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Well, the "Turn Your Radio On" CD is done, but I'm not really happy with it. I'll send it to the music publisher, but I don't think she'll find it acceptable. Basically, we all could have done better. We DID do better, when we played it live, and together.

Which raises the question of how we'd do a CD of the Friday Night Group–which I'd still like to do. I think it'd be necessary to do it live, with the Sound Guy bringing his equipment in. We (which probably means me) would have to script it out beforehand, deciding who would play lead and ensuring they got miked separately (maybe). It might be sufficient to just use the guy's two big stage mikes–he does record stage shows with those.

And from my end? I am tempted to do a repeat engagement with Listen Studios in La Grange (who recorded and mastered the "Santa's Fallen" CD), and use the same set of musicians, rather than doing something new. All of the songs that are "CD material" work well with a bluegrass band, and I can almost predict the number of hours it'll take (which is good, when it's my money). The headache is the special trips to Eastern Oregon (now 350 miles away–and gas is NOT cheap).

"Oil in the Cornfield" is in good hands with The Collaborators, with piano by Vikki Flawith, bass and lead by Mississippi Spud, and rhythm guitar, vocal and plinks on the Strat by me. This one will turn out good, I think. The contest putter-onners may reject it, but it won't be for lack of a good product.

"The Six-Legged Polka" is getting good reviews. In a nutshell, this song entailed taking a limited set of parameters–St. Leif rescued the ants by taking them in and feeding them popcorn–and fitting them into the framework of a traditional dance. It probably couldn't have avoided being over the top–the whole idea is over the top–but I needn't have worried whether people would take it seriously. They don't. The music had to drive this one–a very fast 2/4, with fairly frequent chord changes (but only a handful of chords–I used three). The addition of Gem Watson's electric guitar, played through a drum machine and made to sound like a cross between a saxophone and an accordion–is what really gives the song its "polka" sound.

One concern–it wasn't obvious until after the song was done–is that the music for the verses of "The Six-Legged Polka" was taken bodily from the verses of "Prehistoric Roadkill." The choruses of the two songs are a lot different–but is that enough? Is there a way that "Prehistoric Roadkill" can be played so the similarity isn't obvious? Or will the music need to be redone?

On the other hand, I now have a second verse for "Prehistoric Roadkill" (it already had a first and third, and now needs only a final fourth), and it was probably because I was obsessing about the music in the verses being the same. I may be stuck with the melody–and the tempo, because the song does move pretty fast (though maybe not quite as fast as the polka). I probably have to concentrate on ways the "Prehistoric Roadkill" song can be made to sound different within those limitations. ("Prehistoric Roadkill" is also 4/4, not 2/4, which may help.)

Elsewhere, I solicited a bagpipe lead for Leif Alderman's "Tugga Paw" song that I'm writing the music for, and responded to a blind ad from the "St. Croix Music Society," in the Virgin Islands (I spent one summer in the Virgin Islands, back in 1975)–which resulted in my getting a free subscription to their on-line magazine (I get an e-mail notifying me of each new issue) AND a listing in their Band Directory, with the possibility of a feature article on me at some future date. I don't know if it'll turn into gigs or record sales or not. It's exposure. Remember what the guy said who was asked why he was throwing rocks at birds–he intended to leave no tern unstoned.