HAPPY ALMOST NEW YEAR...

NO NEW YEAR’S EVE GIG: Really disappointing—my preference for celebrating New Year’s, since I don’t drink, is to be playing on stage with a band. I got to do that last year—but I was living in southern Oregon and knew a bar owner who was throwing a private party New Year’s Eve, and inviting only musicians he knew. I don’t have resources like that here on the Coast. (The lesson there is I should create them. Not playing on New Year’s Eve is something that should be added to the “I’ll never do that again” list.) This coming weekend, I should be able to play music Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, though.

I got a message from one of the folks I know and love in southern Oregon, asking, “Dude, when you coming home?” It’s a question I don’t have an answer to. Yet. It does beg the question where home is. Yes, it is probably in southern Oregon. Despite all the hassles with the job (and loss of the job), I was happier there—and accomplished more (the two may be related)—than anywhere else in a long time. I’d move back in a heartbeat. Problem is (being conservative, I tend to see problems) living expenses are so high down there one needs an income to be able to live there. And I don’t have one. (Probably should add being income-less to the “I’ll never do that again” list, too.)

I read a lot of articles (mostly online, because I’m waydam cheap) about writing and promotion; one I ran into recently said one should live where one’s music is popular. I do think the flip side also works: Make sure your music is popular where you live. I have managed to do that the last three places I’ve resided.

Yes, the music is capable of selling itself, I think. (That’s a recent development. A year ago—definitely two years ago—I couldn’t have said that.) The trick is getting it heard. That’s easier some places than others.

One of the things that bothers me about the Oregon Coast is people keep saying The Place to hear live music is Garibaldi City Hall on Friday nights. That’s our Friday Night Group—which I helped put together seven years ago. There’s nothing else? Only a handful of taverns have live music, and often they’re bringing in bands from out of the area. There are no venues for solo artists, paid or unpaid, as near as I can tell. (The one coffeehouse that was doing it went out of business after two devastating floods two years in a row.) And I’m the only writer I know in the area. After living in southern Oregon, where there are writers everywhere (and a lot of good ones), and tons of venues with live music, solo and bands, it all feels very strange.

It is potentially fertile ground, if one can hoe it. One would have to start small, at a coffeehouse or two, start playing regular for tips, promote it heavily, and see what came in the door. Could expand it to include duets (once I found somebody to duet with), like Gene Burnett did in Ashland. Over time—maybe—one could assemble the band, playing festivals first (since there are so many of them here), then taverns (once we had a reputation for drawing a crowd). It would be a long-term project, and I get tired just thinking about it. I would be creating the marketplace at the same time I was doing the marketing, because the marketplace itself does not yet exist.

I am likely to have to do that not only here, but most places I have to move to to work. (If I have to move. A couple of the jobs I’ve applied for are here on the Coast, and I could commute. And it’s very possible I could remain unemployed for a long time, too. There is not a lot of demand for the services of an ex-city manager who’s been out of work for more than nine months.)

While I’m making my future wherever I happen to be, I still need to visit southern Oregon—and figure out a way to do it regularly and easily. I do miss everybody—and devour the local news, and every message I get. Right now, with gas at 2005 prices, I could travel to southern Oregon for less than $200 and have less than half that be fuel cost. It’d be good to do a gig or two while there, though.

I hope most folks aren’t spending quiet New Year’s Eves at home. To all of you within earshot (or eyeshot), whoever and however many of you there are, best wishes for the new year. May 2009 be something you can write happy songs about.

Joe