FIRST STEPS TOWARD A VLOG...

Saw my second “Lorelei Loveridge—World Traveling Songwriter” video yesterday, and it did generate some ideas. Roughly the first half was just talk, interspersed with photos of her trip to Spain; second half was a song, just her on solo guitar. The photography work was simple but nice and clear. (Good webcam.)

Could I do something like this? Probably; it wouldn’t take a huge investment in technology—I had a cheap-but-good webcam once, and bet I could find another. Windows Movie Maker is nothing-special software, but I have it, and I know how to use it. And interspersing slides with video might even be a bit simpler than simultaneously coordinating slides, soundtrack, and text overlays.

A lot of folks are doing “vlogs” now. There’s a chance that vlogs could get more attention than the standard written blog, because we have become such a visual society. “The Writer’s Blog” these days takes just a short session at the word processor, but a vlog would involve substantially more effort and time. I’d still have to write it—I have to work from a script—then rehearse the script until I have it memorized (just like the Raps I do at performances), film myself, insert photos and add text as needed.

A potentially important use of the vlog would be to showcase songs. New songs especially; people don’t get to hear my new songs unless they go to a concert, or check my Soundclick page, and people don’t do that often or right away. Even the Friday Night Group don’t get to hear new songs very often, because too many people are requesting too many of the old ones. I could get additional exposure because the inclusion of songs would appeal to fans, who would tune in for the music—right now, they’re mostly not reading the written blog every week.

The “Joe Show” vlog would need to be weekly; the same rule applies as with blogs and Websites—you need to give people something new every week, so they keep coming back. Now, I don’t usually have a good new song every week, and I don’t plan on forcing myself to write one every week; if I average one good song a month, I’m satisfied. That means about ¾ of the time, the “Joe Show” would be showcasing old material. That would be okay, too. People don’t get to hear the old stuff often enough.

Would I still be doing the written “Writer’s Blog”? Yes. The “Joe Show,” because of the inclusion of songs, would have to be organized differently. I think what I’d do is pick a song, and in the narrative part—just a couple of minutes, so we don’t get boring—talk about some aspect of writing that ties into the song. That’s possible to do—when I both performed and taught a songwriting seminar at the “Moograss” Bluegrass Festival, every song in my performance setlist illustrated a point I’d brought out in the class.

The garage studio strikes me as the perfect place to do this; it’s comfy, if small, and an interestingly funky space with its open-beam walls and decorative vase of obviously plastic flowers. Better than the computer room in the house, where I’ve been doing most of my recording the past year. I’d have to rig up a separate computer in the garage studio (but—surprise! I happen to have one), and it wouldn’t be on line—Internet in the house is too far away. However, I could dump the video to a flash drive (add that to the purchase list) for posting online. It might not be too hard.

Something else I could do with the vlog—another idea picked up online—is invite people to do their own artistic things to those songs. I don’t care (I’d like to see what they do, though)—like Woody Guthrie said once, what I cared about was writin’ ‘em, and since I’m a writer, I’m going to write more. Sure, some of those songs I’ll record professionally with a band and put on a record, and I’ll be trying to sell the record—but a vlog recording of me and solo guitar? Go have at it, and see what you can do with it.

Okay, so on my way back from the job interview in Salem Tuesday (yes! another one), I’ll stop by an electronics wholesaler I know and see if it’s possible to get a webcam and flash drive. They’d have to be cheap—but they might be.

Joe