THE PHILIPPINE CHRISTMAS ALBUM!

I received the PHILIPPINE CHRISTMAS ALBUM—took three weeks to get here from The Philippines by their version of registered mail. (Must’ve swum.) It is definitely a rush having somebody else’s record with my song (and name, and photo) on it.

I’m not the only american on the album (there are two Stan Good songs, too); some of the songs are in English, and some not. Some of the music would be quite at home in an American bar or concert hall, even though the singing isn’t in English—I guess music really is a universal language. One hip-hop piece on the record—very well done, and fascinating to listen to, even though it’s in Tagalog (I think).

The album is a flash drive—cute li’l thing, with attractive packaging; I just had to plug it into one of “Alice” the ‘puter’s USB ports (she has 5) and it played right away. I don’t think most entertainment systems in the U.S. have USB ports (mine certainly doesn’t, but my components are 20 to 30 years old); I gather it’s common overseas. One thing I heard the publisher complaining about is flash drives still aren’t very cheap, even in quantity, and I definitely have not seen them cheap in the U.S., where they’re not a widely-used entertainment medium. A big challenge for the Southern Pigfish album, which I wanted to issue on flash drive, complete with videos, is going to be keeping costs down

RED ROOM GIG: I keep being reassured we’ll have a band for the Red Room gig—drummer, bass, lead guitar, harmonica, maybe even keyboard—and that we’ll have time to practice ahead of time. First chance to do so (and to meet everybody, ‘cause I don’t know them) may be this coming weekend.

On the assumption they know what they’re doing, here’s what I’d propose for a band set. 9 songs, 45 minutes—and not necessarily in order:

Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (slow & sleazy)
One: I Love You (mod. fast country)
Armadillo on the Interstate (slow & sleazy)
Hey, Little Chicken (country blues)
Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep (rock ‘n’ roll)
Portland: The Tri-Met Bus Song (bluegrass)
Electronic Love (slow burlesque)
Milepost 43 (mod. fast country)
I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas (mod. slow country)

All sound good with a band. Some wouldn’t sound good any other way. Since the gig is just before Valentine’s Day, we can concentrate on love songs (7 out of 9 are love songs, though maybe not the kind of love one would talk loudly about). It’s good to have a common theme to string things together.

Of the nine, the only one that’d take some work is “Dirty Deeds We Done to Sheep,” because the timing has to be so exact. The rest are pretty simple, and most (including “Dirty Deeds”) have only three chords. I’d include “One: I Love You” because it’s real danceable, and it’s been popular at the Library—I think I’ve played it every week. “The Tri-Met Bus Song” is local color—it’s a parody of that old bluegrass turkey, “Wreck of the Old 97,” and is about Portland’s bus system; the one time the Dodson Drifters played it (in Portland, of course), the audience wouldn’t let us stop. It might still be popular after 30 years. We’ll find out.

And I suppose we should plan on an encore—you never can tell. It needs to be short, because everybody’ll be on a tight schedule, and there’s two bands following us. “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” might fill the bill—it’s short, and sleazy, and memorable.

OTHER UPDATES: Not much. (I am not going to repeat that “no [insert activity] yet” statement—it bothers me.) A couple more jobs to apply for (one local), jam session at the music store Wednesday night (maybe), open mike in Bay City Saturday night (definitely). Still trying to decide if I should put my last set of strings on the guitar before or after the open mike.

joe