THE McMINNVILLE OPEN MIKE (&C.)...

Looks like I didn’t post an issue of the blog mid-week. I know I thought about it, and even had one partly written. It has been a tad busy, and commuting back and forth to the job—a 2.5-hour trip each way—has left me, by my count, all of three hours to myself, per day, if I’m lucky. It may get easier—I did find a place to stay (a room in someone’s home in Lafayette), and I’ll “move in” (clothes, guitar, laptop, recording equipment, and books) Monday.

Wednesday night’s open mike in McMinnville was good. I gave them “Bluebird on My Windshield,””Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus,” “No Good Songs About the War,” and Stan Good’s “Take-Out Food.” (I seem to have developed a pattern here. One serious song and one religious song each time—until I run out, of course. I don’t have many of either variety.) TWO encores—and both were requests for songs I had done last time, “Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues” and “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas.”

At one point, I did check out the crowd, and noticed the place had gotten full since I’d started playing; the audience also mostly drifted off after I was done. Is this the beginnings of a fan base over there? I hadn’t told anybody I was coming—just told the hosts last time I would try to be back. Yes, I expect I’ll be back again in two weeks if I can. I gave the hosts posters of the Deathgrass concert in Bay City (and they announced it to the audience), and also got to put a poster up on the coffeehouse’s bulletin board. Gave the hosts a free CD, too.

There’s one duo (guitar and bass) that seems to play the coffeehouse regularly (they were there last time, too), and they’re not bad. They appear to know what they’re doing, and to have been playing together for a while. Mostly old country standards. They could use a lead player (or a rhythm player—I think the guitar dude could play lead if he had the opportunity)—but I’m disinclined to take on extra work. Between the job, Deathgrass, the newspaper (just the column, these days), the ContraBand, and a couple of occasional opportunities to play music, there is not much free time.

I haven’t written anything in a while, either—and I know that will start to bother me after a while. I might have something, though. The latest challenge from Jon Harrington’s Coventry (U.K.) songwriters wanted songs about “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” and I can do that. An anthem to the ‘Sixties, I think—that period of which ‘tis said if you remember it, you didn’t really live through it. (Since I was mostly a Good Kid, I do remember the ‘Sixties. Interesting times.) Chorus and bridge (yes, there will be a bridge, even though I abhor bridges) are done; the trick now is to craft verses that are as good as the chorus and bridge are.

If I do manage that, would I want to incorporate the song into the Deathgrass concerts? I don’t think so—not the first two, for sure, and since the third comes pretty fast on the heels of those, maybe not that one, either. I’m highly organized about performances, and try always to have everything worked out and practiced ahead of time; accordingly, the setlists for the Bay City Centennial and the Rocktoberfest are done, as is the Rap for the former (I’ll do the Rap for the latter this weekend). This weekend, I’ll also distribute Rocktoberfest setlists and CDs to everybody. The Rocktoberfest organizers want photos and bios of the bands, too, so that’ll be my excuse to take pictures of everybody (I can catch everybody except Doc at Sunday’s practice—I’ll have to do him separately). After the practice, I’ll send out the notices for the Bay City Centennial concert—I always want to make sure first that I’m advertising something that’s going to be good (though with this band, I don’t think there’s any cause for worry).

Joe