ABOUT TIME...

Being a full-time musician is tiring. (Yes, I would still do it for a living.)

The appearances Friday (at the SOSA “Trio” event), Saturday and Monday (SOSA “showcases”), and Sunday (open mike at the Wild Goose) were essentially all rehearsals, making sure that Jack (bass) and Darrin (harmonica) knew a lot of the material, or at least knew what to expect. Tuesday (open mike at NW Pasta & Pizza) was the only one where I played solo.

Sunday morning and afternoon was practice with the impromptu Triple Tree band (we’re calling ourselves “Darrin Wayne and Friends”), and so was Wednesday night and Friday night. Wednesday and Thursday nights were also practice with Screamin’ Gulch—our big gig at Johnny B.’s was Friday night, and the band hadn’t played together in three weeks. (And Thursday night was also practice with Darrin, to make sure I could follow his songs at the Triple Tree gig.) It all makes for very sore fingers. A sore shoulder, too—I know now why so many professional musicians have wide, padded guitar straps. That old fake Gibson “jumbo” guitar is heavy—but you don’t notice until you’ve been standing up with it for hours on end, days on end.

The gigs did go off well. Screamin’ Gulch had three lead guitarists Friday night (one besides Wayne and me, in other words), so I didn’t have to do a lot of work. The band is tight, and organized, and we put on a good show. Compared to our high-energy performance, the name act—The Mighty Lonesomes, a bluegrass band out of Ashland—were a little tame, and I think the audience felt it, too. They should have opened for us, not vice versa. (But wait—they’re the professionals, not us. Is something going on here?)

The Triple Tree show on Saturday was good, too. Thanks to all the practice and organizing, the set came in at almost exactly three hours, and we virtually never had a moment without somebody playing on stage. We set the stage up so individuals could drift on and off stage without being obvious about it—but for about two-thirds of everybody’s material, nobody had to be off stage—it was stuff we’d practiced, and we were a Band, and a good one. Most of the audience was friends and family of the performers, but I doubt the venue cared—we brought in customers, and that’s what counts. Left the owner an autographed photo of “Darrin Wayne and Friends” (and also one of my CDs for the jukebox—she already has Darrin’s).

Wayne (Screamin’ Gulch’s steel player and impromptu recording engineer) said he isn’t done “tweaking” the songs of mine he recorded two weeks ago—he’s still got instruments to add—but he says they’re coming out nice. He sounded excited—which I think means we’re going to get a real good product. If so, I’d like to have him do the rest of the songs for the album, too.

And a fun job (using the term “job” loosely, of course—it’s unpaid). I’ve been tentatively tapped by the music publisher whose mailing list I’m on to write historical narratives for an album of old Gospel hymns. Sent those off Saturday. It was fun work—I learned a lot of trivia about Gospel songs I thought I knew, and some of it was fascinating. (Did you know “Jesus Loves Me” has been translated into Klingon?) She also wants to do interviews of some of the songwriters in her “catalog”—and knows (now) that I used to be a newspaper reporter, and have some experience doing just that.

Time to list some more assets. Got another dude with a recording studio who wants to record my stuff (gave him a copy of the “Santa’s Fallen” CD as a guide to what I want), a bluegrass band that wants to cover one of my songs (told them “sure”), and a radio station DJ who wants to play my stuff on the air (he got a CD, too).

Still to do: More CDs to burn, label and package. Still need to pick a studio and record the album. And practice for the Big Gig.

Joe