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More Updates...

One. Forgot to mention an “upper†from Influence Night: I stopped to get some of that ghastly overpriced gas in case I got marooned in the mountains in the snow on my way home (I didn’t get marooned, obviously, though the highway was slick); the gas station was run by a couple of teenagers (one with girlfriend) and they noticed my “Deathgrass†T-shirt (which I’d worn to the music hall) and asked, “Is that rock?†So I explained that “Deathgrass†was the band, and how we got the

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Influence Music Hall Post-Mortem...

The Influence Music Hall is a nice place. (It could use a better heating system.) Decent stage and very professional sound system, and at least two people who know what they’re doing with it. I am interested in seeing how the recordings turn out. They had a decent crowd, too—a little over two dozen people, which filled most of the seats in the place. The other performers? Open mikes tend to run the gamut, and this was no exception; some performers were better than others, some wer

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The Square Dance Caller At Work...

Ordered three songs from Hanhurst’s Music, the people who supply music for square dance callers—“A Fool Such as I†by Bill Trader (the song was made famous by Elvis, Hank Snow, and a few others), “The Midnight Special†by Huddie Ledbetter, and “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me†(yes, the Hee-Haw theme) by Gospel songwriter Susan Heather. Yes, I can sing all of them. Been working on the Hee-Haw song first. (I think it fits my image.) From Hanhurst, I got “karaoke†versionsâ

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Mercantile Post-Mortem...

Performance at The Mercantile in Beaver was very much fun. Packed house—I think the place holds around 80 people, and it looked like every seat was filled—and very appreciative audience. I think they’d like us back. And I’d like to go back. Jane and I only did five songs (more than any of the other performers, though) but I think we were the high point of the show. I was asked whether one could pull something like this off at the Bay City Arts Center. We do those regular Open

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A Poster, A Gig, And A New Retail Outlet...

Poster for the “Jedi Pigs of Oz†puppet show is (mostly) done—just need to add the date and time. Rather than trying photo manipulation on the ‘puter, with new software I hadn’t used before, I did it the old-fashioned way—cropping portions of appropriately-sized photos by hand, pasting them down and scanning the result. Exactly how they would have done it in the ‘30s (except they would have used one of those room-sized “process cameras†instead of a scanner—I had one of those

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Thirsty Lion Post-Mortem (&c.)...

Thirsty Lion show was good. Only three of us “guestsâ€â€”one performer didn’t show up. Fairly big audience—and very appreciative, even though most of them had come to hear the other two guys. (One of those guys was very, very good, too. Like me, he played all originals, and all love songs; he also had a decent voice, and had definitely mastered his guitar. His train song, the most country-sounding song he did—written, he said, for a girl who was leaving for Nashville—was one of th

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A New Venue, And Computer Thoughts...

Poster’s done and notices are out for the Thirsty Lion performance on Valentine’s Day. We’ll practice Monday afternoon. This just might go all right. I connected—finally—with the folks who have put together the new performance venue in the old Beaver Mercantile (a former cheese factory). Yes, they’d like me to play there. Their next show, February 18, is a Valentine’s show featuring a number of local performers, and they’ll let me on to play a couple of love songs. I w

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A Song-A-Month Experiment?

I saw the suggestion today that artists should quit this fixation on producing albums. Albums may be what record companies want to sell, but they’re apparently not what the public wants to buy. (It’s been noted repeatedly that record companies do not care what the public wants to buy. Folks with less hubris should care, though.) What people are paying to download from places like iTunes and Rhapsody are individual songs—singles. What radio stations are playing—have always played, ex

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Updates...

Yes, the Arts Center Open Mike was good. Jane and I did “The Abomination Two-Step†(I continue to be surprised that’s such a hit), and the two new songs, “One Gas Station†and “Spend the End of the World with Me.†One couple apparently came hoping they’d hear the “One Gas Station†song. Not sure where they’d heard about it. Jam session afterwards (my favorite part). Suggestion was made that we should have a “jam potluck,†where we’d just all gather for dinner and play

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"jedi Pigs Of Oz" (&c.)...

The library is interested in another puppet show for the Summer Reading Program, and I have one ready to perform: our “Pig Wars†version of The Wizard of Oz, starring Princess Leah as Dorothy, Luke as the Scarecrow, Darth as the Tin Man, Yoda as the Wicked Witch, Hansolo as the Great and Powerful Wizard, and Chewy as the Cowardly Wookie. And introducing Glyn, the Good Witch who’s stuck in a balloon and can’t get out. Hight Jedi Pigs of Oz. I reviewed the script, and with Karen’s edit

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Two Good Songs?

So… two good songs this month, “Spend the End of the World with Me†and “One Gas Station,†the former an end-of-the-world love song and the latter just a snapshot of life in a one-horse town where the horse died. Both “keepersâ€; audiences like them. And I’m back as of this morning to wrestling with the Gospel song, “Is There Room Up in Heaven for a Sinner Like Me?†which I was working on before “One Gas Station†happened. Stan Good’s “The Next One†to record, too. Ye

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"one Gas Station" And Thirsty Lion Thoughts...

“One Gas Station†is recorded and posted; link is http://www.soundclick.com/share?songid=11400173 Problems with Audacity (my first time trying to use it to record stuff rather than just modify it), so I used the Tascam. I think the Tascam’s buzz was coming from the “effects†unit, so I left that turned off (except when I wanted the guitar to “emulate†a bass) and used Audacity to boost the volume afterwards. The old unit may be usable yet. For the video (I am trying to “thi

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Square Dance Calling, A Song--And A Movie?

Following our square dance meeting tonight (which included a short practice dance with me as caller) and caller class last night, I was told I’m ready to perform at a real square dance, Friday Feb. 17. Guess I better be prepared. I did get from instructor Daryl music for my preferred singing call, Woody Guthrie’s classic “Rubber Dolly.†Apparently, nobody’s ever used it in a square dance before, so there is no â€stock†choreography—I’ll have to invent my own. (I did get so

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Hoffman Post-Mortem--And Another New Song...

Packed house (again) at the Hoffman Center Talent Show; all the acts were real good, and this time none were on stage so long they became boring. Jane and I did “The Abomination Two-Step,†and she was right: it was a big hit. There is probably a market here for the “12 Reasons Why Joe Is Going to Hell†album (especially since host Lori mentioned it when introducing us). There’s also a potential market for the Joe Songbook (people were asking about lyrics). That one, though, is h

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A "making Of The Album" Video?

Friend Eileen is planning a documentary on the making of the Sedona Fire album. Neat idea. I’d like to do one of those myself—of my next album. There are only two major time constraints: YouTube has a 15-minute limit, and anything on public television has a 28-minute limit. I’d want to break mine into smaller increments anyway—though I’d want to have a final product that would be coherent in 28-minute blocks, just in case. You never know where these things might go. There

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And Some Writing Thoughts...

Ran across another of those “songwriting rules†articles, this one from one of the big song-contest outfits. I am bothered by hard-and-fast rules. Not only do I not work the way the article said to, I’m pretty sure a lot of famous writers don’t, either—their stuff comes out completely different than it would have if they’d followed those rules. I guess I won’t be entering their contest—not if they’re insisting the winning songs have to fit those rules. Mine won’t. Unl

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I Bailed On The Portland Gig...

Bailed on tonight’s caller class and Thirsty Lion gig; hated to, but the roads to Portland are bad and near as I can tell will be getting worse—and county emergency management says a “real†storm is on the way. Eric has re-scheduled me for Tuesday, Feb. 14—Valentine’s Day. Told him I’d play all love songs. I have plenty. Some video thoughts. Some of my songs are easier to script out than others. Some potentially easy ones are: SPEND THE END OF THE WORLD WITH ME: Iâ€

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Snow! (&c.)...

Ah, snow… It is snowing furiously outside as I write this (I am inside); if it keeps up, I’ll go for a walk and take pictures. Snow was not fun when I was a kid in upstate New York; unless you liked skiing (I didn’t), 6-10 feet of snow on the ground for six months at a time got old really fast. It was a source of income for a kid—we didn’t make our money mowing lawns in the summer, we made it shoveling out walks in the winter, over and over again. Since moving to Oregon in 197

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Another Thirsty Lion Performance?

I got invited back to the Thirsty Lion next Tuesday (Jan. 17)—short notice, but I can do it. I’m in Portland Tuesday nights for the caller class. The only thing that’d get in the way would be a job interview, if I do get called for one. This will be my eighth time there, I think. What to play? I like to do different stuff each time. How about: Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues Spend the End of the World with Me—ragtime Hank’s Songâ€

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A Job? And "rubber Dolly"...

Well. Got asked today what salary I’d accept for that interim city administrator job. Something might actually happen there. I’m trying not to be too hopeful about my prospects, but I have rehearsed how I’d go about the job if I got it. It is a performance, after all (that’s why I refer to these jobs as gigs); Ronald Reagan once called the Presidency “my greatest role†for the same reason. I am fond of saying “I know people,†but as fellow songwriter and publisher Bobbie

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Statistics (&c.)...

Blog statistics, again. (Gotta check occasionally.) Of the slightly over 5,000 people that have read the blog on blogspot (five thousand?), less than half are from the United States. The second-largest number of readers is from Russia (534). 73 are from Latvia, 69 from Malaysia, and 61 from China. I do hope those folks are not intending to learn English by reading my stuff. One person—I’m not sure from where—apparently ran across the blog while looking for a photo of a naked hamster

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The New Pa Works!

The little PA works! Ran a music clip from “Lazarus” the laptop into the “CD/AUX” ports on the little amp and it broadcast quite well. These are nice, powerful little speakers. I was able to do a voice-over with the mike, too, which is precisely what I need for square dance calling. The whole thing—amp, speakers and (for when I need it) laptop—measures less than a foot deep, less than 18 inches high and less than 18 inches wide—very compact. There are cables—around 50 feet of speaker c

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Quick To-Do List...

Quick to-do list: FOR THE ARTS CENTER: This week: thank-you certificates for all the folks who donated items to the Big Fund-raising Auction. Include a fill-in-the-value-blank receipt for taxes, too. Get some 9x12 envelopes—we’ll need about 40, I think. I can hand-deliver the certificates on my “rounds.” On the radio with Tommy Boye Thursday morning. Next Monday, John Ramer’s new shop will be open in Tillamook; try to get more RAM for the Arts Center’s 1999-vintage PC. Write minutes

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Soliciting Gigs...

There is a by-now-well publicized Craigslist ad from a restaurant soliciting free live music on a “Hey, you can promote your stuff” basis. It prompted an equally well-publicized response from a musician inviting the restauranteur to come to his house and cook dinner for free for himself and his friends, on a “Hey, you can promote your stuff” basis. On the one hand, I agree. On the other, as one 19th-century humorist said, not so fast. I figure about half the places I perform I’m going t

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Marimba Practice (&c.)...

Happy 2012. It’s supposed to be a short year, ending December 21; we’ll see if the pundits are right. I’d like to put out an end-of-the-world album, but should do so early (just in case, y’know). I’m sure some of the writers I know will be coming up with good end-of-the-world songs, and I expect I’ll have a few more of my own as the year progresses. (I hope this is one of those years that progresses. I’m tired of going backwards.) Practice with the whole marimba band this afternoon; u

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