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Southern Pigfish...

It happens regularly—I go away for a couple of days, leaving the blog unfinished, and when I come back, I find myself wanting to write about something different. The latest project is SOUTHERN PIGFISH. Another challenge, this one from a different writers’ site; the task was to create an album cover from three random elements—a randomly-selected photograph (which would be the background), a randomly-selected article title from Wikipedia (which would be the name of the band), and four random
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A Publishing Contract?

Just a small bright spot in the general poverty/unemployment/Squirrel House/not going anywhere or seeing anybody routine. I’m getting a publishing contract for one of my songs—from the Philippines. They want “Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up” for a Christmas album. I’ll need to have the contract vetted by an entertainment attorney. Oh, what fun. Yes, I think the fellow’s legitimate—he writes songs (subscribes to one of the writers’ sites I do), and has a real job as well as having fingers
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"when I Jump Off The Cliff..."

The more I think of it, the more “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You” strikes me as a good entry in the National Australian Bank contest. It is aspirational and upbeat, like they said they wanted (though it’s aspirational in a rather weird way). I’d heard the bank was interested in the winner as a theme song for the bank (their contest information doesn’t say so, however), but this song would work for that, too--from an advertising man’s standpoint, you could nail the competition with
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Needs And Updates...

I’m registered for school fall term (I have one class to take over the summer, that I can do at the local community college), have another city-manager job to apply for, still have no money, and have some more work to do on the Squirrel House before it’s rentable. We paint today, I think. When you don’t have money, you entertain yourself with lists of what you’d do if you had money. Here’s mine. NEEDS first—all of them major expenses, I think: Registration as publisher and writer (B
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A "summer Vacation" Idea...

Got to play with the Friday Night Group Friday night (even though it was the 4th of July, they still got together to play—and an audience still came to hear, and dance). They were trying for mostly patriotic songs, but the closest I could come was “Twenty Saddles for My Chicken,” since it does mention Independence Day (red, white and blue chicken saddles, of course). Neither of the jobs in the Gorge are going to happen. Accordingly, as soon as the Squirrel House is fixed back up, it’ll ge
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Almost Independence Day...

While July 4 is the “generally accepted” day, it was actually some 13 months earlier that the burgesses in an obscure county in North Carolina voted to declare their independence from Great Britain, using a lot of the same language and phrases that ended up in the Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776 is really an arbitrary anniversary people generally agreed on. We had to pick something. I haven’t declared my independence yet—I’m still going through the same sort of agonizing about t
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Mid-year Reality Check...

I saw the suggestion on one of the writers’ Websites I subscribe to that folks should check their 2008 goals and see how well they’re doing. It is a good idea. We are halfway through the year now, and a reality check is definitely in order. (Had to check the original blog to see what was on the list.) Here’s where we’re at: RECORD THE NEW CD. 8 of 13 songs recorded thus far. Remaining five were going to be done in July, but it may be later. Having CDs to sell by Christmas is still po
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Hiding Out...

I’ll be going back to the Coast this weekend, to see fambly. “Sternwheeler Days,” Cascade Locks’ big festival, is this weekend, but I won’t be playing at it (I would have to have arranged that months ago). Used to be a regular gig for the Dodson Drifters, years ago when we were all, well, alive, and we always did it for free; it was unthinkable that The Local Band—The Famous Local Band, in fact—wouldn’t play The Local Festival in what had become our home town. (Best compliment I think we
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The "star Of Stars" Show...

Played the “Star of Stars” fundraiser for Rogue Community College in Medford (OR) Saturday night with Darrin Wayne. Darrin and I were both contestants (there were 16) and arranged to back each other up—him on harmonica, and me on lead guitar. Gave ‘em “Armadillo on the Interstate,” and we were note-perfect. (It helped that I came down a day early, and we’d practiced both the night and afternoon before the show.) Nice audience (they gave Darrin’s harp solo a separate—and big—ovation); big
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"bad Sock, Good Sock"

Today we pack for the trip to southern Oregon. (Do laundry, too—we’re going to show up with clean clothes on.) Place to stay, people to see, music to play—hopefully, above and beyond the “Star of Stars” fundraiser Darrin Wayne and I will both be in Saturday night. I did an initial recording of “Bad Sock, Good Sock,” Beth Williams’ pun-laden ditty about love and loss among the footwear. I did end up tweaking the lyrics again, ostensibly to make them easier to sing (I did that with her “Sy
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Some Video Thoughts...

I suppose it’s time for more updates—not that I’ve done a lot lately. Been fixing a lot of squirrel damage in the Cascade Locks house. (Those critters are as bad as termites—only larger. And people don’t keep termites as pets. Do they?) Got asked to do the lead to Vonee Rose’s “Texas Two-Step Rock,” and to set Beth Williams’ song “Foul Play” (it’s about baseball—sort of) to music. Both are kind of departures from the norm for me, and departures are supposed to be exciting. (Beth’s got
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A Brief History Of The Friday Night Group...

Got to play music with the Friday Night Group in Garibaldi this weekend. I hadn’t been by in close to a year, and it was nice to see not much had changed. Pat, who’s been the group’s sound man and tireless cheerleader, tells the story this way. 6 years ago, he and I and another musician started playing music on Friday nights. Back then, the only live music in Tillamook County was a “jam session” at a local tavern that was dominated by the tavern owner. It was a smoky place, and we knew
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Almost Father's Day...

JOB SEARCHING gets a little discouraging sometimes. Got one rejection notice almost by return mail of being interviewed; two more are probably coming (one from my hometown), one more to apply for and one that’s too early to tell (but it’s within commuting distance so I wouldn’t have to move). And I’m almost out of money, and still have a lot of things undone. On the good news front, the songs I’ve posted on the Whitby Shores Website that are intended for the new album are getting a lot mo
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A Six-step Plan?

Back in Cascade Locks… The job interview went pretty well—prompting the question what I’d do about music promotion way out there in John Day, Oregon. You can tell it’s very isolated; the stores are all way bigger than a town of 1900 people needs, indicating the town serves as a market center for a huge hinterland. Any place that’s bigger is several six-packs away, as they say. So—I arrive in town, knowing absolutely nobody except the city manager, who’s going to be my boss. I’m living o
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Three Songs?

STUCK in Garibaldi for a few more days—the van died on the way out of town, and the local mechanic has to figure out why. I haven’t a clue, and at this point, he doesn’t, either. Hopefully, it is neither time-consuming nor expensive. I will accordingly write and post the blog from here, using my wife’s computer. I do not know how long it will take for things to get back to normal (not that I have any clear idea what “normal” is). A COUPLE MORE NEW SONGS: That makes three in the space of a w
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More Updates...

THE ALBUM: Skip’s in—he wants his song on the album. He wants me to handle the publishing, so I guess this is where Joe Becomes a Music Publisher. ASCAP, I think, since they’re a co-op and BMI isn’t; I’ll tell Skip he needs to join ASCAP as a writer (I do, too) so Joe Publisher doesn’t have to take out memberships in two PROs. I have a little “pocket” consulting firm, Outside Services Ltd. (the logo is an outhouse), that I’ll use as the “shell” for the publishing company—applying Occam’s Raz
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A New Setlist For The Album?

A NEW LINEUP? I would really like to put “Tune the Strings of My Soul,” Skip Johnson’s bluegrass hymn I did music for, on the new CD. As the final song, I think: it’s got a can’t-get-out-of-your-head melody that suggests Something Got Done Right. I’ve asked Skip if he’d be willing. If so, it’s going to necessitate a change in the setlist for the album. If there’s a hymn on it, things will have to be cleaner (as in less risque). No animal rapes and mutilations (that rules out “Dirty
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Whitbey Shores (&c.)...

Well, mostly house stuff, and not playing music—priorities, y’know. I’ll get to go back to southern Oregon a weekend from now, for a briefing session on the “Star of Stars” show, and I’ll see if I can’t stretch one overnight into most of two days. WEIRD STUFF: Internet deejay/veejay Len Amsterdam, the most tireless promoter of independent music I know, started his own OMD (Online Music Distributor) Website, hight Whitbey Shores--sort of a MySapce for musicians—and invited me to join. I d
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And Now For Something Completely Different...

…as Monty Python used to say. I wrote music for a hymn. Maybe I had spent too much time researching the old public-domain hymns for the music publisher, but when I read Rev. Skip Johnson’s lyrics for “Lord, Tune the Strings of My Soul,” I could hear a choir singing it. So it got music—a simple (5 chords), uptempo, bluegrass Gospel sort of thing. It also got a chorus—something else I picked up from the 19th-century hymnmeisters—a simple 4-line thing, with one line repeated three times so
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Moving Away...

Well, it’s time to move. I managed to postpone it for a whole couple of months, which was cool, and got to spend that time being a full-time musician, which was very cool. If I’m missed—or remembered—in this area, it’ll be as a writer, rather than anything else, and I like that. Lot of packing and sifting and throwing away and cleaning before I go, and it’s been hard, because I really don’t want to go. The best I’ve been able to tell everybody is “I’ll be back.” I really hope I can be.
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The Album...

THE ALBUM: Wayne says it’s coming out fine. There are only 8 songs, though; unless I want do something like call it “The Short Album,” I need to add more. We didn’t record that night everything I wanted on the album anyway. I’ll see if I can tentatively arrange to do some more songs when I come down June 15 for the big “Star of Stars” performance. What’s “in the can” with Wayne right now are: The Termite Song (fast bluegrass) (When I Jump Off the Cliff) I’ll Think of You (fast bl
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Review Of The Big Gig...

Had a cold, of course (people told me it was a flu, and others were getting it). Lots of Vitamin C, and time in bed. A radio station announcer turned me onto an old folk remedy she uses for those “show must go on” situations—apple cider vinegar and honey in hot water. Drank it like, well, coffee, and it did help. Peppermint tea and honey at the gig, too. Band is one of the best you’ll hear on any stage for any price, and I was proud to have ‘em playing my music. James Maille is one of
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About Time...

Being a full-time musician is tiring. (Yes, I would still do it for a living.) The appearances Friday (at the SOSA “Trio” event), Saturday and Monday (SOSA “showcases”), and Sunday (open mike at the Wild Goose) were essentially all rehearsals, making sure that Jack (bass) and Darrin (harmonica) knew a lot of the material, or at least knew what to expect. Tuesday (open mike at NW Pasta & Pizza) was the only one where I played solo. Sunday morning and afternoon was practice with th
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Mentor?

Sometimes I feel like I’m being a mentor—and I’m not sure I should be. I can’t claim what I’m doing is right—I just invented it as I’ve gone along, and what you see is just the things that have worked. For me. Does not mean they work for anyone else. (On the other hand, what I do I have ruthlessly robbed from other people myself—it is not new. It looks “unique” only because I’ve twisted it to fit my own peculiar circumstances—rather like adapting Avril Lavigne’s rhyming schemes to a country
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The Trio Gig...

“Trio” show at Johnny B.’s went well. We ended up with a full band—besides James on lead guitar, Jack played bass, George Clark harmonica, and Johnny himself sat in on drums. And everyone was excited about how good we sounded. Even had a crowd show up—mostly college kids; I thought they had come to hear the act after us, but most of ‘em drifted away after we stopped playing. (Come to think of it, there was a “downtown artwalk”—a monthly thing, with street jugglers and such, that night;
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