BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS...

Bad news and good news… The bad news is I will not be performing at the “Moograss” Bluegrass Festival in Tillamook this year. Heard that after sending e-mails for over a month and getting no response; I finally reached one of the organizers by phone. The Official Reason is they’ve got too many people scheduled who are more famous’n me. Probably a valid reason. I did enjoy playing on the same bill as all them big names, though. They did ask if I’d do another songwriting workshop, and I said I would—while reminding ‘em it’d get more attention if I was also performing.

The good news is that I will be playing at the Jackson County Fair—that’ll be this Tuesday, 17 July; just a short set (3 songs), but I will have a backup band. I have, I think, two potential members of the band for the next CD—Dan Doshier, who owns a local music store (and can play about anything), and fellow city manager Phil Messina. Dan on mandolin, I think, and maybe fiddle, and Phil on lead guitar. Phil’s style is more blues and rock ‘n’ roll, which in my opinion would be perfect for a bluegrass album. Don’t y’think?

The lesson? (There are always lessons, remember.) Watch your back, I guess. Don’t count on anything. And never stop selling.

That means (1) keep up the blog, (2) make sure the rest of Concert Season is “on line,” and (3) don’t miss an opportunity to promote.

So I’ll ask the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. for advice what to talk about in the songwriting class, play “Meet Me at the Stairs” at the Fair so I’ll have an excuse to push CDs. (That’s #3.) And e-mail the organizers of the Grassroots Festival in Union and the Harvest Festival in Neskowin. (That’s #2.) I mentioned earlier I figured out a way to post the blog entries without having Internet at the motel, so I’ll use it. (#1.)

Task for this week, since I just got paid, is to book plane fare to Nashville for Pineyfest. There may not be a lot of money beyond that. If the opportunity happens, it’d be good to buy a bigger suitcase (Salvation Army model, of course); current one really won’t hold a week’s worth of clothes, plus the Tascam, camera, and piles of CDs. It’d be good to take some spare Tascam chips along (one chip really doesn’t hold more’n one song), but I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford it.

Oh, and if you’re reading this, Joe’s available for gigs. Enquire within, and all that. He does check e-mail.

Joe