first in a long time); Jane and I (and maybe Ken) are on the North Coast Recreation District’s comedy showcase (because both the person who asked and the person who told them to ask have heard my stuff); I’m getting responses back, slowly but surely, to the “Modest Proposal” letter soliciting performers for the three summer concerts; and my “guinea pig” square dancers claim I’m getting better (and I had ten of them come Wednesday night, two more than I needed). And I am almost over my cold. (Good thing. Denise and I perform at the Thirsty Lion Tuesday night.)
A couple of blasts from the past… I heard from Gary Harmer; he was the “mandolin man” in “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters,” and the one responsible for originally introducing us all to each other. Retired now (but still alive), still living in Eugene, and still playing guitar. Yes, I’ll have to visit. And I also heard from Ji Tanzer, son of the late Jeff Tanzer, the Dodson Drifters’ lead guitarist and other songwriter; turns out he’s recorded some of his dad’s songs that I’d thought were lost forever when Jeff died.
What prompted the contacts, in both cases, was old songs of mine—somebody’d given Gary the lyrics to “Randy MacDougall’s Saloon,” my song about the now-long-gone Coopey Falls Tavern in also-long-gone Bridal Veil, Oregon, and Ji had recorded “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters,” and wondered if it was a song Jeff and I wrote together. (It wasn’t. Jeff and I usually wrote in competition with each other, like Lennon and McCartney—and also like Lennon and McCartney, we didn’t often say who wrote what. We often played each other’s songs. And “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters” was one of mine that Jeff played a lot.)
It is starting to get a little busy. Denise’s and my practice today was the only one we’ll get before we go on stage next week; Jane and I should practice, too—she’s played “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” before, but not “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot”—and our performance at the comedy show is a week from Saturday. Practiced “Quoth” Friday night at the jam in Tillamook; Sunday night (at the Rapture Room) may be the only other opportunity we have.
Poster is done for the Thirsty Lion; I got individual mug shots of Denise and myself, and it didn’t come out bad. (The photo of Denise is especially good. Yes, I can do promotional photos of these performer people.) Need new ink cartridges for the printer before I can print and convert the PageMaker file to send out with the notices.
Jim (co-owner of the music store) was expressing frustration about attracting musicians to his Friday night jam session at Corky’s Tavern in Tillamook (it’s been going on for five weeks now, I think). How does one find out who the local musicians are, and get them to come? I have no idea, and wish I did. The musicians are out there—I’ve met some of them—but getting them out of the woodwork is a challenge (and one I haven’t really been successful at myself). As a newspaperman I’m tempted to use the paper, but really it’s all media—one needs to become a standard part of everyone’s consciousness, and you don’t know for sure what gets people’s attention, so you need to use everything.
And finally, I found the little Hong Kong video camera while assembling stuff from the garage for the square dancers’ rummage sale. I’ve also got Sandee’s little video camera, which has a miniature tripod. I think we can Skype now.
Joe
A couple of blasts from the past… I heard from Gary Harmer; he was the “mandolin man” in “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters,” and the one responsible for originally introducing us all to each other. Retired now (but still alive), still living in Eugene, and still playing guitar. Yes, I’ll have to visit. And I also heard from Ji Tanzer, son of the late Jeff Tanzer, the Dodson Drifters’ lead guitarist and other songwriter; turns out he’s recorded some of his dad’s songs that I’d thought were lost forever when Jeff died.
What prompted the contacts, in both cases, was old songs of mine—somebody’d given Gary the lyrics to “Randy MacDougall’s Saloon,” my song about the now-long-gone Coopey Falls Tavern in also-long-gone Bridal Veil, Oregon, and Ji had recorded “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters,” and wondered if it was a song Jeff and I wrote together. (It wasn’t. Jeff and I usually wrote in competition with each other, like Lennon and McCartney—and also like Lennon and McCartney, we didn’t often say who wrote what. We often played each other’s songs. And “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters” was one of mine that Jeff played a lot.)
It is starting to get a little busy. Denise’s and my practice today was the only one we’ll get before we go on stage next week; Jane and I should practice, too—she’s played “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” before, but not “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot”—and our performance at the comedy show is a week from Saturday. Practiced “Quoth” Friday night at the jam in Tillamook; Sunday night (at the Rapture Room) may be the only other opportunity we have.
Poster is done for the Thirsty Lion; I got individual mug shots of Denise and myself, and it didn’t come out bad. (The photo of Denise is especially good. Yes, I can do promotional photos of these performer people.) Need new ink cartridges for the printer before I can print and convert the PageMaker file to send out with the notices.
Jim (co-owner of the music store) was expressing frustration about attracting musicians to his Friday night jam session at Corky’s Tavern in Tillamook (it’s been going on for five weeks now, I think). How does one find out who the local musicians are, and get them to come? I have no idea, and wish I did. The musicians are out there—I’ve met some of them—but getting them out of the woodwork is a challenge (and one I haven’t really been successful at myself). As a newspaperman I’m tempted to use the paper, but really it’s all media—one needs to become a standard part of everyone’s consciousness, and you don’t know for sure what gets people’s attention, so you need to use everything.
And finally, I found the little Hong Kong video camera while assembling stuff from the garage for the square dancers’ rummage sale. I’ve also got Sandee’s little video camera, which has a miniature tripod. I think we can Skype now.
Joe
Monday, March 19, 2012
A PHOTO IDEA FOR THE SONGBOOK...
68 lyrics typeset for the New Joe Songbook. 64 of them were on the three Soundclick “pages”; I found I had the lyrics to four more songs on ReverbNation, including “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” probably the longest song I ever wrote. (I’m glad I didn’t have to re-type that one.) There are nine songs I spotted where I’ll have to re-type the lyrics (I’ve already done that for a tenth):
Born Again Barbie (2006)
50 Ways to Cure the Depression (2009)
Last Song of the Highwayman (2010)
Rotten Candy (2006)
Tillamook Railroad Blues (2002)
Twenty-Four Seven (2004)
Valvoline (1980)
Welcome to Hebo Waltz (2003)
The World Enquirer (1978)
It appears I will have the text typeset way in advance of having the photos for the Songbook; the elimination of seven years’ worth of photographs (including photos from two trips to Nashville, in 2005 and 2007) on old “Alice” the ‘puter’s dead hard drive is a big loss. An idea, though: would it be possible to put out a call to the “joelist,” and ask them if they had any photographs of their own they thought might be good illustrations for any of the songs? I could happily give them credit (and include mug shots of the donors if they were willing to provide those).
Additional thought: A number of the people on that list are quite good artists, working in a variety of media. If they wanted to photograph one of their artworks that they thought might illustrate a song, I could include that—and maybe a link to their or someone’s Website where people could see more of the work. I do enjoy opportunities to be collaborative.
When? It’s tempting to wait until I have the last of the songs typeset, but I really could send out this request anytime; it’ll take people a bit to get photos to me anyway. I should include links to the songs just in case people haven’t heard them—but I expect a number of folks already have particular favorites they’re familiar with. I seem to hear regularly from people saying, “Y’know, I really like that [INSERT NAME] song”—and it’s often a different one for each person. (On one hand, that makes it hard to assemble a “Greatest Hits” album. On the other, it indicates I’m appealing to a really broad—if thin—spectrum of people.)
There will be a couple of performances I can announce the Photo Search at, too: the Thirsty Lion (where Denise and I are scheduled to play Tues., March 27), and the North Coast Recreation District’s comedy show (where Jane and I will play Sat., March 31). Just need to make sure I have business cards with me.
And the format for the New Joe Songbook? I think this one, like the last one, will be a simple Acrobat (*.pdf) file, issued on CD (if you want the beautiful professionally designed cover and label) or just e-mailed (if you don’t). It’ll be downloadable from the Website as soon as I have one (you might not want to be holding your breath on that one). I’ve considered creating a “Kindle-friendly” version, but I’m not sure there’s a point; it’s a lot of work for the author and the product, near as I can tell, is not appreciably better. It would be fun to make a more 21st-century edition, that included videos and concert footage, recordings that played, and the like; I know the technology to do that exists, but using it is presently beyond me. Maybe later.
Joe
Born Again Barbie (2006)
50 Ways to Cure the Depression (2009)
Last Song of the Highwayman (2010)
Rotten Candy (2006)
Tillamook Railroad Blues (2002)
Twenty-Four Seven (2004)
Valvoline (1980)
Welcome to Hebo Waltz (2003)
The World Enquirer (1978)
It appears I will have the text typeset way in advance of having the photos for the Songbook; the elimination of seven years’ worth of photographs (including photos from two trips to Nashville, in 2005 and 2007) on old “Alice” the ‘puter’s dead hard drive is a big loss. An idea, though: would it be possible to put out a call to the “joelist,” and ask them if they had any photographs of their own they thought might be good illustrations for any of the songs? I could happily give them credit (and include mug shots of the donors if they were willing to provide those).
Additional thought: A number of the people on that list are quite good artists, working in a variety of media. If they wanted to photograph one of their artworks that they thought might illustrate a song, I could include that—and maybe a link to their or someone’s Website where people could see more of the work. I do enjoy opportunities to be collaborative.
When? It’s tempting to wait until I have the last of the songs typeset, but I really could send out this request anytime; it’ll take people a bit to get photos to me anyway. I should include links to the songs just in case people haven’t heard them—but I expect a number of folks already have particular favorites they’re familiar with. I seem to hear regularly from people saying, “Y’know, I really like that [INSERT NAME] song”—and it’s often a different one for each person. (On one hand, that makes it hard to assemble a “Greatest Hits” album. On the other, it indicates I’m appealing to a really broad—if thin—spectrum of people.)
There will be a couple of performances I can announce the Photo Search at, too: the Thirsty Lion (where Denise and I are scheduled to play Tues., March 27), and the North Coast Recreation District’s comedy show (where Jane and I will play Sat., March 31). Just need to make sure I have business cards with me.
And the format for the New Joe Songbook? I think this one, like the last one, will be a simple Acrobat (*.pdf) file, issued on CD (if you want the beautiful professionally designed cover and label) or just e-mailed (if you don’t). It’ll be downloadable from the Website as soon as I have one (you might not want to be holding your breath on that one). I’ve considered creating a “Kindle-friendly” version, but I’m not sure there’s a point; it’s a lot of work for the author and the product, near as I can tell, is not appreciably better. It would be fun to make a more 21st-century edition, that included videos and concert footage, recordings that played, and the like; I know the technology to do that exists, but using it is presently beyond me. Maybe later.
Joe
Saturday, March 17, 2012
THINGS WE MIGHT BE DOING RIGHT...
I’m getting slowly but surely the opportunity to see in action some of the bands and musicians I’ve solicited for the summer festivals. And—of course—I can’t resist comparing Deathgrass to those other guys. This isn’t meant to be critical of the other guys—but here’s some things I think we’re doing right:
NO PROPS. No music stands, no music books. I’ll have a list, on a little scrap of corkboard propped unobtrusively against a mike stand, but that’s it. Nothing comes between us and the audience.
WE’RE ORGANIZED. We know what we’re going to play, and how we’re going to play it. Everybody got the setlists and CDs and we’ve practiced everything at least once, to the point where everybody’s comfortable with it. We don’t need to talk about this on stage, because we know exactly what we’re doing.
NO DEAD SPACE. I refuse to give the audience an opportunity to be bored by silence. There’ll be a Rap between songs—scripted out in advance, just like the setlist. It also allows one to insert announcements of future gigs and appeals to buy the CD and sign up for the “joelist” without being obvious about it. It’s not the only way to do it—but it’s one that works.
WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING. Perhaps more important, we come across like we know what we’re doing. We don’t have to look at each other; we start and finish precisely on time. Everybody in the band knows what everybody else is going to do because it’s all been worked out ahead of time. And we don’t deviate from it.
And one I debated including, because nobody pays attention to it and it may not be important to anybody but me: NO COVERS. Writers are supposed to get paid when you’re being paid to play their stuff. All the material we perform is either original or public domain or (in a couple of instances) where the writers have given permission. I’ve never seen any point in contributing to the famosity of already-famous people anyway. I realize nobody cares. But I still think we’re doing it right.
Took some promotional photos of the Ocean Bottom Blues Band last night; I think, though, I figured out how to do it better. They’ll be playing the 2nd Street Market again on March 30 and I’ll try to go and take more photos. I took some video footage, too, with Sara’s iPhone (and hopefully some of the 42 minutes’ worth of footage comes out usable). I should plan on doing this with all of the artists and groups I’m soliciting for the summer festivals. This way, if they didn’t have live concert footage and a promotional photo as part of their marketing package, they will have ones they can use from me.
Got to participate in Jim Loughrie’s jam session at Corky’s Friday night, too (after watching other people play music for two hours, I had really itchy fingers). Turned out I knew just about all the musicians—this may be a real small fraternity in Tillamook County—and I got to be the lead guitarist, too (by default—they didn’t have anyone else, and I couldn’t sing anything because I had a cold). My little amp has lost its “clean” circuit, so everything comes out fuzzy—not bad for rock ‘n’ roll lead but a little limiting for other stuff. I do not want to buy another amp. I wonder if I can fix it.
And upcoming? Marimba practice Sunday; practice with Denise Monday afternoon with the new band Monday night; caller class Tuesday; square dance meeting and caller practice Wednesday night. Music hopefully Sunday, Thursday and Friday nights.
Joe
NO PROPS. No music stands, no music books. I’ll have a list, on a little scrap of corkboard propped unobtrusively against a mike stand, but that’s it. Nothing comes between us and the audience.
WE’RE ORGANIZED. We know what we’re going to play, and how we’re going to play it. Everybody got the setlists and CDs and we’ve practiced everything at least once, to the point where everybody’s comfortable with it. We don’t need to talk about this on stage, because we know exactly what we’re doing.
NO DEAD SPACE. I refuse to give the audience an opportunity to be bored by silence. There’ll be a Rap between songs—scripted out in advance, just like the setlist. It also allows one to insert announcements of future gigs and appeals to buy the CD and sign up for the “joelist” without being obvious about it. It’s not the only way to do it—but it’s one that works.
WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING. Perhaps more important, we come across like we know what we’re doing. We don’t have to look at each other; we start and finish precisely on time. Everybody in the band knows what everybody else is going to do because it’s all been worked out ahead of time. And we don’t deviate from it.
And one I debated including, because nobody pays attention to it and it may not be important to anybody but me: NO COVERS. Writers are supposed to get paid when you’re being paid to play their stuff. All the material we perform is either original or public domain or (in a couple of instances) where the writers have given permission. I’ve never seen any point in contributing to the famosity of already-famous people anyway. I realize nobody cares. But I still think we’re doing it right.
Took some promotional photos of the Ocean Bottom Blues Band last night; I think, though, I figured out how to do it better. They’ll be playing the 2nd Street Market again on March 30 and I’ll try to go and take more photos. I took some video footage, too, with Sara’s iPhone (and hopefully some of the 42 minutes’ worth of footage comes out usable). I should plan on doing this with all of the artists and groups I’m soliciting for the summer festivals. This way, if they didn’t have live concert footage and a promotional photo as part of their marketing package, they will have ones they can use from me.
Got to participate in Jim Loughrie’s jam session at Corky’s Friday night, too (after watching other people play music for two hours, I had really itchy fingers). Turned out I knew just about all the musicians—this may be a real small fraternity in Tillamook County—and I got to be the lead guitarist, too (by default—they didn’t have anyone else, and I couldn’t sing anything because I had a cold). My little amp has lost its “clean” circuit, so everything comes out fuzzy—not bad for rock ‘n’ roll lead but a little limiting for other stuff. I do not want to buy another amp. I wonder if I can fix it.
And upcoming? Marimba practice Sunday; practice with Denise Monday afternoon with the new band Monday night; caller class Tuesday; square dance meeting and caller practice Wednesday night. Music hopefully Sunday, Thursday and Friday nights.
Joe
Thursday, March 15, 2012
CALLER PRACTICE WITHN THE GUINEA PIGS...
First caller practice last night with my “troupe” of live dancers. I thought they did well (and they thought I did well). We’ll do it again next Wednesday—it’s probably possible to do it three times a month, if everybody’s available and willing.
The little PA system does exactly what I want it to: I can play a track off the laptop and sing (or talk) on top of it, and control the two volumes separately. Still haven’t retrieved my Professional Square Dance Caller’s Microphone Holder, with its built-in on/off switch and volume control, so I’ve got my singing mike in a mike stand—I’m more comfortable with it that way, anyway. And I’m using a music stand to hold my notes. Ultimately I won’t need those props (and technically I’m not supposed to be using them).
Had to adjust two of my singing calls (I didn’t try the third) to reduce the number of movements. One of the things I was hoping to get out of my practice “troupe” was an opportunity to see how long it actually took actual dancers to work through these “figures,” and I got that. One of the things I’ve learned in caller class is “equivalent modules,” which will put your dancers in the same place (position is important) but take either more or less moves to do it (in my case I’m after the “less”). I can adjust tempo, too, with my recording software, and I talked to the “troupe” about doing that with the Hee-Haw theme, “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me”—it’s pretty fast. Slowed it by 10% and we’ll see how well that works.
I haven’t practiced the other use for the little PA system—musical performance (specifically, performance by the band—I know it’ll work for a solo performance just fine). PA-ing the band entails using my ancient 6-channel mixer (5 of the 6 channels work); I think it’s possible to use the amp’s two inputs as well as the five from the mixer. That’d be seven—exactly what I need (four instrument inputs—two guitars, fiddle and standup bass—and three microphone inputs for me, Ken, and Clint).
I have acquired The Cold Everybody Else Got (by wandering around in the snow in sandals Monday night), so I’m going nowhere—I’ll stay home today, read a lot (if I have the energy) and sneeze a lot. I’d like to have the cold burned out by tomorrow, because there are some things I’d like to do: practice with Denise for the Thirsty Lion show, see the Ocean Bottom Blues Band perform at the 2nd Street Market, and play at the jam session in downtown Tillamook (assuming it’s happening). Got invited to be part of a comedy show at the North Coast Recreation District; they want two songs—“family-friendly,” they said—and I can probably deliver.
And while I’m struggling with my zero-energy illness I at least get to work on the New Joe Songbook. 42 songs done now (and we’re up through “O”). And I have found five more songs where I didn’t have lyrics posted, and will have to re-type them.
And I got to finish re-reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged—all 1,082 fine-print pages of it. Rand’s characterizations are rather cartoonish, but she is consistent—her good guys are totally good, and her bad guys totally evil. The view of government as a gaggle of predators whose sole purpose is to take things from people and give them to “favorites” is particularly poignant these days. In fact, a recent survey suggested the main difference between today’s Depression and the one in the 1930s is back then government was considered part of the solution to the economic problems while today there’s a widespread perception that government is part of the problem.
Joe
The little PA system does exactly what I want it to: I can play a track off the laptop and sing (or talk) on top of it, and control the two volumes separately. Still haven’t retrieved my Professional Square Dance Caller’s Microphone Holder, with its built-in on/off switch and volume control, so I’ve got my singing mike in a mike stand—I’m more comfortable with it that way, anyway. And I’m using a music stand to hold my notes. Ultimately I won’t need those props (and technically I’m not supposed to be using them).
Had to adjust two of my singing calls (I didn’t try the third) to reduce the number of movements. One of the things I was hoping to get out of my practice “troupe” was an opportunity to see how long it actually took actual dancers to work through these “figures,” and I got that. One of the things I’ve learned in caller class is “equivalent modules,” which will put your dancers in the same place (position is important) but take either more or less moves to do it (in my case I’m after the “less”). I can adjust tempo, too, with my recording software, and I talked to the “troupe” about doing that with the Hee-Haw theme, “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me”—it’s pretty fast. Slowed it by 10% and we’ll see how well that works.
I haven’t practiced the other use for the little PA system—musical performance (specifically, performance by the band—I know it’ll work for a solo performance just fine). PA-ing the band entails using my ancient 6-channel mixer (5 of the 6 channels work); I think it’s possible to use the amp’s two inputs as well as the five from the mixer. That’d be seven—exactly what I need (four instrument inputs—two guitars, fiddle and standup bass—and three microphone inputs for me, Ken, and Clint).
I have acquired The Cold Everybody Else Got (by wandering around in the snow in sandals Monday night), so I’m going nowhere—I’ll stay home today, read a lot (if I have the energy) and sneeze a lot. I’d like to have the cold burned out by tomorrow, because there are some things I’d like to do: practice with Denise for the Thirsty Lion show, see the Ocean Bottom Blues Band perform at the 2nd Street Market, and play at the jam session in downtown Tillamook (assuming it’s happening). Got invited to be part of a comedy show at the North Coast Recreation District; they want two songs—“family-friendly,” they said—and I can probably deliver.
And while I’m struggling with my zero-energy illness I at least get to work on the New Joe Songbook. 42 songs done now (and we’re up through “O”). And I have found five more songs where I didn’t have lyrics posted, and will have to re-type them.
And I got to finish re-reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged—all 1,082 fine-print pages of it. Rand’s characterizations are rather cartoonish, but she is consistent—her good guys are totally good, and her bad guys totally evil. The view of government as a gaggle of predators whose sole purpose is to take things from people and give them to “favorites” is particularly poignant these days. In fact, a recent survey suggested the main difference between today’s Depression and the one in the 1930s is back then government was considered part of the solution to the economic problems while today there’s a widespread perception that government is part of the problem.
Joe
Monday, March 12, 2012
SUCCESS TIPS?
Every now and then I run across tips on how to be successful in the music business. Latest ones were on the USA Songwriting Contest Website, and were from one of the guys who runs SongU, which teaches classes in songwriting. The question I always have is how well (or if) I measure up. (Them, too.) Here’s the tips:
Good songs. Other experts insist on this, too; you’d think it’d go without saying, but the quality of so much commercial music is so poor people may wonder whether it matters any more. One should not only pursue perfection for its own sake, one needs to remember that those commercial folks are already famous, and if I want to be heard over them my stuff has to be better. Lots better. I don’t take classes in songwriting but I do hang out with other writers, in person and online.
Feedback. Part of the “good songs” mantra above, in my opinion. I don’t operate in a vacuum—I don’t want to be the person deciding whether my stuff is good. I have on occasion used professional critiquers, like the authors suggest, but I prefer peer review by other writers whose judgment I trust. (They’re free, too.) I also insist on testing each song out on a live audience (and have a few audiences that are willing to be my guinea pigs).
Co-write. Other experts say you have to do this, too—but I’m not sure how co-writing makes you be successful. Nashville is a hotbed of co-writing—but you don’t get to “write with” somebody famous unless you’re already famous yourself. I co-write to prove I can do it, to get exposure to different styles, and also because I’ve discovered it’s an outlet: I don’t need to write serious songs, because other people do, and I can get the seriousness out of my system by helping them.
Good demos. I agree (surprise!). You don’t have to have full-band instrumentation on demos, though I often do, just to show people without imagination what’s possible. Quality is the important consideration; a lot of the outfits that license music that aren’t record companies aren’t going to re-record your stuff. What I offer them has to be “radio-ready.” (Anything sent to a song contest has to be “radio-ready,” too, or it won’t get considered.) About a quarter of my songs have been professionally recorded. I still need to do the rest.
Be digital. But everyone is these days, aren’t they? I’d rather say “be fast” instead: one advantage independents have over the dinosaurs in the Music Industry is we can get product to market quickly. A corollary is you have to know what you’re doing, and get it right the first time. Do I? I keep working at it.
Look beyond the obvious when you’re pitching. There is, in other words, little point in pursuing cuts from the big record companies; they are not interested in any outsiders and may never be. There are other outlets for music; two I wasn’t aware of are the companies that sell background music for graduation and wedding videos. The folks who do movie and TV “placements” don’t use the big record companies, either (and I know one publisher who does this stuff). And one can bypass the record companies by selling CDs through CDBaby and a bunch of others. Yes, I knew some of that.
Expose yourself. Those who aren’t affiliated with the Big Boys have to do it on their own with fewer resources. Be everywhere; try everything. I’d add Madonna’s advice: Perform. The way you get your material in front of the public when you don’t have what Joni Mitchell called “the Star-Maker Machinery” is to perform it, and perform it yourself unless and until you get other people performing it for you. About the only item on the list I’m not doing is the Website, and I do really need to do that. A caveat, though: a Website alone does nothing for exposure. I still have to bring people in.
So… Good songs. (Duh.) Good demos. Know what you’re doing and be right the first time. Look beyond the obvious. Expose yourself (and perform). Keep n mind, though, that I’ve been doing that stuff for a while and success in the music business still looks awfully far away. Do I need to add “Be patient” to the list?
Joe
Good songs. Other experts insist on this, too; you’d think it’d go without saying, but the quality of so much commercial music is so poor people may wonder whether it matters any more. One should not only pursue perfection for its own sake, one needs to remember that those commercial folks are already famous, and if I want to be heard over them my stuff has to be better. Lots better. I don’t take classes in songwriting but I do hang out with other writers, in person and online.
Feedback. Part of the “good songs” mantra above, in my opinion. I don’t operate in a vacuum—I don’t want to be the person deciding whether my stuff is good. I have on occasion used professional critiquers, like the authors suggest, but I prefer peer review by other writers whose judgment I trust. (They’re free, too.) I also insist on testing each song out on a live audience (and have a few audiences that are willing to be my guinea pigs).
Co-write. Other experts say you have to do this, too—but I’m not sure how co-writing makes you be successful. Nashville is a hotbed of co-writing—but you don’t get to “write with” somebody famous unless you’re already famous yourself. I co-write to prove I can do it, to get exposure to different styles, and also because I’ve discovered it’s an outlet: I don’t need to write serious songs, because other people do, and I can get the seriousness out of my system by helping them.
Good demos. I agree (surprise!). You don’t have to have full-band instrumentation on demos, though I often do, just to show people without imagination what’s possible. Quality is the important consideration; a lot of the outfits that license music that aren’t record companies aren’t going to re-record your stuff. What I offer them has to be “radio-ready.” (Anything sent to a song contest has to be “radio-ready,” too, or it won’t get considered.) About a quarter of my songs have been professionally recorded. I still need to do the rest.
Be digital. But everyone is these days, aren’t they? I’d rather say “be fast” instead: one advantage independents have over the dinosaurs in the Music Industry is we can get product to market quickly. A corollary is you have to know what you’re doing, and get it right the first time. Do I? I keep working at it.
Look beyond the obvious when you’re pitching. There is, in other words, little point in pursuing cuts from the big record companies; they are not interested in any outsiders and may never be. There are other outlets for music; two I wasn’t aware of are the companies that sell background music for graduation and wedding videos. The folks who do movie and TV “placements” don’t use the big record companies, either (and I know one publisher who does this stuff). And one can bypass the record companies by selling CDs through CDBaby and a bunch of others. Yes, I knew some of that.
Expose yourself. Those who aren’t affiliated with the Big Boys have to do it on their own with fewer resources. Be everywhere; try everything. I’d add Madonna’s advice: Perform. The way you get your material in front of the public when you don’t have what Joni Mitchell called “the Star-Maker Machinery” is to perform it, and perform it yourself unless and until you get other people performing it for you. About the only item on the list I’m not doing is the Website, and I do really need to do that. A caveat, though: a Website alone does nothing for exposure. I still have to bring people in.
So… Good songs. (Duh.) Good demos. Know what you’re doing and be right the first time. Look beyond the obvious. Expose yourself (and perform). Keep n mind, though, that I’ve been doing that stuff for a while and success in the music business still looks awfully far away. Do I need to add “Be patient” to the list?
Joe
Sunday, March 11, 2012
PRACTICE (&C.)...
Band practice Saturday night. Of mine, we did “Duct Tape,” “Cuddle in the Darkness,” “The Abomination Two-Step,” Odd Vindstad’s “Simple Questions” and “Pole Dancing for Jesus.” A set of three jigs from Jane, plus a pair of Irish tunes she and Ken are used to doing together, plus everybody’s favorite, “The Swallowtail Jig.” Bass player Clint wants to do “Muskrat Ramble,” an old jazz tune, and he can do a decent job on the old traditional “Long Black Veil.” Ken’s got at least “Dream” (the old jazz number) and David Wilcox’s “Rusty Old American Dream.”
We do sound good together. I was told I could tell the 2nd Street Market we’d be ready about five weeks from now. We’ll need 20 songs to fill a 2-hour set.
The suggestion was made that Ken, who has a tremendous singing voice, should sing some of my “sweeter” songs. I’d love it if he would. I don’t know if he’s interested, and I’ll let others press; I’m not going to. I’ve generally preferred authors’ renditions of their own songs, even where they’ve been covered by more famous people—I think the author brings something undefined but special to the performance that the “coverer” can’t—but I’d happily not apply the rule to myself; with my limited voice range, I’m not bringing much to the table. (Bob Dylan was in much the same boat. Almost anybody could sing a Dylan song better than Dylan could.)
Setlist assemblage is easier if there are more lead vocalists, and in this case we’ve got four (counting Jane’s fiddle as a “voice”). When I’m doing setlists for a solo concert, I concentrate mostly on alternating fast and slow songs; the goal is to have every song sound different from the one before it. Here, I’ve got multiple ways for us to sound different—we’ve got different keys, different genres and different singers, as well as different speeds.
The Modest Proposal soliciting entertainers for Garibaldi Days, the Rocktoberfest, and Relay for Life went out to Roger MacDonald, Michael and Sedona, the LaTorres Jim Loughrie, Skip Farmer, and Loren and Judy (the Crazed Weasels) in addition to those who’d already got one. We’ll see.
Heard the best rendition ever of “Invitation to St. Patrick” at the Rapture Room. Fiddle, trumpet and Cajun squeezebox leads (among others) and Michael and Sedona in the background chanting “St. Paddy! Go, St. Paddy!” in a Beach Boys-style counterpoint. Wish it could have been recorded. Only a couple more opportunities to play the song this year—St. Patrick’s Day is Saturday. I will get to play it at the Tsunami in Wheeler Thursday night, and hopefully at Jim’s jam session in Tillamook Friday night. And it’s on the setlist for the Thirsty Lion March 27.
Does beg the question what I should be releasing for the initial offering of the Song-a-Month Experiment. I don’t have anything yet, really. I’m not happy enough with the Influence Music Hall solo recordings, and I don’t want to use any of my Tascam recordings—I want this to be professional stuff.
Perhaps the 2007 recording of “Oil in the Cornfield, a 1976-vintage song I entered in the Woody Guthrie Song Contest that year (last year they ever had the contest, I think). It didn’t win any of the top three slots (so I didn’t get to go to Moore, Oklahoma, Woody’s hometown, and perform it on stage), but it did get honorable mention—and I got the impression it was the first time anybody not from Oklahoma ever got an award in the contest. Vic “Mississippi Spud” Bonner did the recording, with him playing lead and bass, and Vikki Flawith doing piano and backup vocals. I could use that one. It’d be timel, after a fashion—Woody Guthrie would have been celebrating his birthday this month, if he were still alive. April 1 release date? I will need another professional-quality recording one month later.
Joe
We do sound good together. I was told I could tell the 2nd Street Market we’d be ready about five weeks from now. We’ll need 20 songs to fill a 2-hour set.
The suggestion was made that Ken, who has a tremendous singing voice, should sing some of my “sweeter” songs. I’d love it if he would. I don’t know if he’s interested, and I’ll let others press; I’m not going to. I’ve generally preferred authors’ renditions of their own songs, even where they’ve been covered by more famous people—I think the author brings something undefined but special to the performance that the “coverer” can’t—but I’d happily not apply the rule to myself; with my limited voice range, I’m not bringing much to the table. (Bob Dylan was in much the same boat. Almost anybody could sing a Dylan song better than Dylan could.)
Setlist assemblage is easier if there are more lead vocalists, and in this case we’ve got four (counting Jane’s fiddle as a “voice”). When I’m doing setlists for a solo concert, I concentrate mostly on alternating fast and slow songs; the goal is to have every song sound different from the one before it. Here, I’ve got multiple ways for us to sound different—we’ve got different keys, different genres and different singers, as well as different speeds.
The Modest Proposal soliciting entertainers for Garibaldi Days, the Rocktoberfest, and Relay for Life went out to Roger MacDonald, Michael and Sedona, the LaTorres Jim Loughrie, Skip Farmer, and Loren and Judy (the Crazed Weasels) in addition to those who’d already got one. We’ll see.
Heard the best rendition ever of “Invitation to St. Patrick” at the Rapture Room. Fiddle, trumpet and Cajun squeezebox leads (among others) and Michael and Sedona in the background chanting “St. Paddy! Go, St. Paddy!” in a Beach Boys-style counterpoint. Wish it could have been recorded. Only a couple more opportunities to play the song this year—St. Patrick’s Day is Saturday. I will get to play it at the Tsunami in Wheeler Thursday night, and hopefully at Jim’s jam session in Tillamook Friday night. And it’s on the setlist for the Thirsty Lion March 27.
Does beg the question what I should be releasing for the initial offering of the Song-a-Month Experiment. I don’t have anything yet, really. I’m not happy enough with the Influence Music Hall solo recordings, and I don’t want to use any of my Tascam recordings—I want this to be professional stuff.
Perhaps the 2007 recording of “Oil in the Cornfield, a 1976-vintage song I entered in the Woody Guthrie Song Contest that year (last year they ever had the contest, I think). It didn’t win any of the top three slots (so I didn’t get to go to Moore, Oklahoma, Woody’s hometown, and perform it on stage), but it did get honorable mention—and I got the impression it was the first time anybody not from Oklahoma ever got an award in the contest. Vic “Mississippi Spud” Bonner did the recording, with him playing lead and bass, and Vikki Flawith doing piano and backup vocals. I could use that one. It’d be timel, after a fashion—Woody Guthrie would have been celebrating his birthday this month, if he were still alive. April 1 release date? I will need another professional-quality recording one month later.
Joe
Saturday, March 10, 2012
ATTENDING SOMEONE ELSE'S SHOW...
26 songs done now for the New Joe Songbook—and I found another one where I’d never posted lyrics: “50 Ways to Cure the Depression.” I’ll have to re-type the lyrics. (Of course I remember them.) Got confirmation from Denise she’d like to do the Thirsty Lion on March 27. Next step: a setlist CD (easy) and find an opportunity to practice (not so easy).
Next Friday, instead of going to City Hall, I’ll go see the Ocean Bottom Blues Band (Sara, Wayne and Dale) play the 2nd Street Market. They’re one of the groups I’m considering hiring (using the term loosely) for one or more of the summer gigs (Relay for Life, Garibaldi Days, and the Rocktoberfest), and I want to see them in action. I want to do this with all the bands under consideration. I want to see how they work a crowd, and how the crowd reacts to what they play.. That’s more important than anything they could put on a CD.
I’m not sure of the value of CDs, either, though I’ve asked everybody for one. A CD used to indicate that a band had progressed far enough, and maybe made enough money, to “do time” in a studio, but the proliferation of cheap, quality home recording equipment has lowered that bar a lot. You can make a radio-quality recording these days with nothing more than a decent computer, a good set of ears and a good sense of arrangements.
What you hear on a CD is not necessarily what you’re going to get, either: one of the groups that applied for the Rocktoberfest last year was a duo, but their CD had full instrumentation—five or more instruments—on their songs, and you knew those two musicians weren’t going to be playing all five instruments simultaneously on stage. I guess the main value of the CD these days is it allows the tone-deaf concert promoter (me) to easily share what he finds with his “crew.” We don’t all have to go attend somebody’s performance.
There are other ways around it, though. I’ve arranged to record part of the Ocean Bottom Blues Band’s performance Friday with a borrowed iPhone—I know they don’t have a CD out. That’s why my Modest Proposal offers everybody alternatives, and says, “If you don’t have this, let’s talk.”
Following the 2nd Street Market performance, I’ll attend the jam session at a Tillamook tavern that’s reportedly been happening Friday nights for a couple of weeks now. Hosted by Jim, one of the co-owners of the music store (and partner in The Mercantile in Beaver). Want to see what that’s like. It might be a good alternative to Garibaldi when the group at City Hall gets boring.
I’ve got three or four more groups and a couple solo musicians to send the Modest Proposal to, encouraging them to be part of one or more of the summer gigs.
Applied for another job—another non-city manager one. After you’ve done city manager work for nearly 20 years, it is hard to convince people to hire you to do something else, even when you can show them how your skills and experience translate to their job. Occasionally, I feel like Woody, the cowboy in Toy Story: “You’re a cowboy and there’s no jobs for cowboys. We want spacemen—and even if you dress up like a spaceman and act like a spaceman, we’ll know you’re really a cowboy.”
Joe
Next Friday, instead of going to City Hall, I’ll go see the Ocean Bottom Blues Band (Sara, Wayne and Dale) play the 2nd Street Market. They’re one of the groups I’m considering hiring (using the term loosely) for one or more of the summer gigs (Relay for Life, Garibaldi Days, and the Rocktoberfest), and I want to see them in action. I want to do this with all the bands under consideration. I want to see how they work a crowd, and how the crowd reacts to what they play.. That’s more important than anything they could put on a CD.
I’m not sure of the value of CDs, either, though I’ve asked everybody for one. A CD used to indicate that a band had progressed far enough, and maybe made enough money, to “do time” in a studio, but the proliferation of cheap, quality home recording equipment has lowered that bar a lot. You can make a radio-quality recording these days with nothing more than a decent computer, a good set of ears and a good sense of arrangements.
What you hear on a CD is not necessarily what you’re going to get, either: one of the groups that applied for the Rocktoberfest last year was a duo, but their CD had full instrumentation—five or more instruments—on their songs, and you knew those two musicians weren’t going to be playing all five instruments simultaneously on stage. I guess the main value of the CD these days is it allows the tone-deaf concert promoter (me) to easily share what he finds with his “crew.” We don’t all have to go attend somebody’s performance.
There are other ways around it, though. I’ve arranged to record part of the Ocean Bottom Blues Band’s performance Friday with a borrowed iPhone—I know they don’t have a CD out. That’s why my Modest Proposal offers everybody alternatives, and says, “If you don’t have this, let’s talk.”
Following the 2nd Street Market performance, I’ll attend the jam session at a Tillamook tavern that’s reportedly been happening Friday nights for a couple of weeks now. Hosted by Jim, one of the co-owners of the music store (and partner in The Mercantile in Beaver). Want to see what that’s like. It might be a good alternative to Garibaldi when the group at City Hall gets boring.
I’ve got three or four more groups and a couple solo musicians to send the Modest Proposal to, encouraging them to be part of one or more of the summer gigs.
Applied for another job—another non-city manager one. After you’ve done city manager work for nearly 20 years, it is hard to convince people to hire you to do something else, even when you can show them how your skills and experience translate to their job. Occasionally, I feel like Woody, the cowboy in Toy Story: “You’re a cowboy and there’s no jobs for cowboys. We want spacemen—and even if you dress up like a spaceman and act like a spaceman, we’ll know you’re really a cowboy.”
Joe
Friday, March 9, 2012
BUNCH OF UPDATES...
I (or we) are on for Tuesday, March 27, at the Thirsty Lion. Time enough to promote, and encourage a good crowd (I no longer believe any crowd will come, however). Don’t know yet if I can do it with Denise; it’d be nice—polkas sound better with an accordion, and I (or we) should do “The Six-Legged Polka,” ‘cause St. Leif’s Day will be just two days away. I can recycle the promotional posters—just need to change the date.
Host Eric John Kaiser will not be there; he’ll be in New Orleans, for the release of his new album. I understand Skip Farmer from the Influence Music Hall will be hosting again. I’ll apply the same rule I do with Eric: I don’t want to play anything Skip has heard before (though that leaves me with a lot of stuff to choose from, since Skip has only hosted once before when I’ve been there, and in fact everything on the current draft setlist would qualify). I want to convey the impression that I am a constant fount of new stuff (which isn’t far from the truth).
The City of Central Point (near Medford) e-mailed, wanting to know if I was interested in doing a concert there, and if I could bring the band. Answer to the first question is “yes”; to the second, “not unless you’re paying a lot of money”—the band has to come from over 300 miles away, and get put up for the night. What I’d rather do (and told them I probably could do) is assemble an impromptu band from musicians down there that I know, who are very good and also familiar with the material. We’ll see. Nice that they’re interested.
Got the parts for the speaker stands; design changed again (I forget how many iterations it’s been through), but this time I let the design be dictated by the availability of materials at a price I was willing to pay—and within a distance I was willing to drive. The upright shafts will be 3-to-4-foot sections of a fiberglass flagpole, and the bases will be crossed 1x2s held together with a circular flange; bottom of each flagpole piece will have a piece of threaded water pipe to attach it to the base, and the top a threaded electrical fitting to attach the speaker. The arrangement will be able to be disassembled for easier transport and still be uber-stable when put together. Sixteen bucks total. I’ll paint it all black to disguise its provenance and make it look nice and professional.
I want to put that together today, so it can be used Saturday. (And next Wednesday. I’ve got my “practice square” of local dancers, if I can arrange a space for them to practice in.)
The new band’s scheduled to practice Saturday; I believe they’re intending to work on ten songs of mine, including “Cuddle in the Darkness” and Odd Vindstad’s “Simple Questions,” which I musicated. I’m glad to see those two being played; I’ve always liked them. “Cuddle” is one of those songs where I find virtually no fault with my writing—but I’ve played it very little because it’s serious and I mostly don’t “do” serious. Both it and “Simple Questions” fall into the “say something different” category; “Simple Questions” is a boy-meets-girl song where the boy never actually meets the girl, and “Cuddle in the Darkness” is a frank (and blunt) appeal for a one-night stand, from (and to) somebody who’s spent too many nights alone.
Is either one marketable? Maybe not; they’re both aspects of “love” that don’t get talked about. Instead, we see lots of lost love songs on the market—applying, perhaps, the Shakespearean dictum, “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” But the “never loved at all” (or “never loved enough”) people are out there; I notice their reactions when I play those songs.
Music Friday (City Hall), Saturday (practice), Sunday (the Rapture Room), and Thursday next (Tsunami); caller class Tuesday and maybe caller practice Wednesday. And I’ll be going to the Community Chorus concert Monday night. I have managed to get myself busy every single night this coming week—and I still haven’t managed to get a job.
Joe
Host Eric John Kaiser will not be there; he’ll be in New Orleans, for the release of his new album. I understand Skip Farmer from the Influence Music Hall will be hosting again. I’ll apply the same rule I do with Eric: I don’t want to play anything Skip has heard before (though that leaves me with a lot of stuff to choose from, since Skip has only hosted once before when I’ve been there, and in fact everything on the current draft setlist would qualify). I want to convey the impression that I am a constant fount of new stuff (which isn’t far from the truth).
The City of Central Point (near Medford) e-mailed, wanting to know if I was interested in doing a concert there, and if I could bring the band. Answer to the first question is “yes”; to the second, “not unless you’re paying a lot of money”—the band has to come from over 300 miles away, and get put up for the night. What I’d rather do (and told them I probably could do) is assemble an impromptu band from musicians down there that I know, who are very good and also familiar with the material. We’ll see. Nice that they’re interested.
Got the parts for the speaker stands; design changed again (I forget how many iterations it’s been through), but this time I let the design be dictated by the availability of materials at a price I was willing to pay—and within a distance I was willing to drive. The upright shafts will be 3-to-4-foot sections of a fiberglass flagpole, and the bases will be crossed 1x2s held together with a circular flange; bottom of each flagpole piece will have a piece of threaded water pipe to attach it to the base, and the top a threaded electrical fitting to attach the speaker. The arrangement will be able to be disassembled for easier transport and still be uber-stable when put together. Sixteen bucks total. I’ll paint it all black to disguise its provenance and make it look nice and professional.
I want to put that together today, so it can be used Saturday. (And next Wednesday. I’ve got my “practice square” of local dancers, if I can arrange a space for them to practice in.)
The new band’s scheduled to practice Saturday; I believe they’re intending to work on ten songs of mine, including “Cuddle in the Darkness” and Odd Vindstad’s “Simple Questions,” which I musicated. I’m glad to see those two being played; I’ve always liked them. “Cuddle” is one of those songs where I find virtually no fault with my writing—but I’ve played it very little because it’s serious and I mostly don’t “do” serious. Both it and “Simple Questions” fall into the “say something different” category; “Simple Questions” is a boy-meets-girl song where the boy never actually meets the girl, and “Cuddle in the Darkness” is a frank (and blunt) appeal for a one-night stand, from (and to) somebody who’s spent too many nights alone.
Is either one marketable? Maybe not; they’re both aspects of “love” that don’t get talked about. Instead, we see lots of lost love songs on the market—applying, perhaps, the Shakespearean dictum, “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” But the “never loved at all” (or “never loved enough”) people are out there; I notice their reactions when I play those songs.
Music Friday (City Hall), Saturday (practice), Sunday (the Rapture Room), and Thursday next (Tsunami); caller class Tuesday and maybe caller practice Wednesday. And I’ll be going to the Community Chorus concert Monday night. I have managed to get myself busy every single night this coming week—and I still haven’t managed to get a job.
Joe
Thursday, March 8, 2012
THIRSTY LION SETLIST THOUGHTS (AND BLOG 6)...
One of the things I like about local budget committees is they seem to regard me as a good financial manager—which I guess I am. Or was. I haven’t done it for a living for a while. Every now and then I manage to come up with a good idea. I wish there was still a demand for that stuff. (Got compliments on the articles I did for the paper, too. That was nice as well.)
I do not know—yet—if I’m invited to the Thirsty Lion on March 27, the closest to St. Leif’s Day (March 29) that they’ll be having one of their Songwriter Showcases. I’ve asked host Eric. If I (or we—I’d love to have accompaniment for this) am (or are) on, I (or we) will have to do “The Six-Legged Polka,” my St. Leif’s Day song. It is my only St.Leif’s Day song, however. I (or we) will have to do five (or four) other things along with it.
One plays to the venue—endeavoring to give the audience (or what I think will be the audience) what I think they’ll appreciate. What do we have here? The Thirsty Lion is a tavern; the crowd is over 21, so adult material is okay, and they’ve been drinking (especially if the Songwriter Showcase comes on the heels of a playoff game on the big-screen TVs), so one has to work a little harder to get their attention, and keep things fairly easy to understand, because a lot of ‘em won’t be operating with a full set of brain cells. I’ll start with something slow and sleazy—that usually will get their attention—and then alternate fast and slow numbers if I can.
Many of the folks in the audience will have come to hear one of the other “acts” perform, which means they’re inclined to be attentive, but not necessarily attentive to me. I try on principle not to do songs I’ve done there before, but that’s for host Eric John Kaiser’s benefit, not the audience’s; most of the audience have never heard me before anyway. Assuming I’ll have accompaniment, I’ll want to make the setlist conist of songs that work well with that accompaniment. And I don’t want to do anything serious. I’ll leave that up to the other “acts” (who will usually more than make up for my lack of seriousness).
Tall order? Maybe not; with over 80 songs, I can usually come up with something to fit almost any occasion. And I do have a complete list of my songs handy—it’s what I’ve been working off to assemble the lyrics for the New Joe Songbook. How about:
Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?—slow & sleazy
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—folk-rock
Invitation to St. Patrick—mod. tempo blues
The Six-Legged Polka—fast bluegrass
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—deliberate Gospel
The “Rapture” song is a good attention-getter; I haven’t performed that or “Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus” at the Lion for a long time. I’ve never played the St. Patrick song there—and our show date is reasonably close to St. Patrick’s Day. “50 Ways” would give ‘em a little tongue-in-cheek (and memorable) social commentary along with their beer.
It’s nice if a short setlist can at least fit the “describe what you do in one sentence” description I gave Songstuff when I first joined: “Happy, upbeat, uptempo songs about death, lost love, betrayal, religion, and dead animals.” (That way, I can mention it in the Rap.) The above setlist actually includes everything except dead animals, unless one considers the ants in “The Six-Legged Polka” as qualifying (they were going to die, but St. Leif saved them).
And if I have to do the show solo again, I’ll change the setlist. I’ll have six songs instead of five, and will pick ones that either don’t have or don’t need a lead break.
Joe
I do not know—yet—if I’m invited to the Thirsty Lion on March 27, the closest to St. Leif’s Day (March 29) that they’ll be having one of their Songwriter Showcases. I’ve asked host Eric. If I (or we—I’d love to have accompaniment for this) am (or are) on, I (or we) will have to do “The Six-Legged Polka,” my St. Leif’s Day song. It is my only St.Leif’s Day song, however. I (or we) will have to do five (or four) other things along with it.
One plays to the venue—endeavoring to give the audience (or what I think will be the audience) what I think they’ll appreciate. What do we have here? The Thirsty Lion is a tavern; the crowd is over 21, so adult material is okay, and they’ve been drinking (especially if the Songwriter Showcase comes on the heels of a playoff game on the big-screen TVs), so one has to work a little harder to get their attention, and keep things fairly easy to understand, because a lot of ‘em won’t be operating with a full set of brain cells. I’ll start with something slow and sleazy—that usually will get their attention—and then alternate fast and slow numbers if I can.
Many of the folks in the audience will have come to hear one of the other “acts” perform, which means they’re inclined to be attentive, but not necessarily attentive to me. I try on principle not to do songs I’ve done there before, but that’s for host Eric John Kaiser’s benefit, not the audience’s; most of the audience have never heard me before anyway. Assuming I’ll have accompaniment, I’ll want to make the setlist conist of songs that work well with that accompaniment. And I don’t want to do anything serious. I’ll leave that up to the other “acts” (who will usually more than make up for my lack of seriousness).
Tall order? Maybe not; with over 80 songs, I can usually come up with something to fit almost any occasion. And I do have a complete list of my songs handy—it’s what I’ve been working off to assemble the lyrics for the New Joe Songbook. How about:
Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?—slow & sleazy
50 Ways to Cure the Depression—folk-rock
Invitation to St. Patrick—mod. tempo blues
The Six-Legged Polka—fast bluegrass
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—deliberate Gospel
The “Rapture” song is a good attention-getter; I haven’t performed that or “Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus” at the Lion for a long time. I’ve never played the St. Patrick song there—and our show date is reasonably close to St. Patrick’s Day. “50 Ways” would give ‘em a little tongue-in-cheek (and memorable) social commentary along with their beer.
It’s nice if a short setlist can at least fit the “describe what you do in one sentence” description I gave Songstuff when I first joined: “Happy, upbeat, uptempo songs about death, lost love, betrayal, religion, and dead animals.” (That way, I can mention it in the Rap.) The above setlist actually includes everything except dead animals, unless one considers the ants in “The Six-Legged Polka” as qualifying (they were going to die, but St. Leif saved them).
And if I have to do the show solo again, I’ll change the setlist. I’ll have six songs instead of five, and will pick ones that either don’t have or don’t need a lead break.
Joe
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
THE "SONGS FOR KIDS" ALBUM (AND BLOG FIVE)...
The Songs for Kids CD arrived in the mail today. It’s got ten songs:
I’m a Squirrel—Gene Burnett
Great Day—Marion Rose
Love is Wonderful—Delonde Bell
I See a Cloud—Scott Perry
Dream Pony—Larry West
When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies—me
Tangle of the Jungle—Diana Roarty
Stand Up/Sit Down—Gary Elkinton
Cinnamon Bear—Sheila Kaufman & Lee James McAboy
Abby’s Waltz—Bridget Wolf
And a photo of a cookie on the cover (yay!). Bunch of great writers there—and it turns out I know seven of them personally and an eighth by reputation. Proceeds from sale of the CD benefit the Maslow Project, which helps homeless kids. I understand the CD’s for sale for $10 (plus shipping) but am not sure—yet—where people can order it; I understand the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. board will be deciding this weekend whether they’ll sell it, and if so, it’ll be possible to get it through them.
This is the third time I’ve had a song on someone else’s compilation CD (that I know of, anyway). In 2009, my song “Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up” was on the album A Global Christmas, published and released in The Philippines. Mine was one of only three songs on the album that were in English. And last year, when the Coventry Songwriters group over in England put out a “Best of…” CD, one of mine was on that, too—“In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You.”
First encouragement—finally—at caller class. A couple of people (including instructor Daryl) think I’m improving. I need that. Got some insights, too, into how the whole “traffic pattern” in a square of dancers works, that I think are going to make it easier. Like Gene Burnett says in the “Ninja” song (my favorite song of his, I think), “I can do this thing, I know that I can.”
I am ready, I think, to have a square of live dancers to practice on. Bob (square dance club president) and I were going over whom I might enlist locally, and there just might be enough if everybody’s willing. I’d warn all of ‘em it might be frustrating for a while—I am a novice at this, and don’t have my timing down at all. On the other hand, the only way I’m going to get it down is practice. I don’t have the luxury of popping down the street to a friendly square dance club any night of the week like the Portland folks do; if I do that, it’s a 5-hour drive and $50-60 in gas in the old truck.
I’ve figured out how to make matching speaker stands for the PA system. I need some electrical parts; outdoor light boxes would work best, because they have threaded holes on all four sides and in the lid, but I don’t want to buy them new. I’d like the $10 speakers to remain the most expensive component. (Which they won’t be. I’ve already arranged to buy one of those fancy square dance caller’s mike holders that’s got the on/off switch and volume control in the handle. They sell for over $100 new. I’m getting mine for $25.) When I’m done, I‘m going to be spray-painting the whole arrangement black, to hide what it was made out of, anyway.
Music Thursday, Friday and Sunday this week; the new band will practice either Saturday or Wednesday next—they haven’t decided yet. Need to work up a St. Leif’s Day set for the Thirsty Lion March 27—I believe I’m being invited back. Can I get Denise and her accordion to come with?
Joe
I’m a Squirrel—Gene Burnett
Great Day—Marion Rose
Love is Wonderful—Delonde Bell
I See a Cloud—Scott Perry
Dream Pony—Larry West
When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies—me
Tangle of the Jungle—Diana Roarty
Stand Up/Sit Down—Gary Elkinton
Cinnamon Bear—Sheila Kaufman & Lee James McAboy
Abby’s Waltz—Bridget Wolf
And a photo of a cookie on the cover (yay!). Bunch of great writers there—and it turns out I know seven of them personally and an eighth by reputation. Proceeds from sale of the CD benefit the Maslow Project, which helps homeless kids. I understand the CD’s for sale for $10 (plus shipping) but am not sure—yet—where people can order it; I understand the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. board will be deciding this weekend whether they’ll sell it, and if so, it’ll be possible to get it through them.
This is the third time I’ve had a song on someone else’s compilation CD (that I know of, anyway). In 2009, my song “Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up” was on the album A Global Christmas, published and released in The Philippines. Mine was one of only three songs on the album that were in English. And last year, when the Coventry Songwriters group over in England put out a “Best of…” CD, one of mine was on that, too—“In the Shadows, I’ll Be Watching You.”
First encouragement—finally—at caller class. A couple of people (including instructor Daryl) think I’m improving. I need that. Got some insights, too, into how the whole “traffic pattern” in a square of dancers works, that I think are going to make it easier. Like Gene Burnett says in the “Ninja” song (my favorite song of his, I think), “I can do this thing, I know that I can.”
I am ready, I think, to have a square of live dancers to practice on. Bob (square dance club president) and I were going over whom I might enlist locally, and there just might be enough if everybody’s willing. I’d warn all of ‘em it might be frustrating for a while—I am a novice at this, and don’t have my timing down at all. On the other hand, the only way I’m going to get it down is practice. I don’t have the luxury of popping down the street to a friendly square dance club any night of the week like the Portland folks do; if I do that, it’s a 5-hour drive and $50-60 in gas in the old truck.
I’ve figured out how to make matching speaker stands for the PA system. I need some electrical parts; outdoor light boxes would work best, because they have threaded holes on all four sides and in the lid, but I don’t want to buy them new. I’d like the $10 speakers to remain the most expensive component. (Which they won’t be. I’ve already arranged to buy one of those fancy square dance caller’s mike holders that’s got the on/off switch and volume control in the handle. They sell for over $100 new. I’m getting mine for $25.) When I’m done, I‘m going to be spray-painting the whole arrangement black, to hide what it was made out of, anyway.
Music Thursday, Friday and Sunday this week; the new band will practice either Saturday or Wednesday next—they haven’t decided yet. Need to work up a St. Leif’s Day set for the Thirsty Lion March 27—I believe I’m being invited back. Can I get Denise and her accordion to come with?
Joe
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
AN OPEN MIKE THAT'S NOT AN OPEN MIKE (BLOG 4)...
23 lyrics typeset—takes us through the letter E. (Yes, that’s only 20% of the alphabet. I said this was a big job.) I’m keeping the same format throughout, this time; the New Joe Songbook is going to be a thoroughly professional publication. (The previous edition had a few flaws. This one will not.) One item I can include with the photos is concert posters—I do have quite a few of them, some dating back to my Southern Oregon period (2007-08). Other photos? I’ll just have to keep taking photos, I guess.
I raised at the Arts Center’s Board meeting the idea of a by-invitation concert (a la The Mercantile) in lieu of our next open mike at the Arts Center, and I think the Arts Center’s Board would like me to try it. They’ve noticed, as have I, that attendance at the open mikes has been sparse of late. That will be in May (no open mike in April, because we’ll be having a John Stowell concert instead, with fiddle instructor Paul Patterson). May 5, in fact (and that is a holiday in some cultures). I need to make sure the Tillamook Community Chorus is our headliner—the event was scheduled a year ago for the specific purpose of showcasing them.
For the other performers, I’d call on people I know—songwriter Eric Sappington from Netarts, Roger from Nehalem, Michael and Sedona (Sedona Fire), Loren and Judy (the Crazed Weasels String Band), Irene and Lori from South County, the 5-1/2 Piece Band from Rockaway, “Chippewa Bob” and his musical saw, Ken Hardy, and me and Jane (and the band, if the band are ready for prime time by then). Maybe a few others. If everybody was agreeable, we could have quite a lineup of local talent. And I could publicize it heavily. I do know how to do that.
The other suggestion made was to go back to having food up in the auditorium, like the Arts Center did for open mikes years ago. Easy enough to do; I bake cookies anyway (and people do eat them, even after they’ve heard the “cookies” song), and one could simply tell all and sundry, “Hey, bring something if you can and we’ll make it a potluck.” A few “hot pots” for coffee and tea is about the only infrastructure we lack.
On the computer front, “Lazarus” the laptop is going to get a new addition—a remote DVD-rewritable drive. (Yes, Lazz came equipped with a DVD-rewritable drive, but it never did work; that was apparently a design defect in that model laptop that Dell never could—or would—fix, and it’s one reason that model laptop isn’t made any more.) I’d bought earlier an external case I was going to use for Alice’s old hard drive; that old hard drive is dead, alas, but the case will fit a CD drive, too. John at Backscratcherz having a DVD-rewritable drive on hand was a nice plus.
Since it’s an external case, I can mate it up to other computers, too—and one that could really use a CD-rewritable drive (not to mention a DVD-rewritable one) is old “StuartLittle,” my inherited semi-portable computer. (Everything but the monitor fits in a plastic storage container.) “Stuart” is a pretty good little computer despite being a little shy in the brains department—but he’s 11 years old, and back then computers didn’t come with CD-or-DVD-rewritable drives (and Stuart is such an odd design nothing normal will fit). So the computers can share. I may get away from the need to have four computers around yet.
I managed to get both a news story for the paper and my column done just before their deadlines on what for this week is a real busy schedule. I’d like to be earlier, but it’s nice that I could pull it off. And this month’s challenge from the Coventry songwriters is for songs about TIME (not the “parsley-sage-rosemary-and” variety). I wonder if I could manage to say something about that before their deadline?
Joe
I raised at the Arts Center’s Board meeting the idea of a by-invitation concert (a la The Mercantile) in lieu of our next open mike at the Arts Center, and I think the Arts Center’s Board would like me to try it. They’ve noticed, as have I, that attendance at the open mikes has been sparse of late. That will be in May (no open mike in April, because we’ll be having a John Stowell concert instead, with fiddle instructor Paul Patterson). May 5, in fact (and that is a holiday in some cultures). I need to make sure the Tillamook Community Chorus is our headliner—the event was scheduled a year ago for the specific purpose of showcasing them.
For the other performers, I’d call on people I know—songwriter Eric Sappington from Netarts, Roger from Nehalem, Michael and Sedona (Sedona Fire), Loren and Judy (the Crazed Weasels String Band), Irene and Lori from South County, the 5-1/2 Piece Band from Rockaway, “Chippewa Bob” and his musical saw, Ken Hardy, and me and Jane (and the band, if the band are ready for prime time by then). Maybe a few others. If everybody was agreeable, we could have quite a lineup of local talent. And I could publicize it heavily. I do know how to do that.
The other suggestion made was to go back to having food up in the auditorium, like the Arts Center did for open mikes years ago. Easy enough to do; I bake cookies anyway (and people do eat them, even after they’ve heard the “cookies” song), and one could simply tell all and sundry, “Hey, bring something if you can and we’ll make it a potluck.” A few “hot pots” for coffee and tea is about the only infrastructure we lack.
On the computer front, “Lazarus” the laptop is going to get a new addition—a remote DVD-rewritable drive. (Yes, Lazz came equipped with a DVD-rewritable drive, but it never did work; that was apparently a design defect in that model laptop that Dell never could—or would—fix, and it’s one reason that model laptop isn’t made any more.) I’d bought earlier an external case I was going to use for Alice’s old hard drive; that old hard drive is dead, alas, but the case will fit a CD drive, too. John at Backscratcherz having a DVD-rewritable drive on hand was a nice plus.
Since it’s an external case, I can mate it up to other computers, too—and one that could really use a CD-rewritable drive (not to mention a DVD-rewritable one) is old “StuartLittle,” my inherited semi-portable computer. (Everything but the monitor fits in a plastic storage container.) “Stuart” is a pretty good little computer despite being a little shy in the brains department—but he’s 11 years old, and back then computers didn’t come with CD-or-DVD-rewritable drives (and Stuart is such an odd design nothing normal will fit). So the computers can share. I may get away from the need to have four computers around yet.
I managed to get both a news story for the paper and my column done just before their deadlines on what for this week is a real busy schedule. I’d like to be earlier, but it’s nice that I could pull it off. And this month’s challenge from the Coventry songwriters is for songs about TIME (not the “parsley-sage-rosemary-and” variety). I wonder if I could manage to say something about that before their deadline?
Joe
Sunday, March 4, 2012
ARTS CENTER OPEN MIKE (&C.)...
Lyrics for 15 songs now done for the New Joe Songbook. Found two songs (thus far) where I had never posted lyrics, and I’ll have to write those from scratch. Found another that apparently was never recorded—“The Dead Porcupine Rag”—and I’ll have to fix that, too. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the work gets done.
Small crowd—both performers and audience—at the Arts Center’s open mike Saturday night. From me, they got “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” (there were kids in the audience), “One Gas Station,” and “Selling Off My Body Parts.” They liked the “Cookies” one best. (And despite it being a small crowd—and despite my singing the song—they still managed to eat most of eight dozen cookies.)
Some folks asked when the SOSA/Maslow Project CD (which has the “Cookies” song on it) was coming out—I think they’d like to buy copies. I got word when I got home that the CD has been released, and I’m being sent a copy. Price will be $10 plus shipping; don’t know where to order it yet. (The Maslow Project, by the way, is a charity for homeless kids. Everybody on the album and involved in its production is donating their services. All the money from sales will go to the kids.)
April’s “Artist of the Month” at the Arts Center will be the kids from Tillamook High School, and we will need some kind of musical performance Saturday, April 7, following the artist reception. I think we need to do something different to increase attendance. Perhaps a by-invitation show, a la The Mercantile? I know a number of musicians; question is whether I could get them to come. Could we do a theme? The Mercantile was able to exploit Valentine’s Day, with an “Oops, I Forgot Your Valentine” show (Feb. 18). What could one do at the beginning of April? It’s probably too early to talk about spring—last year, spring didn’t come until the end of July. There is April Fool’s Day, of course (April 1)—but there’s also Easter (which is actually the next day, April 8).
I am of course partial to St. Leif’s Day (March 29), partially because it’s so obscure—few people ever heard of the guy—but also because it’s a feast day for musicians. St. Leif is the patron saint of bagpipes (if any instrument ever needed a patron saint, it’s bagpipes) and it’s said one should celebrate St. Leif’s Day by playing music. Not necessarily on the bagpipes, of course—but it would be fun to get one or more bagpipers to come. It is kinda Their Day, after all. We would need blueberry popcorn (the traditional St. Leif’s Day snack).
I think the “One Gas Station” song is too long. It feels like it’s dragging even without a lead break (I played it without a lead break at the Arts Center). Can’t speed it up easily, because parts of it have a lot of words, and they come pretty fast—it’s one of those that requires strategic breathing. The only option is to excise a verse—and I’m not sure which one. Or not perform the song, of course. The goal is to have the song end just before the audience is ready for it to end. If I can’t do that, I shouldn’t be performing the song.
I’ve had to shorten songs a couple of times before (they’re not always “done” when I say they’re “done”). I had a Nashville music publisher tell me “Crosses by the Roadside” was too long, and at the time the criticism really bothered me—but I eventually decided the guy was right, took out a verse(and chorus), and the song was much better for it. We recorded the shorter version on the Deathgrass album. In the same vein, “Meet Me at the Stairs” got better once I took out one of the verses (it originally had five, and they’re long verses)—and it’s been so long, I no longer remember what was in the verse I eliminated.
Joe
Small crowd—both performers and audience—at the Arts Center’s open mike Saturday night. From me, they got “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” (there were kids in the audience), “One Gas Station,” and “Selling Off My Body Parts.” They liked the “Cookies” one best. (And despite it being a small crowd—and despite my singing the song—they still managed to eat most of eight dozen cookies.)
Some folks asked when the SOSA/Maslow Project CD (which has the “Cookies” song on it) was coming out—I think they’d like to buy copies. I got word when I got home that the CD has been released, and I’m being sent a copy. Price will be $10 plus shipping; don’t know where to order it yet. (The Maslow Project, by the way, is a charity for homeless kids. Everybody on the album and involved in its production is donating their services. All the money from sales will go to the kids.)
April’s “Artist of the Month” at the Arts Center will be the kids from Tillamook High School, and we will need some kind of musical performance Saturday, April 7, following the artist reception. I think we need to do something different to increase attendance. Perhaps a by-invitation show, a la The Mercantile? I know a number of musicians; question is whether I could get them to come. Could we do a theme? The Mercantile was able to exploit Valentine’s Day, with an “Oops, I Forgot Your Valentine” show (Feb. 18). What could one do at the beginning of April? It’s probably too early to talk about spring—last year, spring didn’t come until the end of July. There is April Fool’s Day, of course (April 1)—but there’s also Easter (which is actually the next day, April 8).
I am of course partial to St. Leif’s Day (March 29), partially because it’s so obscure—few people ever heard of the guy—but also because it’s a feast day for musicians. St. Leif is the patron saint of bagpipes (if any instrument ever needed a patron saint, it’s bagpipes) and it’s said one should celebrate St. Leif’s Day by playing music. Not necessarily on the bagpipes, of course—but it would be fun to get one or more bagpipers to come. It is kinda Their Day, after all. We would need blueberry popcorn (the traditional St. Leif’s Day snack).
I think the “One Gas Station” song is too long. It feels like it’s dragging even without a lead break (I played it without a lead break at the Arts Center). Can’t speed it up easily, because parts of it have a lot of words, and they come pretty fast—it’s one of those that requires strategic breathing. The only option is to excise a verse—and I’m not sure which one. Or not perform the song, of course. The goal is to have the song end just before the audience is ready for it to end. If I can’t do that, I shouldn’t be performing the song.
I’ve had to shorten songs a couple of times before (they’re not always “done” when I say they’re “done”). I had a Nashville music publisher tell me “Crosses by the Roadside” was too long, and at the time the criticism really bothered me—but I eventually decided the guy was right, took out a verse(and chorus), and the song was much better for it. We recorded the shorter version on the Deathgrass album. In the same vein, “Meet Me at the Stairs” got better once I took out one of the verses (it originally had five, and they’re long verses)—and it’s been so long, I no longer remember what was in the verse I eliminated.
Joe
Saturday, March 3, 2012
"DROPBOXING" (AND BLOG-A-DAY TWO)...
66 of the songs mastered (to equalize the volume) and archived in the “Dropbox” program Jane turned me on to. When I copy a file there, it automatically sends it to the rest of the band (Clint, Jane and Ken). I’m basically doing everything I’ve weitten—I needed to re-master and archive the songs anyway, since most of them were on “Alice” the ‘puter’s now-deceased hard drive. Clint, Jane and Ken can decide which ones they’re interested in us performing. Ultimately, we should have three hours’ worth of performable stuff (if we’re going to do the Manzanita Farmer’s Market, which I think we should)—and it shouldn’t be all mine.
The band’s got standup bass (Clint), rhythm guitar (me), “whiny lead” (Jane on fiddle) and “non-whiny lead” (Ken on guitar). That’s sufficient for both performing and recording. I expect I’ll be the front man for this band too; it’s not a position I particularly relish, but I can do it the way I think it ought to be done (which is not the way most bands do it), and I don’t really mind doing it, and I think I can do it well. And to the extent the others don’t want to mess with it, it’ll still get done. If, down the road, they get more comfortable with it, we can divvy the job up.
The mastering-and-Dropboxing exercise was an opportunity to listen to some songs I hadn’t thought about in a long time. I’d completely forgotten “The Footballer’s Prayer”; it’s cute—and definitely appropriate for a “family” audience, since it’s got no tongue-in-cheek sexual or political references. It isn’t even religious, except for the “O Lord, let me come back as a football” line in the chorus. It was written for one of those “challenges” of the Coventry Songwriters group over in England, and I did remember I’d worked hard to make it appealable both to Brits and to Americans (the two cultures define “football” differently—outside the U.S., “football” is soccer). What I didn’t remember was that I’d managed to do it pretty well.
“Take Me Back to the ‘Sixties” isn’t bad, either—a nice, nostalgic lament (also written for the Coventry folks, when they wanted songs about drugs). I think that one only ever got performed once—at the coffee shop in McMinnville whose open mike I used to go to while I was being the interim city manager in Lafayette. There are, I guess, not that many people left who remember the ‘Sixties—and as we age, there are fewer all the time.
And my Tascam recording of “Selling Off My Body Parts” is better, I think, than the one from the Influence Music Hall. (And I wasn’t that impressed with my Tascam recording, either.) So I sent the Tascam one to the band. Hope I haven’t overwhelmed them with material.
There are three of my songs where the only good recording exists only as a soundtrack for a video: “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” and “Me and Rufus, and Burning Down the House.” Task for next week, I guess, is to strip the audio track off of those. That’s supposed to be possible in Audacity. And there are a handful more songs that I need to re-record, because the only recordings in existence were on “Alice”—“Born Again Barbie,” “Paradise: the Columbia Gorge Song,” and “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters.”
Still have lyrics to typeset—I’ve got only eight songs done thus far. That task is more work than mastering the recordings. And I still have no idea what to use for photos this time around.
Joe
The band’s got standup bass (Clint), rhythm guitar (me), “whiny lead” (Jane on fiddle) and “non-whiny lead” (Ken on guitar). That’s sufficient for both performing and recording. I expect I’ll be the front man for this band too; it’s not a position I particularly relish, but I can do it the way I think it ought to be done (which is not the way most bands do it), and I don’t really mind doing it, and I think I can do it well. And to the extent the others don’t want to mess with it, it’ll still get done. If, down the road, they get more comfortable with it, we can divvy the job up.
The mastering-and-Dropboxing exercise was an opportunity to listen to some songs I hadn’t thought about in a long time. I’d completely forgotten “The Footballer’s Prayer”; it’s cute—and definitely appropriate for a “family” audience, since it’s got no tongue-in-cheek sexual or political references. It isn’t even religious, except for the “O Lord, let me come back as a football” line in the chorus. It was written for one of those “challenges” of the Coventry Songwriters group over in England, and I did remember I’d worked hard to make it appealable both to Brits and to Americans (the two cultures define “football” differently—outside the U.S., “football” is soccer). What I didn’t remember was that I’d managed to do it pretty well.
“Take Me Back to the ‘Sixties” isn’t bad, either—a nice, nostalgic lament (also written for the Coventry folks, when they wanted songs about drugs). I think that one only ever got performed once—at the coffee shop in McMinnville whose open mike I used to go to while I was being the interim city manager in Lafayette. There are, I guess, not that many people left who remember the ‘Sixties—and as we age, there are fewer all the time.
And my Tascam recording of “Selling Off My Body Parts” is better, I think, than the one from the Influence Music Hall. (And I wasn’t that impressed with my Tascam recording, either.) So I sent the Tascam one to the band. Hope I haven’t overwhelmed them with material.
There are three of my songs where the only good recording exists only as a soundtrack for a video: “Leavin’ It to Beaver,” “50 Ways to Cure the Depression” and “Me and Rufus, and Burning Down the House.” Task for next week, I guess, is to strip the audio track off of those. That’s supposed to be possible in Audacity. And there are a handful more songs that I need to re-record, because the only recordings in existence were on “Alice”—“Born Again Barbie,” “Paradise: the Columbia Gorge Song,” and “Ballad of the Dodson Drifters.”
Still have lyrics to typeset—I’ve got only eight songs done thus far. That task is more work than mastering the recordings. And I still have no idea what to use for photos this time around.
Joe
Thursday, March 1, 2012
PINE GROVE POST-MORTEM (AND BLOG-A-DAY ONE)...
Should mention the “upper” first. Got tapped at the last minute to be part of a band playing a benefit concert in Manzanita. The “band” ended up being Ken, Jane, and myself, and we probably played two hours. We ended up doing a lot of my stuff (with over 80 songs, I have a lot of material to work with). The crowd wanted uptempo material, so they got it:
Spend the End of the World with Me
The Abomination Two-Step
Naked Space Hamsters in Love
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus
Bluebird on My Windshield
Duct Tape
I May Write You from Jupiter
The World Enquirer
The Termite Song
The last three I don’t think Ken and Jane had ever played before. They can now. We also did three slower numbers: “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” (which somebody requested), “Pole Dancing for Jesus” (consistently popular), and “Armadillo on the Interstate” (as a closing number).
And we got paid. (Hadn’t expected that.) Plus I sold a CD. More than paid for the gas, it did. I think that makes the second paying gig I’ve had this year.
Tonight, music at the Tsunami in Wheeler, and Saturday night an open mike at the Arts Center; Friday night, I have my choice of music at City Hall in Garibaldi or a tavern in Tillamook (hosted by a fellow I know). I expect I’ll pick the closer option—I need to promote the open mike. With other events happening the same night (notably Michael and Sedona’s CD release party, which I’d be at if I weren’t hosting the open mike), I’m expecting a shortage of customers.
And a to-do list:
I’ve got a handful of songs I have to re-record because the only recordings were on old “Alice” the ‘puter’s hard drive—they were never posted on an OMD anywhere. For starters, I just want draft recordings on the Tascam; I’ll work on getting better ones later. There’s a handful of cover songs Deathgrass does, either public domain or used by permission, that also didn’t exist anywhere except on “Alice.” I need to recreate those, too. Unless I can retrieve one of the setlist CDs I made for the band (and I don’t think I kept any myself), I’ll have to re-record those.
I need photos, both for the New Joe Songbook and for some of the upcoming videos. I haven’t traveled anywhere exotic, or been stationed anywhere odd, for quite a while, and I can’t afford to just pack up and go somewhere, either. Lesson for the future: archive everything regularly, including photos.
I need speaker stands for the little PA system. I haven’t been able to find a second junk mike stand to adapt, and I don’t want to buy one (I am proud that this PA system cost all of ten bucks to build); I’ll have to make stands instead.
I have CDs to make for Clint the bass player. Basically, the entire catalog, except for the songs that are on the Deathgrass and Santa’s Fallen CDs. I need to download from the OMDs the songs I don’t have on “Lazarus” the laptop, and run them through Audacity to equalize the volume. He wants lyric sheets, too—which means finishing the New Joe Songbook.
Fellow name of Barry Post passed on a challenge from a Dave Wood: Can you write 500 to 700 words a day in a blog, every day for 90 days? Sure. I can even make them make sense. But can I make them interesting? We’ll see. (This one, by the way, is precisely 600 words.)
Joe
Spend the End of the World with Me
The Abomination Two-Step
Naked Space Hamsters in Love
Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus
Bluebird on My Windshield
Duct Tape
I May Write You from Jupiter
The World Enquirer
The Termite Song
The last three I don’t think Ken and Jane had ever played before. They can now. We also did three slower numbers: “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” (which somebody requested), “Pole Dancing for Jesus” (consistently popular), and “Armadillo on the Interstate” (as a closing number).
And we got paid. (Hadn’t expected that.) Plus I sold a CD. More than paid for the gas, it did. I think that makes the second paying gig I’ve had this year.
Tonight, music at the Tsunami in Wheeler, and Saturday night an open mike at the Arts Center; Friday night, I have my choice of music at City Hall in Garibaldi or a tavern in Tillamook (hosted by a fellow I know). I expect I’ll pick the closer option—I need to promote the open mike. With other events happening the same night (notably Michael and Sedona’s CD release party, which I’d be at if I weren’t hosting the open mike), I’m expecting a shortage of customers.
And a to-do list:
I’ve got a handful of songs I have to re-record because the only recordings were on old “Alice” the ‘puter’s hard drive—they were never posted on an OMD anywhere. For starters, I just want draft recordings on the Tascam; I’ll work on getting better ones later. There’s a handful of cover songs Deathgrass does, either public domain or used by permission, that also didn’t exist anywhere except on “Alice.” I need to recreate those, too. Unless I can retrieve one of the setlist CDs I made for the band (and I don’t think I kept any myself), I’ll have to re-record those.
I need photos, both for the New Joe Songbook and for some of the upcoming videos. I haven’t traveled anywhere exotic, or been stationed anywhere odd, for quite a while, and I can’t afford to just pack up and go somewhere, either. Lesson for the future: archive everything regularly, including photos.
I need speaker stands for the little PA system. I haven’t been able to find a second junk mike stand to adapt, and I don’t want to buy one (I am proud that this PA system cost all of ten bucks to build); I’ll have to make stands instead.
I have CDs to make for Clint the bass player. Basically, the entire catalog, except for the songs that are on the Deathgrass and Santa’s Fallen CDs. I need to download from the OMDs the songs I don’t have on “Lazarus” the laptop, and run them through Audacity to equalize the volume. He wants lyric sheets, too—which means finishing the New Joe Songbook.
Fellow name of Barry Post passed on a challenge from a Dave Wood: Can you write 500 to 700 words a day in a blog, every day for 90 days? Sure. I can even make them make sense. But can I make them interesting? We’ll see. (This one, by the way, is precisely 600 words.)
Joe
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