WORKING ON THE WEBSITE (&C.)...

And when we can’t think of anything else to do, we write, right?

Dick Ackerman’s willing to do the harmonica lead on the “Armadillo” song; might be able to record that in the next couple of days. Following that, I want to record Beth Williams’ “Kidney Stone Blues,” and then do harmonica parts for “The Tillamook Railroad Blues” and “Milepost 43.” The railroad song especially should be a one-take thing—we’ve been playing it for years. The Tascam’s digital-camera chip “brain,” which allows only one song at a time, forces to-be-recorded music into a pipeline. What’s enabled significant output is being able to get acceptable tracks usually in a handful of “takes.”

Don’t know about the music jams at the music store. The Friday night jam sessions I used to go to in Baker City started out that way, just playing in the music store, and just outgrew the place, and Tillamook Music could do the same thing. It’s necessary to be consistent, though—one can’t be telling people it’s on in the afternoon, and then calling them a couple hours later to tell ‘em it’s off. (Then again, they may have just called me because they don’t want me around. This could be Rejection-as-a-Musician Week for all I know.) On the good news front, the Ghost Hole Tavern here in Garibaldi has started having live music again, after a three-year hiatus; they’re billing it as a jam session, and I’ll go. I need to be playing with other people more.

No gig for me at the Tillamook County Fair, according to the Fair Manager (not surprising—they usually don’t book any local entertainment—but as Locally Famous Dude, I had to ask). The “Taste of Tillamook” festival in mid-March might get cancelled (the Fair Board will decide Feb. 3)—reportedly last year’s “Taste” was a financial flop, and some of the backers aren’t backing it this year. It would be a shame if the event died—it was and still could be a good showcase for local music—but that’s not something I can control.

I have been working off and on on the Joe Website (free hosting space from the phone company), but it’s a rough go. I have to work within stock templates they provide—and a telephone company, I guess, has funny ideas about what people are going to use Websites for. One almost wishes for a blank slate—even though I have no idea what I’m doing. (Blank slates, alas, are not an option where the phone company is concerned. Not surprising—for over 100 years, the phone company told us what telephones were going to look like, what colors (if any) they were going to be, and even where we were going to buy them. One should expect no different with Websites.)

Mostly, what I want the Website for is a place for LINKS. I already have music—over 70 songs—archived on Soundclick and Whitby Shores, a MySpace “presence,” and “The Writer’s Blog” in four places including the “traditional” one on Google’s Blogspot. I just need links to all those places. I need a link to a second page for ordering the CD, which for right now has to be ordered from me (the next one will be on CDBaby—I promise), and a link to a third page to sign up for the “joelist.” (I have noticed other musicians using their Websites the same way.)

Everything else is gravy. Sure, we can have some photos—I have plenty—and something that’ll play a couple of songs; there’s space for a video (one of those “template” things I can’t do anything about), but I don’t have any videos. Add that to the to-do list, I guess. A video of me performing would be a good tool to give venues I want gigs at. Performances at the Bay City Arts Center have been videotaped in the past; if the open mike Saturday gets recorded, I should be insistent about getting a copy.

Got to send another song to a music publisher; I’ve been on her mailing list for a few years now, and when she needs something—usually for a film or TV show—that she doesn’t have in The Catalog, she sends out a call to the mailing list. I try to respond to those when I can—it keeps my name out there. In this instance, she wanted love songs: not my usual stock in trade, but I did have one over-the-top one that didn’t have dead animals in it. She got “Twenty-Four Seven.”

I am not expecting miracles (the only miracle, really, was “Santa’s Fallen” getting included on that Philippine Christmas album). What I could use is to be on more publishers’ mailing lists. I presume most of them do business the same way. How do I find out who they are, and get on their lists?

Joe