CENTRAL POINT CONCERT CANCELLED...

The 22 August concert in Central Point has been cancelled. I guess it’s a good thing I hadn’t sent out notices yet. Hard not to be bummed about it. There is a plus side: I won’t be gone for five or so days, I will save the money I’d have spent on the trip, and I can do something else. However, I am going to miss everybody. My only excuses for visiting southern Oregon this summer have been job interviews. Unless the City of Gold Hill calls me for a city-manager interview (and I am not expecting them to), I won’t be going down again for a while.

Whatever will I do? Oh, there’s plenty. A quick work list:

The band needs a lead player before we can do any more shows. Dick will be gone several months, he thinks. FIND ONE. That’s an opportunity to go visit some other venues, local festivals, and open mikes, and see what might be available. We have two performances possible in October, I think—the Neskowin Harvest Festival (a benefit) and that local-musicians thing the music teacher is organizing—but we can’t do it as a trio.

There’s the Dylan-wannabe contest in England to get the entry done for; deadline is the end of August, and I don’t know how long it takes to get something to England in the mail. We have the “base track” (rhythm guitar, vocal, bass and drums) done, I think, though I haven’t heard John’s final copy; need to overlay Dick’s blues harp (before he leaves town) and my guitar leads. Could probably be done in a day.

And there’s THE ALBUM. I’m not sure how interested the band are in recording—they are really interested in performing. I think the argument I’d use is we need some recorded material—at least an EP’s worth—to give people we want to hit up for gigs. (And if we do that, we might as well do a round dozen of songs and have an album we can sell at those gigs.) All we need are the “base” tracks (leads can be added later)—and the band is tight enough now so if the levels are set right, those “base” tracks can be recorded in one or two takes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing could be done in two days.

I can play lead guitar on some of the tracks; we’ll have Dick’s blues harp on at least one of the songs (“No Good Songs About the War,” which is going to the Dylan-wannabe contest); and I can round up “guest leads” for the rest, I guess. I wonder if that could be used as a way to try out different lead players?

And I can solicit solo gigs. I really haven’t done that at all since moving back to the Coast. But I drive past a couple of venues almost every day that I know could use me in a solo set, and I have to stop in and talk to them, and leave a CD (as soon as I have more). John and Chris both have jobs: I don’t—and could use the business. It was neat selling five CDs over last weekend—I’d like to be doing that a lot—but I don’t sell CDs unless I’m performing, and I know from experience that the more I’m playing, the better I get.

I’m still going to make the Joe Thongs (I got the supplies). I don’t at this point have a crowd to toss them into, but I’ll send a couple down south as souvenirs.

The job interview in Salem went well. (A bunch of folks have asked.) It was interesting to see how a huge bureaucracy does interviews; they had a 3-person team of (I think) underlings doing it, about one per hour over I know not how many hours, and they said they’d be at it all week. The state Dept. of Revenue has 8 of these “revenue agent” positions to fill, but I don’t know how many people they’re interviewing. To speed things up, they issued candidates the questions they were going to ask ahead of time, and gave us half an hour to think about our answers—nice tactic, and I’ll use it if I ever have the chance. They were nice people, and I don’t think I scared them away. I’ll know in a couple of weeks. I refuse to be hopeful.

I sent off my (awfully detailed) thoughts on an opening for the burlesque show, but the only comment I’ve got back thus far from any of the troupe is a noncommital one. Maybe I’ll know more when we get together next Sunday. I had an idea, too, for a project the burlesque troupe would be perfect for—if they’re interested, and have the time (I don’t want to take time away from the show). There’s a Southern Pigfish song intended for a music video--”Bedpans for Brains,” which had each verse being sung by a different cast member from The Wizard of Oz. These guys and gals would be perfect for it. And one of ‘em is a director, with film experience. I’ll have to find out if they can do it.

Joe