MORE FOR THE TO-DO LIST...

No new songs of mine, but plenty to keep me busy writing music to songs by others. I am not about to get bored any time soon.

“Tampa Stan” Good’s “I Love My Truck, My Dog and I Love Jesus” has music now; second effort, a little faster with a more prominent Gospel beat befitting the subject matter. It’s a love song, actually, not a Gospel hymn—but the title makes it sound like something you would not want to have in a hymnal.

Still one more Tampa Stan tune to put to music; his “Stay-cation” (one of a number of songs people have written in response to high fuel prices and the economic collapse) has some real commercial potential with its let’s-do-it-at-home message. Beth Williams’ waltz of the lovebirds, “Lovey Dovey,” needs to get finished, too; it could use twitters and flutters along with the music—I wonder if that’s possible to do in Audacity?

And Beth’s got another serious one, about a missing kid, that’s crying out for music as soon as the lyrics are polished. It’s another instance where a serious issue can be addressed with country music—“boldly going where no man has gone before,” as it were. The old definition of country music, “pain you can dance to,” suggests country music is a perfect vehicle for exploring social issues—the more so because it’s unexpected. Country music is generally more literate and more story-driven than other genres.

(It’s not a crusade. It’s just a little envelope-pushing, using a tool for something it hasn’t been used for before. One is in the position of the guy who tried hammering a nail with the butt end of a hatchet. Yup, looked like it oughta work. And it did.)

One more project to do in the Electronic World. It is time to do the “innerview” by Danny the dog of Internet music promoter/deejay/veejay Len Amsterdam. His Whitby Shores Website appears to be getting a sudden flood of traffic—nearly all of it musicians—which should prompt the question (for Danny to ask, and Len to answer), “Where do we go from here?” Music promotion and marketing on the Internet is still in its infancy. What might its first training pants look like?

And then there’s the Real World. There, I want to play more frequently and in more places; I want more paying gigs, and generally want to get more attention. I want to put together a band to play the paying gigs (or most of them) and to be on the next album, and if the reality is that band can’t be impromptu—if it has to stay together and play regularly—well, so be it. I deal with reality as I find it, just as I did as a city manager. If I get hired away to a job elsewhere, well, that happens, too. I can’t postpone having a life just to wait for something that may never happen.

I visited the head county librarian, fired her and her staff up about the weekly music in the library idea, volunteered to lead it for a little while; our first session will be Saturday, 13 December. I’ll do a promotional poster (might as well promote myself as a graphic artist while I’m at it) for her to distribute.

There’s the monthly jam session at the Forestry Center, too, that’ll turn into something if people keep going. I still have a paid membership in the Oregon Old Time Fiddlers Association, and they do have a chapter on the Coast; I don’t know what they do, or where, and should find out.

From the gig end, there’s the Old Mill’s Saturday market starting in November, and county economic development’s “Taste of Tillamook” festival in March. The Garibaldi Maritime Museum’s been open, and they were historically closed in the winter, and again, I should stop by; the fellow who founded the place is deceased now, but it may be his kids running the place—and if so, they used to be fans. It might be an excuse for a concert. In the entertainment papers I picked up today, all the venues that have live music by soloists are at least an hour’s drive away, mostly too far in these times of sky-high fuel prices. (That is forcing more entertainment to be local, though—and that’s an opportunity.)

And I found at the music store in Tillamook (while looking at effects pedals for the electric banjo) the new portable recording studio I’d like to have. 6-channel job (instead of 4), records to a CD (instead of a digital-camera chip) so I could work on more than one song at a time; still only 2 inputs, but it looks like either one can be guitar or mike and they can be used simultaneously. The price--$325—is good, but way too spendy for my non-existent income. Santa? Are you listening?

Joe