PUPPET SHOW (AND THIRSTY LION) POST-MORTEM...

Thirsty Lion: done. Puppet show: done. One more this week—Ilwaco tomorrow (Saturday) with 45 Degrees North—and then… rest? No; another gig with 45 Degrees North Tuesday night. At least that one will be shorter—one hour instead of three.

The “Cinderpiggy” puppet show was a hit, I think. We had an audience of about 35, kids and adults, and I think we had humor appealing to both groups. Biggest hit was Chewy, who’s a one-word Wookie—he can only say “Cookie,” though with different inflections (conceptually, he’s a cross between Animal and Cookie Monster). And we had little kids running around afterwards shouting “Cookie!” at everything—just like Chewy does. Paying gig, that one was (have to wait for the county library to tell me how to bill them). It was suggested the show ought to be “taken on the road” and performed at the Main Library—and sure, we’d do that. Somebody just needs to ask.

Next play? I don’t know. “Snow White” would be an obvious choice (no, we don’t have enough dwarves, but some of them could be at work, I suppose). On the other hand, we could do something completely local. In the course of my interviews for the video class, I ran across the legend of a local treasure, a hoard of pirate gold buried on Neahkahnie Mountain beneath the bodies of dead Negro slaves (that was supposed to keep the Indians away); local folks hunted for the treasure for decades, unsuccessfully. The sock-puppet troupe could do “The Treasure of Neahkahnie Mountain: The Musical.”

I managed to fix the soundtrack for the “Cinderpiggy” puppet show about an hour and a half before showtime. Both the Tascam and “Alice” the ‘puter are having technical difficulties which I think are age-related. Both are actually seven years old now (Alice is going on eight).

The Thirsty Lion gig June 14 went well—it usually does (this was the sixth time I’ve played there). This time, the “Songwriters’ Showcase” was on the heels of a “gold cup” soccer match, so there was a good crowd that hadn’t had time to leave before the music started. My stuff went exactly 25 minutes, the sound was okay (even though I couldn’t hear myself—folks in the audience told me so), and people did seem to be listening (and applauding). No, I didn’t win their prize—but I wasn’t expecting to, either. Didn’t sell any CDs, either, even though both I and host Eric mentioned I had them.

The 21 June performance at the Pine Grove Potluck in Manzanita is an hour’s show. I assume it’s a generally older, wealthier audience, inclined toward more uptempo and out-of-the-ordinary stuff. Not slow, ballady things, in other words. Since there are four of us, an hour’s worth of music works out to about three songs apiece. I’d make the inclusions (1) our best stuff, but (2) concentrate on originals and traditionals to the extent possible—I’d really like to get us away from cover songs. (And I think it is the originals—by Kathryn and myself—that the group actually does best.)

For June 21, though, we need to pick from the Ilwaco setlist—two days is not enough time to learn new material. Later—for the Wheeler Summerfest July 16, perhaps—it may be possible to do more. I would like to hear “Crosses By the Roadside,” Stan Good’s “Don’t Remind Me You’re On My Mind,” April Johns’ “Family Photo,” and Jody Dickey’s “Down at the Blue Haven” done with Candice’s voice. I think every single one of them would be stunning.

Joe

A LOCAL WRITERS' GROUP?

I realized about mid-afternoon that this week is a day shorter because of the all-day trip to Portland Tuesday. Had to get the column for the paper done early—and I still have lots of stuff to do before I go. I won’t be back until late Tuesday, but Wednesday morning early I’m following up on a job, then rehearsing (for the first and probably last time) for the puppet show; Thursday morning, we take the stage to City Hall (because I’m anal about performances, and want everything set up in advance for the show on Friday at 1 p.m.). I still need to get the harmonica part recorded for the “Cinderpiggy” theme song, “My Happily Ever After”; maybe I can drop a CD by Doc’s house on my way to Portland, and then record him Thursday. I won’t have time any other day.

And because I’m busy, I end up running into fun new things to do on top of everything else. (That’s how it goes, I’ve decided.) So when Vaughn Andrew announced at the Arts Center’s board meeting that he wanted to start a local writers’ group, I immediately offered to help. (And I wasn’t the only one. Songwriter Jim Nelson, who’s also on the BCAC Board, was interested too.) We agreed we’d try to rope in other writers we know. Our first get-together will be Thursday, June 23, 7 p.m. at the Arts Center.

What does one do with a writers’ group? Three things, I think. Peer review—everybody’s getting their material critiqued constructively by other writers. That those other writers may be (or are) approaching from completely different perspectives is (my opinion) a plus. Performance tips and experience—one of the best things the Southern Oregon Songwriters Assn. did (and does) is provide opportunities for writers to perform their material for other writers. I’d want us to critique each other’s performance, too. And a resource base—who’s a bass player, who knows someone with a recording studio, &c. (I myself can design album covers, for instance.) This is the materiel from which bands and albums can be made. And of course, we have the Arts Center to use as a performance center.

When I first moved to the Coast, 11 years ago, I was the only writer I knew (or that anyone I knew, knew). I found other musicians—I can do that—but one reason I sought out online writers’ groups (one in England, in fact) was there weren’t any around here, and I have to have feedback in order to progress. I have run across more writers in recent years; some of them were like me, unaware there was anyone else around, and some of them were operating in near-total vacuums. So I think the group will help.

I have cautioned my cohorts not to expect this to be a path to big-time commercial success—not with the way the music industry is run these days. What one can—and should—expect is that we will all become better at what we do as a result of doing this. (And really, that ought to be sufficient reward in itself.) It might be reasonable to hope that we, or the bands and recordings we generate, could help fill the void that cries for entertainment—entertainment that the Big Boys can’t provide because nobody in these Troubled Times can afford what they’re selling. But we can deliver records people can afford to buy, and concerts people can afford to attend. We just have to become better at what we do so people will want to buy it.

Very tentative (and belated) approach from the Willamette Writers Group, about playing somewhere around their summer conference. It’d be one or two days before an already-scheduled gig in Garibaldi, so it’s doable. And busy is good, right?

Joe

ANATOMY OF AN ALBUM...

Gene Burnett posted recently the steps involved in getting his latest album to production. Good idea. Here’s mine (which are a little different, but not by much):

THE SONGS. I had those picked out a year beforehand. By January 2011, we’d taken just one off the list, and added one. 11 songs, with a mix of musical styles showing off the capabilities of the band, arranged as a sort of mini-concert. Two co-writes this time (which are the band’s normal opening and closing songs at shows). I’m not as prolific as Gene, but I write a fair amount; by the time the list was finalized, everything had been played in public enough so I knew which were the best crowd-pleasers (and therefore potential album-sellers). And I have enough new crowd-pleasers for another album.

THE MUSICIANS. Deathgrass were obviously the musicians for the record. I like having a 5-piece band, so one can have both a “whiny lead” (harmonica) and “non-whiny lead” (guitar or mandolin) both in performance and on the record. All these songs were practiced a lot, because they were performed a lot. Everything was note perfect when we went into the studio, because it’d been note-perfect on stage.

THE STUDIO. Had to be local, since the band don’t travel well (three of them still have jobs). For a long time, there were no commercial studios on the Coast, but when Mike Simpson became the school music teacher, he had one (Calden West Studios, in Rockaway Beach). Mike has a good ear, and a good sense of arrangements, and has decent equipment and knows how to use it. (Teaches music, after all.) Studio’s got to have a room big enough to fit the band in and still semi-isolate their tracks. Got that, too.

THE RECORDING. Patsy Cline style (live and in one or two takes) shaves about 85% off the studio cost, and the only prerequisite is the band’s got to be practiced. Yes, do-overs are a pain—but we mostly didn’t need to do any. My “scratch” vocal was recorded in a separate room (the band and I couldn’t see each other, but we didn’t need to); Mike was going to re-record the vocal later, but on nine of the 11 songs, we didn’t need to. We added Doc’s blues harp later, because he couldn’t be there the same day everybody else was. And Mike added backup vocals by himself on a bunch of the songs, too.

MIXING, MASTERING, &C. I left that up to Mike—he’s got professional ears, and I don’t. My interest is in giving the engineer the “pieces” to mix and match into a good product. I think the final product is as good as or better than anything the Big Boys could put out.

LABEL, COVER & LINER NOTES. I did all that; graphic design is one of the things I can do. I collected a bunch of CDs, imitated things that looked good, and avoided things that didn’t. (I’ve done this before.)

PICKING A CD MANUFACTURER ended up being one of the hardest tasks. A lot of CD outfits want you to use their design templates, and I wasn’t going for it; I wanted someone to process my designs, and not screw them up. I ended up using DiskFaktory, an outfit in Orange County (CA) I’d used before. (About a 2-week turn-around, by the way.) Submitted the designs online, and mailed them the master. Bought the bar code from them, too. Total cost was a little more than if I’d done it all myself, but the product is shrink-wrapped—which I couldn’t do myself.

SETTING UP ONLINE SALES. I used CDBaby for that: http://www.cdbaby/cd/deathgrass is the link. Other folks (including DiskFaktory) offer the service, too.

OTHER STUFF: I sent my two co-writers their royalty checks directly. Rest is PROMOTION, which I haven’t done a lot of. A few retail outlets are selling the CD; some radio stations have it, as does the county library. And there have been some sales—some online, some through the retail outlets, some directly, and one by mail. Need more (of course). And still need to do that CD Release Event, even though the things been for sale for a month now.

Joe.

45 DEGREES NORTH DOG PLACE POST-MORTEM...

45 DEGREES NORTH had our “public practice” in the courtyard of the dog grooming place in downtown Nehalem, and people actually showed up to hear us, and seemed to actually enjoy it. (And the dog grooming lady would like to have us back.) That said, we still have work to do.

Good things: The material is pretty much okay. We did mostly two of our three Ilwaco setlists, and with a couple of exceptions (amplified below), it’s good. Nobody really flubbed anything (not so the audience would notice), and we were strung out in a line on the Dog Place porch, and couldn’t see each other—and didn’t have to. And the hour sets took pretty much an hour. (I had worried about that.)

What we need (my opinion) to get down is our professionalism. A lot of bands dress up in clothes that look alike; I maintain that’s unnecessary, but what one should be doing is probably characterizable as mental dress-up. The Da Kine surfboard company summed it up as “Attitude Is Everything”: when you walk on stage, you are Performer—you know exactly what you are doing (in my case, because you have scripted everything out and rehearsed it), you have the audience’s attention, and you are not going to give it back.

Somebody opens the show, thanks everybody, introduces the band, and triggers the launch into the first song—I can do that if necessary. I like having a Rap for every song—but between songs is probably a better way to put it: one is not necessarily giving a “backstory” on the song (though sometimes I’ll do that), but rather inserting something short and cogent, to prevent silence. (I know one performer who tells jokes.) You have strategic places in the script where the “Rap space” is used to promote the mailing list and upcoming concerts (we do have a few of those).

Now, I’m the one who harps on organization and abhors silence; I’m also inclined to fill vacuums myself just to make sure they get filled. I’d be okay being the one that grabs the mike after a song, thanks the audience, and turns things over to the next person, offering a comment or two if and as necessary. And I can script that out for myself if that’s what the rest want me to do; it’s not hard, because I’m used to it. I don’t really want to be front man—everybody else in this group is way prettier than I am—it’s just the “must fill vacuum” thing. I’d want to be as “unfronty” as possible in the process.

I had a copy of the setlist, but I had to keep referring to it and reminding everybody what was next. There’s a setlist trick I do with Deathgrass I’d like to try here: I’ll print an abbreviated list, just title, genre and key, in big type and tack it to a little scrap piece of corkboard propped by a mike stand (where everybody can see it), and then we never have to mention it. (And of course, the Rap usually signals what we’re going to play next, anyway.)

We did make a couple of substitutions in the setlist, and I think they were good. We sould start out with something we do really well, and Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” is a good choice. There are a couple of songs—“Walking After Midnight” and ”Crazy,” both originally intended as set-beginners—where we really need to do more with the song. I can probably play an acceptable lead if somebody else plays rhythm, or I can play rhythm if someone else does lead, but I can’t do both—and the songs are too short, and have to have lead breaks. I cannot make what the rhythm guitar is doing interesting enough to hold anyone’s attention. (“Silver Wings” is probably in this category, too.) And there are a couple of fiddle tunes I still can’t play without the sheet music. I need to get those down.

I need to pick up a couple of props while I’m in Portland for the Thirsty Lion gig Tuesday: I need a 3-ring binder for the mailing list, and I need a replacement for the Big Yellow Bucket (the one that says “Tipping Is Not A City In China”) because I can’t find the original one. Beyond that, practice, practice, practice, and I think 45 Degrees North will be ready. I’ve got three nights available this week, and wouldn’t mind using all of them.

Joe

UPDATES...

A day off? Not really; I have a partially-assembled computer upstairs, a partially-pruned fruit tree outside, a dryer and washer full of laundry, and places to caulk on the siding all reminding me that there is in fact plenty to do. I just haven’t done any of it. I’ll get to play music tonight in Garibaldi for the first time in a week, which will be nice; I have managed to play six out of seven nights this past week, and it definitely improves my playing—I noticed at the Tsunami last night I was able to play guitar well enough (and consistently enough) to get folks’ attention.

Charlie can film the puppet show June 17. We can have video! I want to re-record the “Cinderpiggy” theme song, “My Happily Ever After,” though, to make it a little slower; I think it’ll sound better that way. (I also want more time for the rolling of the credits.)

And once the video’s done? It goes on YouTube, of course, but what I really want to do is incorporate a “play this video” link on the Arts Center’s Website. It would be good to have “play this video” links for every performance event the Arts Center does. Coming up in late June is a concert by jazz guitarist John Stowell (he’s performing with a guy from Sweden), and there’s another open mike at the beginning of July. The Arts Center has been very good about filming things; next step is to do something with the films.

Do we have filmed (or filmable) performances on a regular enough schedule so we could ask for time on the regional cable TV channel? We might. An hour a month, perhaps? We’ve got “in the can” (with titles and credits added, and converted to DVD) the junior high school’s “Y-Stars” after-school drama group’s performance of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and that’s about an hour; the May open mike at which the Tillamook Community Chorus performed “Stephenopera Malheurensis,” Jim Nelson’s endangered plant ballad, and The Impromptus (now 45 Degrees North) debuted, might have an hour’s good footage, too. Do I know how to do this? Only in part—but as I’m fond of telling folks, “I know people.”

Half my playing-music nights lately have been practice with 45 Degrees North, and it’s starting to pay off. A lot of the material is starting to sound really good. We’ll take two nights off before playing a 2-hour set Saturday, but one of those nights (Friday), the crew is going to come down to Garibaldi for some experience playing in front of (and with) other people.

Poster’s done, I think, for the Ilwaco gig. Ideally, it’s adaptable to other gigs. One wants a promotional icon of sorts that gets repeated constantly and is instantly recognizable—so when people see a poster, they’ll say, “Oh, those guys! Where are they playing now?” Need a poster for the Pine Grove Potluck performance June 21, and one for the Rainbow Lotus performance June 26; we’re also playing Saturday, June 11, in Nehalem (in the courtyard in front of the dog grooming place), but that’s officially a practice—we’re just going to be practicing in public, in the middle of town, on the main street. (The fact the newspaper published an announcement is irrelevant.)

The Big Week—actually, a Big Couple Weeks—starts tomorrow. Thirsty Lion Tuesday night, a job interview (of sorts) Wednesday, puppet show Friday (and we haven’t practiced with the stage yet), Ilwaco on Saturday, Pine Grove Tuesday, and the Rainbow Lotus performance Sunday. A good five meetings I need to be at during that time, too. And when do I find time to put new strings on the guitar?

Joe

13 DAYS...

5:30 a.m. and it’s already way too hot—summer has hit the Oregon Coast with a vengeance, much like it used to do back East when I was a kid. It’s little comfort that I predicted that would happen (especially since I managed to be completely unprepared for it). Probably little comfort, too, that if my predictions are right, summer will be short as well as brutal. It’ll still be brutal.

13 days, now, until 45 Degrees North’s Big Gig in Ilwaco. The time for planning is over; all energy from here on out needs to go into rehearsal. We should consider the setlist frozen—no more changes, additions or deletions. What we got is what we got, and we concentrate on making what we got come out as perfect as possible. We should know by now—though it’s taken a while to get there—what key each of the songs is in; we should know, too, when lead breaks are, and how long and what progressions (verse or chorus) they follow—though I’m not sure we know that as well as we should.

There are some of the songs that are not long enough, and they’ll need to be “padded,” with repetition or additional lead breaks. Key there is to get everybody used to doing the song “our way,” not how it is on somebody else’s record, so it’s automatic when we’re on stage. Part of my insistence on leaving absolutely nothing to chance. (I want to hear—and critique—everybody’s Raps, too.)

Got to insist on that now, because I am going to run out of time myself. In the 13 days between now and the Big Gig, I also have to fit in practice for the puppet show (which is June 17), my own solo gig in Portland (June 14), the video class (June 7), filming for the video class, and one or two news stories to cover for the paper, too. If I get called for a job interview during that time, it’ll eat up what little time I have left. .

One piece of prep work I didn’t do, and miss having done, and will do for the future as time permits, is the CDs For The Band, with the setlist in order, with each song arranged in draft form exactly the way we’re going to do it on stage. It’s a big time-saver, and probably would have been a big frustration-saver, too. That’s actually easy to do for Deathgrass, because I’m (for better or worse) the lead singer, and we’re doing mostly my stuff, and I can pop out a quick and dirty recording of a song the way it’s going to be sung, because I’m singing it.

It gets a bit more complicated when there’s three other lead singers (I consider the fiddle a “singer”). I can’t sing their stuff—they have to sing it. That means recording them in situ, and dealing with the Tascam’s one-song-at-a-time and guitar-and-vocal-separate limitations (I have figured out work-arounds for both, I think). And then merging those recordings, roughly mastered, into a Setlist CD. I didn’t do any of that, and at this point there is probably not the time to do it. I will do it, though, for next time. We have a couple of Next Times coming up: the Pine Grove Potluck June 21 (for an hour), and the Rainbow Lotus June 24 (2 hours). As noted earlier, spending an afternoon apiece with each of the performers would probably be sufficient. We don’t need perfection. We need a “this is how it goes.”

I would like over time to get us away from doing covers. Originals, traditionals and songs by other unknowns are actually easier to deal with if one is doing the Setlist CDs; one doesn’t get confused by an Already-Famous Person’s rendition of a song (which would be in the wrong key anyway), because there isn’t one. I already have in The Catalog some co-writes (musications) that I’d love to have 45 Degrees North perform; they’d do a fine job, and the writing is better than anything on the commercial market these days. And I think if I put out a call to people I know, saying “Hey, we’ve got this pool of talent here—have you anything you’d like us to perform?” I’d get stuff. Lots of it, probably.

Joe

CONCERT SEASON...

Right now, Concert Season looks like:

TUESDAY, JUNE 14: Solo at the Thirsty Lion Pub in Old Town Portland. Show starts 8:30; I’m on after 9 p.m. 25-minute set.

FRIDAY, JUNE 17: The Great Intergalactic Puppet Theatre (Bay City Arts Center) performs “Cinderpiggy” at Garibaldi City Hall, 1 p.m. The play will have my song “My Happily Ever After,” performed by the sock puppet band. (I wrote the script, too.)

SATURDAY, JUNE 18: With 45 Degrees North at the River City Theater, Ilwaco (WA), 7 p.m. 3-hour show.

TUESDAY, JUNE 21: With 45 Degrees North at the Pine Grove Potluck in Manzanita (OR), 7:30 p.m. 1 hour (I think). No pay, but it sounds like we’ll get fed.

SATURDAY, JULY 16: With Deathgrass (11:30 a.m.) and 45 Degrees North (3:30 p.m.) at the Wheeler (OR) Summer Festival. Both are 90-minute sets.

SATURDAY, JULY 30: With Deathgrass at Garibaldi Days, 3 p.m. 1-hour set.

SATURDAY, AUG. 6: With Dan Doshier at the Southern Oregon Songwriters’ Summer Concert, Talent (OR) Community Center. 6:20 p.m. 40-minute set; half the songs will be Dan’s, and half mine.

Either SAT. SEPT. 17 or SUN. SEPT. 18: With Deathgrass at the Rocktoberfest, Rockaway Beach (OR) Wayside. Time (as well as date) won’t be firmed up until later in June, but it’ll be a 90-minute set.

So there are still a few weekends left I could fill. The fun part? Five of those gigs are PAID. That hasn’t happened in years. I am not one of those who won’t play unless they’re paid; I think a certain amount of one’s performances need to be for charity and/or publicity purposes. But in a capitalist society, where value is expressed in monetary terms, it’s nice that someone is willing to assign a dollar value to what I (or we) do.

Gave away two more CDs, at a meeting I was at that was trying to organize a 100th anniversary celebration for the train (the railroad finally made it through the Coast Range in late 1911, though the tracks were seriously damaged in a 2007 storm and have never been repaired). One CD went to a promoter who organizes jazz-and-blues train excursions (never country music, though I keep suggesting it); the other I gave to local railroad fanatic Pat Patterson. Pat’s favorite song is the “Tillamook Railroad Blues,” which is on the CD, and I have no doubt he’ll talk the thing up incessantly once he hears Deathgrass’ rendition.

I will manage, I think, to play music every night this week; it’s good finger-strengthening exercise. By mid-month, I need to be able to play a solid three hours without my fingers getting sore—not an easy task. The crowd at the Tsunami Grill is developing an appreciation for country music (though the only country music they’ve been exposed to is mine); they request “Pole Dancing for Jesus” every time I show up, and they know the words to “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” It is probably time to teach them something new. “I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas,” perhaps?

Joe