AND ON FRIDAY, THE ASTORIA BAND BREAKS UP...

First Wednesday afternoon at the Garibaldi Pub was good. Ultimately, there were six of us—four guitars, one vocalist, and one fiddle. Appreciative audience, too (someone even left a tip). We’ll do it again next Wednesday. It could become a regular thing. We did the Circle Thing—each person leads a song, and everybody else follows. I was trying to limit what I did to covers, assuming everybody knew those—the one Leon Payne song I can sing, the one Hank Williams song I can sing, one of a couple Woody Guthrie songs I can sing, and so on—but somebody requested one of mine, and I not only had two people playing lead, I had people singing along on the chorus. I think I may have become an institution.

Good to hear musician gossip, too. I heard that one duo that had been getting a number of gigs in this area had got caught up in the “we only pay for pay” routine, and abandoned most of their non-paying gigs, which are looking for replacements; they’ve also since lost a few of their paying gigs, and those need replacements, too. It’d be good to not have to do that solo; not only do I think I’m a better musician when I’m playing with somebody else, I think I’m a better salesman when I’m soliciting for somebody besides me, too.

Feb. 11 came, without a demo finished of “Un-Easy Street”; I therefore sent “Duct Tape” to the MerleFest’s Chris Austin Songwriting Contest (deadline is Feb. 18). I used the commercially-done recording from the “Santa’s Fallen” album. I should be looking for another contest to enter; with the first “filter” of MerleFest entries being done by a pool of Nashville professionals, I may not stand much of a chance. I like contests I think I can win, and I’m not sure any more that I can win this one, even though I’ve entered.

The band in Astoria is breaking up—has broken up, I guess; the lead player (who was very good) doesn’t want to do it any more, I think because it’s too far a drive for him (I understand—it’s a 2-hour drive for me). It allows me to feel regretful—I still haven’t played that Strat in public—but I’d been wondering myself if I was a good enough rock rhythm player to hang with these guys. I can do okay with country music, even playing lead, with occasional forays into bluegrass and blues, where I can kind of hold my own. At the risk of being typecast, maybe that’s what I should stick to.

On the plus side, the band breakup has theoretically generated some free time (well, all my time is free, really—when one is unemployed, time has no value). I had committed myself to traveling out of town one night a week to practice with these guys. I could continue going out of town one night (or day) a week, just going somewhere else. (I even did that this past week, going into Portland to play at the Thirsty Lion.) Thursday nights are good for this (after next week); there’s Whitney Streed’s comedy open mike at the Mt. Tabor, and also a “writer’s night” at a place called Macadam’s, both in Portland. Cost to me is a tank of gas and a couple of overpriced soft drinks. There isn’t a time cost because (as noted above) my time has no value. I have harped on the need for exposure, and that one cannot get the exposure without performing out. If and as opportunities present themselves to perform more locally, I can substitute those for the trips out of town.

And the new song? More like the New Song In Progress, but it’s progressing—the first verse finally fell into place this morning, so I now have first, third, and fifth verses, I think. Since there’s no chorus, just a refrain (yes, another one of those), it probably needs to have six or seven verses to hit the “magic length” of 3-1/2 minutes. It’s bluegrass music (though I put the death in the first verse, rather than the last, just to be perverse), so it’ll move pretty fast. Just a “there ain’t gonna be no good music in Heaven ‘cause there’s nothing to write about” song. I could hear Polly Hager’s band doing it, but they may not be interested: it’s definitely not rock ‘n’ roll. I don’t expect it’ll be finished and practiced enough to perform it at City Hall tonight; tomorrow at the library? Maybe.

Joe