THE PIGFISH ALBUM LIST...

John (the bass player) wanted a CD of Southern Pigfish songs for practice. I think the way to approach it is to act as if the Southern Pigfish album were going to be produced right now, today, and all there was to pick from was my songs. What would go on the album would be:

For Their Own Ends
Bedpans for Brains
Vampire Roumanian Babies
Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep
Test Tube Baby
Born Again Barbie
Naked Space Hamsters in Love
When I Jump Off the Cliff, I’ll Think of You
The World Enquirer
Bluebird on My Windshield
Rotten Candy

Three folk-rock, two rock ‘n’ roll, one Gospel (“Barbie”), three bluegrass, and two country. I’d add the Norwegian Black/Death Metal tune, “Evil Dead Fairies in My Mobile Home,” but I don’t have a draft recorded yet. (I might know a couple of people who could help with that, however.) A good cross-section of genres on which the band can put their own “spin,” and show off their capabilities.

As for what the band could perform, it’s really just more of the same. If we’re talking only about my stuff (and I don’t know that for sure), I have over 60 “keepers”—over FIVE HOURS of performable music, in other words. Add in the collabs, of which there’s maybe an album’s worth now, and we’ve got SIX HOURS. That’s why it’s possible to adjust a setlist to the prejudices of a crowd—to do all kid-friendly songs for the Neskowin Harvest Festival, for instance.

ANOTHER GIG, MAYBE? I went job-chasing one night last week; it’s not something I’ve done before, but troubled times require troubled measures (or something like that). There’s a recreation district north of here that lost their general manager (they also lost the contents of their bank account about the same time), and are looking for a new one (manager, that is). Not a problem: I am good with money, and I do seem to end up working for people with financial problems. So I went to their board meeting, to introduce myself, find out when they were advertising the job, and so on.

I may end up getting a gig out of it, if not (or in addition to) a job. They were agonizing over how to raise money, which prompted (from me) the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland response—“Let’s put on a show!” So they got one of my “Wanted in 6 states for playing bad country music” business cards, and they told me the building (an old grade school) has a huge auditorium with a stage, that doesn’t get used that much. We could take care of that…

BROCHURE: Need to re-do the “Joe is Great!” brochure, which got erased in the course of outfitting “Alice” the computer with Windows XP (WinXP deleted all software not made by Microsoft, and all files created with any software not made by Microsoft—very nasty people). The brochure was due for an upgrade anyway; I have new photos and new press clippings to add.

The brochure is the only part of the “press packet” (photo, CD and brochure) that has much of any writing on it, so what writing it does have on it needs to be attention-getting as well as concise. So we’ll have a brief description of the music, a list of awards (it’s a short list), juicy quotes from the press clippings, and photos of me playing in various places. The “Wanted in 6 states” logo designed by my daughter, and the contact information—e-mail and snail-mail, home phone and cell phone (the brochure is the only piece of the”press packet” that has that information). They can’t get hold of you if they don’t know how.

UPDATES: No on the movie part (I did offer to write original music for the film, too, but haven’t got a response to that). I have a part in Country Rose’s Christmas radio play (as Santa), and a few collabs left to finish. Re-recorded “The World Enquirer,” one of my earliest songs (the original recording was mono), and even though I didn’t use it on the cut, I found an effects setting for the electric banjo that works—it’s obviously a banjo, and obviously electric, at the same time.

joe