AND THE ALBUM...

I am really procrastinating, avoiding filling out yet another job application—this one, to go to work for the big (and financially troubled) state retirement system. I shouldn’t say that hiring me—in any position—would probably raise the general financial competence of the organization, so I won’t. I do have a job interview in two weeks, 250 miles away, and a lot of little things to do to get ready for it, but I don’t dare—and am not going to—wait to see what happens with it. I have been burned way too many times. If they hire me, great. After 14 months out of work, it’ll be a real surprise.

I have contacted a couple of folks down in southern Oregon, letting them know I’m going to be in the area, but I haven’t heard anything back. I probably need to contact more people I know—I know rather a lot of people down there. I’d like to spend a couple of days, play a lot of music, record “ancillary” lead tracks by three people to one song for the album, and maybe find out (since I’ll be down there) what, if anything, is going to happen to my application to be city planner in Phoenix, where I used to work.

Broke the bad news about the Garibaldi Museum gig to the Museum owners back East, and also to the band; I can’t do both the gig and the job interview at the same time (I have not mastered the knack of being in two places at once, though I keep trying), and the job’s got to take precedence—everybody understands that. We will re-schedule; the Museum Board meets in mid-July, and will decide when at that time. I’ve emphasized simply that it needs to be a Saturday, on the offchance I have a job out of town, and it can’t be during Garibaldi Days, because the band already has a gig.

In the meantime, there’s the album. The list of songs looks like this:

Dead Things in the Shower (mod. fast two-step)
Armadillo on the Interstate (slow & sleazy)
The Termite Song (fast bluegrass)
Tillamook Railroad Blues (slow, deliberate blues)
Free-Range Person (fast bluegrass)
No Good Songs About the War (mod. slow two-step)
Rotten Candy (fast bluegrass, with a Gospel beat)
Hey, Little Chicken (mod. slow almost blues)
Doing Battle with the Lawn (fast bluegrass)
Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (slow & sleazy)
Un-Easy Street (mod. slow two-step)
Naked Space Hamsters in Love (fast bluegrass)

Two songs co-written with others (so Outside Services the Record Company will have to do the paying-royalties thing); two serious songs, too—twice as many as I’ve done on an album in the past. About half fast and half slow, the way I’d usually organize a concert setlist. (List above isn’t necessarily in order, though.)

The setlist is dictated at least in part by what the band know how to play; John (bass) and Dick (blues harp) have played all of them, and Chris (drummer) about half of them. John and chris come from heavy-metal backgrounds, and will inevitably put a rock ‘n’ roll spin on the bluegrass songs—and it works real well. For some of the songs, I can do an acceptable lead guitar, and we’ll overlay it; I want Wayne’s barroom-country guitar lead on some of the songs if I can get it. And one of the songs (either “Free-Range Person” or “Naked Space Hamsters in Love,” I think) I’d like to take down to southern Oregon with me, on the Tascam, and get some leads recorded by people I know there.

Plenty to do, even though there’s music only Friday night this week. Maybe we can get some recording in.

Joe