PRACTICE WITH THE BAND...

The band is getting tight; Wednesday night we were able to do a couple of songs we’d never played together before (but that one person knew the words to), and have them come out note-perfect the first time (lead included), right down to ending on the same note. Audience included a couple of girls who were on their way to another club, and never made it there; they stayed all the way through our practice instead. I’m sure they’ll tell their friends.

I think of Screaming Gulch as “crossover” music. It’s not really country, though a lot of the repertoire is old bluegrass and blues numbers; it’s more like punk rock with a hillbilly patina. Very high-energy stuff. It’s good the band has two lead players—I couldn’t keep up on my own.

Which does beg the question, “What happened to the country music in this area?” This is (or was) the country; it’s only within the last few years the Medford area became a Little L.A. with the influx of wealthy Angeleno retirees, the doctors and hospitals (&c.) that cater to them, and the sky-high housing prices. But isn’t that a patina, too? Barely 25 miles from here, little Rogue River’s country dance (where I’ve been playing lead guitar) draws a consistent crowd, every Tuesday night, just like it has for 20 years.

I suggested to one fellow today the plethora of rock, folk, &c., music might be the result of the college kids (there’s both a junior college and a full-scale university here), and he allowed as I might be right. That’s the music the kids listen too, all right; at the Wild Goose’s open mike on Sunday nights, I’m usually the only one who plays any country music. (The kids listen just as raptly to that, however—but it might be because of the words. I am getting a bit of a reputation as a writer.)

But wait a minute—the kids aren’t the ones with any money. The adults have the money. So who’s playing music for the adults? I get the impression very few people are. Could be a big untapped market out there—and I sure would like to tap it. But how?

UPDATES: The recording of “Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire” with Dan Doshier on fiddle and harmonica is a hit. Next step—tomorrow: “Hey, Little
Chicken,” again with blues harp (and whatever else Dan wants to pull out of his music store). Did music for a Bill Robinson song, “Writing Country Songs”—he wanted a Jerry Reed imitation, and I gave him my best. Did it as a very fast talking blues, playing lead way up on the neck of the Strat (where the notes are closer together and I can hit ‘em faster). No indication yet whether he likes it. And I got to play lead on another of those Soundclick blues collaborations, and even got complimented, of all things, by people who play way better’n I do. They want me to write words to the next one, which I probably can do—words, not guitarmanship, is my strength. Wonder if it’s time for “Dead Squirrel Necklace”?

Joe