BAY CITY SETLIST...

Draft setlist for the Bay City Centennial:

Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step
Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues
Things Are Getting Better Now that Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step
Steamboat Bill (Shields & Leighton)—rock ‘n’ roll
Eatin’ Cormflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock
Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)—fast two-step
Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz
Duct Tape—mod. speed country
Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues
Test Tube Baby—rock ‘n’ roll
Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy
Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass
Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock
Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly
Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—mod. two-step
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)—fast bluegrass

17 songs (normally, a 1-1/2 hour set would be 18 songs, but two of the Woody ones here are substantially longer than usual). The list includes both the “local color” songs, “Hebo” and the train; it’s mostly old standards the band have done before and do well. “Steamboat Bill,” written in 1910 (and one of the most popular songs of that year), is our main concession to historicity, but there’s three Woody Guthrie songs on the list, too (of three different styles), and he’s a little historic himself.

“Steamboat Bill” and “Ain’t Got No Home” the band haven’t played before. The latter, though, has been on setlists before (it’s just always got cut to save time), and it’s one of those classic two-steps people just seem to slip into easily. Often, when I’ve played this elsewhere, the audience will end up joining in on the last line of each verse, and it’d be nice if that happened here.

Next steps (I have to be ruthlessly organized these days)—record “Steamboat Bill,” make CDs and setlists and get them to the band, and set up time to practice. All that has to happen this coming weekend. Practice probably the following weekend, since I believe John’s out of town this weekend. The other task for this weekend is to typeset the programs for the two Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. summer concerts in Central Point (I’m playing at the second one of those).

And the poster. I know how I’d like to design the poster, but I’ve got to take people’s photographs for it. If I could use the Deathgrass logo (the stuffed dreadlocked skull hanging from the mike stand) as the centerpiece, and surround that with mug shots of the musicians with their instruments, it’d be neat, and would make a nice set piece for future concert advertising. I probably have a usable photo of me in the archives, but will need to take photos of everybody else—probably one by one.

I have all the same stuff to do with respect to the “Rocktoberfest” concert, though that’s two weeks later, has a different (and shorter) set, and we’ll have Doc with us. Still, it’d be nice to have that one done, too. It’s not like I have a whole lot of free time these days.

No music at the Library this Saturday (the staff will be busy at the county fair), and I don’t seem to be able to get back to Garibaldi early enough on Friday nights to sit in with the Friday Night Group. With luck, the Contraband will be getting together to practice, and I won’t entirely lose out on chances to play music.

Joe