VAL CONCERT POST-MORTEM...

Yes, it was good. (These days, I almost expect nothing less.) Mike harmonized on the choruses of most of my songs (and it sounded way better than my monotone), and we had a sax player show up out of the blue, in time to play on our last song, “Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad,” and made that sound real good. (And he lives in Tillamook, and would like to play more with us.)

I hope people thought we sounded good. I did notice a number of people seemed to have come specifically to hear us (and left afterwards); I hope if they weren’t fans before, they are now.

Best song—surprise!—was “Free-Range Person”; we actually had the little dance floor packed, to the point where people were bumping into microphone stands. It was the only song we did that had people up and dancing, and it’s a bluegrass song (“rocked up,” of course, like the band has a habit of doing). Next best was “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” then Stan Good’s “Un-Easy Street” (a consistent hit), and another surprise: “Love Trails of the Zombie Snails.”

It didn’t occur to me till afterwards—some people were taking pictures, and some folks did film parts of the performance. I don’t know if the sound from one of those little video cameras is any good (they’re so small, I’ve assumed it couldn’t be), but it would be interesting to see in any case; it could be good critiquing material if nothing else. And I’d really like one of the photos. There are no photos at all of the band, and I could use one for promotional purposes.

I hung around long enough to hear an hour of Lannie and the Instigators’ set (it is good to observe the competition). They were good, but I think we were better. I like having a 5-piece band better (the Instigators are a 4-piece band)—having both a “whiny” lead (blues harp) and a “non-whiny” lead (guitar) gives the band a fuller sound, as well as allowing the two lead players to take advantage of each other’s strengths (which Mike and Doc do very well). The Instigators’ harmonica player was also their rhythm guitarist (and also lead vocal), so when he played harp, the lead player had to take over playing rhythm, and you could tell something was missing.

They did do a couple of original songs (good for them), one of which was way better than all of the cover tunes they played. They played mostly classic rock, which does have a tendency to sound all alike after a while. “Deathgrass”’ music is at least diverse: we had country, blues, bluegrass, folk-rock, and rock ‘n’ roll—even a waltz.

So what’s next for the band? Well, we wanted to do another benefit for the Food Pantry in June; there’s Garibaldi Days in July, and I’m angling to get us on the agenda for the big Bay City centennial celebration Labor Day weekend. (That last could be a paying gig—I don’t know.) In addition, the Bay City Arts Center is anxious to do another “Joe Wrabek concert” (it’s in their budget, with its own line item); that would be a paying gig, with us and the Arts Center splitting the gate fee (60% us, 40% them) like we did last year. They’ve budgeted to make rather a lot of money off this, and there are times (like after last night) when I think they just might be right.

And we have the album to finish—again, after June, when John’s done with the budget. I’d like to figure out how to minimize the amount of time needing to be invested in recording the thing, but I’m not sure how. Right now, the main thing that’s going to save us time is the band are very good and can do everything pretty much in one take. I’m just anxious to have the album for sale, because I think there’s a market for it. And I’m curious to see how big it is..

Joe