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  • john

    Songstuff Writer and Artist Development Challenges

    By john

    Independent writers and artists face several large disadvantages when they are compared to signed, mainstream writers and artists.  Disadvantages that add up to making it a competition that indies can’t win. Hell they can’t even compete.   Lack of budget and poor contacts are fairly obvious disadvantages. Lack of experience and a lack of knowledge restricts songwriters and artists alike. Lack of an overall strategy, and a limited set of incomplete tactics, makes for a critical problem
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A Paying Gig!

Well, I have a gig. FRIDAY, 13 FEBRUARY at THE RED ROOM in Portland (2530 SE 82nd), a bar that showcases a lot of new live music, and also a bunch of comedy acts (I have a feeling I’m one of the latter). I do not know at this point if it’s important to do this with a band; I’ve put out feelers in Portland to see if there are musicians interested in being “Joe’s band” for the occasion, but it’s too early at this writing to tell if I’ll snag anybody. A lot depends on what the other “acts” are li
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Being Interactive...

Over two million extra people voted in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, most of them voting for the first time even though a lot of them had been eligible to vote for years. Nearly all of them were young, and nearly all of them voted for Barack Obama, and that’s one of the reasons he won. (Not the only reason, of course—but we’re not discussing politics here.) Those two million extra votes happened in large part because somebody on Obama’s staff ran a very interactive campaign. There
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Happy Almost New Year...

ZNO NEW YEAR’S EVE GIG: Really disappointing—my preference for celebrating New Year’s, since I don’t drink, is to be playing on stage with a band. I got to do that last year—but I was living in southern Oregon and knew a bar owner who was throwing a private party New Year’s Eve, and inviting only musicians he knew. I don’t have resources like that here on the Coast. (The lesson there is I should create them. Not playing on New Year’s Eve is something that should be added to the “I’ll never
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Co-writes On The Album?

I really don’t know how to approach the Five-Dollar Album. I don’t know if it ought to be all my stuff or include some of the co-writes. I have four songs by other people that I’ve musicated and recorded, plus the “Alphabet Without U” rap where the words were done by me and the “beat” by Jerry Miller (dba zonemusicinc), and the recordings are pretty good; any or all would be good inclusions on an album. The co-writes are: Alabama Blues, by Diane Ewing Tune the Strings of My Soul, by Re
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Pre-christmas Updates...

The Oregon Coast has had snow—one of those “never happens here” occurrences—and both the Friday Night Group sessions and the Saturday Thing at the Tillamook Library got cancelled. Well-stocked larder; power’s still on; most of the TV channels work; the regular telephone still makes local calls (no cell service, though); and in my spare time, I can shovel snow—if God doesn’t melt the stuff first. And we only lost the Internet for a day. THE SONGBOOK turned out to be a bigger project than I
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Strangetouch’s Christmas Wishes

Strangetouch’s christmas wishes Hello everyone well.................. It's nearly that time crimbo although it can be over hyped its a great time for the kids and i am one at heart (yes ladys all men are kids we know ) First off i would like to say a big thanks to all who help me live my dream Kincaid Live are my first for all your help and support and your friendship too have this token of my respect RESPECT!!!!!!! Mrs cebeee for being our first fan you get the first copy of our
musicthom

musicthom

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The Goals For 2009...

Last December, I said in 2008 I wanted to (1) record a new CD, (2) publish, (3) work with a performing band, (4) perform at Moograss, (5) perform at Wheeler and the Harvest Festival, (6) attend Pineyfest, (7) enter two more song contests, and ( have a CD release party. I didn’t do that well. 8 songs “in the can” for the CD (1), but I haven’t got back to southern Oregon to do the remaining five. The Harvest Festival was the only planned big gig I made (5), though I did have a few others
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Midi Sync

New article posted discussing MIDI Synchronization: MIDI Synchronization It's a useful primer on the basic concepts with a little detail thrown in for those wanting to know a bit more.
john

john

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A Joe Songbook?

The suggestion was made that I produce a songbook of my stuff. It’s not a bad idea. I made a list (for I am good at lists), and if I go back to the beginning, to the first good song I ever wrote, there are 62 of them—definitely a book’s worth. It’d actually be fairly easy to do. Lyrics for most of the songs are in “Alice” the computer’s brain, already in a standard format with chords and chord changes; I could add photographs—got plenty of appropriate ones—title page, index, and a few ti
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My Week

Aye up guys and gals of course busy busy busy.......... well i have been we had a few guys in at the weeked for a try out a drummer and a bass player so we are moving on with band members although its not final yet footie eas dire on saturday oh and my daughters boyfriend plays guitar in a band and the won the scotish heats and are off to liverpool for the national heats so good luck steven am sure you will blow them away which reminds me i nearly killed the poor lad when i met him for the f
musicthom

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Mischke Fired

Very odd postscript: the day after the CD release bash at O'Gara's, Tommy was fired by am 1500 KSTP. No-compete clause means no work in radio locally for some time - Merry Christmas! The local Mischke cult has been up in arms, yet an Atlantic Monthly writer is also publicly mourning. Long time advertisers have pulled their accounts from KSTP am. "Good ol' St. Paul" as Mischke used to daily say - but it's true. I saw Tommy last week, after he'd run to RF Moeller Jewler to "drop of
Donna

Donna

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A Five Dollar Album?

I put together a Christmas album for a couple of friends, and it didn’t turn out bad. I’d concentrated on songs I knew they hadn’t heard yet (and I last saw them Labor Day weekend). The record’s got: Crosses by the Roadside The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot Vampire Roumanian Babies I Broke My Girlfriend Doing Battle with the Lawn Simple Questions (by O.R. Vindstad) Alphabet Without U—A Rap (“beat” by Jerry Miller) Sometimes She Could Scream (by Donna Devine) For Their O
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More On The Five-year Plan...

While assembling the list of 2009 Goals, I noticed a lot of them looked the same as last year. Finish the album; do another one. Enter more contests I can win. Find or create a band. Spend a week in Nashville. Continue writing an average of at least one good song a month. There’s the operative word—CONTINUE. These are just incremental upgrades of what I’ve already been doing. The operative QUESTION is how those fit in with the Five-Year Plan, and whather I ought to be thinking them d
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A Five-year Plan?

I have another out-of-town job interview next week (first one in a while), so I get to fantasize (again) about what it’d be like living in a new place. Musically, I think they all follow a set pattern. If there’s somebody I know living in the area (and I would in this case—I know a lot of people), I get in touch with them. I want to find out if there are any open mikes, and any jam sessions; I’ll make sure to go. If there’s an organized group of songwriters, I’ll join; if there’s an orga
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O'gara's Victory

Edit Dec 8 - Hiding Time - end of 3rd verse on Someone you tubed us ~ _______________________________ Though I've heard no tape yet (which will for me decide the truth of the gig) victorious is the word I use, and a word I don't often use. It seemed that kind of night, in multiple ways, for many people, for reasons not musical as well as for the music made. It's a night of stories to tell one's grandchildren. LENGTHIEST entry ever...and likely to remain so. Mischke beg
Donna

Donna

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9 Months Without Work (but I'm Published!)

On 17 December—eight days before Christmas—I will have been unemployed nine months. Can’t say as I’ve done a lot with the free time (though the Squirrel House does have a new kitchen, and new carpets, and electric heat). Let’s say I don’t feel I’ve done enough. Part of what’s been on hold is that career as a songwriter; as I prepare next year’s list of goals (for I am good at lists), most of the promotional stuff I’d intended to accomplish this past year hasn’t happened—a lot of it because of
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Last Rehearsal, O'gara's / 5th Member

I have never kept track or written about rehearsals leading up to a gig, except for this one. I don't expect to in the future. __________ Last rehearsal was today at O'Gara's mixed in w/ sound check (which was rather complicated or extensive). The drum riser on O'Gara's stage will remain unused - Mischke built a wall using huge pallets to go in front of it. It's fun how he (and Jared!) are doing the stage. In the 1st case, Tommy has put wooden doors and boards round his keyboard.
Donna

Donna

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John Denver

What a nice reality check. The memorial special I saw this eve had John Denver singing a song called This Old Guitar. He prefaced by saying his guitar has been his closest companion; that as great as it'd been playing w/ an orchestra backing him or "w/ a really hot band"...what he loved esp. was singing while playing that guitar. The lyric spoke of how that guitar "taught me to sing" - just as I'm finding out first hand that the best way for me to sing a song as in learning it
Donna

Donna

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"crosses" And The Publisher...

“Crosses by the Roadside” is a good song, they say. “Best you ever wrote,” they say. (Didn’t even have to pay them to say that.) Best I’ll ever write? Probably not. The key is to keep writing. That way you know the best is always ahead. It is rather a compelling melody, difficult to get out of my head—and the only way to get it out is to go do something else. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything finishable right now (the couple of partial songs that are hanging fire still don’t have
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Thanksgiving...

Day before Thanksgiving… time to review what to be thankful for. This year, it’s a short list, thanks in large part to the economy; my wife says one of the things I should be thankful for is she still has a job, and I agree (and I said I’d mention it). To those who have been reading this thing, whoever and however many of you there are, I am thankful you’re there, too. I hope whatever information is being disseminated here is helpful. There are a few—a very few—copies of the “Santa’s Fal
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Full Sound

We were 4-piece tonight, first time. No guitars. Rather piano and Jared's "not B3" organ (he called it an A-something or other, "it's just like a B3"). The B3 sat in a different corner of the studio, being a stand for the large mixer. There were two other pianos in the room, one a baby grand I think. And Bill Evans' drummer's kit. (Lazz, it was Marty Morell's I finally found out). The drums were so very bright (and so very loud). I put dish towels over them. At Tommy's, I covered th
Donna

Donna

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"crosses By The Roadside"...

NEW SONG: I haven’t been able to say that in a long time. The lyrics are presently undergoing peer review (I always submit the lyrics first), and we’ll see what the critics think; I think it’s pretty good, but I’ve learned not to trust my own judgment about these things. Hight (tentatively) “Crosses by the Roadside.” It’s a good tearjerker of a lost-love song—in this case, the love is lost apparently because somebody died—that poses the question whether it may be worse to be left alive.
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Ooo! A Project!

Two friends want to record an album as a Christmas present for their grandchildren. Can I do it? Yes. In fact, I can handle production from beginning to end, including burning the CDs and putting labels on them. Great opportunity for the Tone-Deaf Sound Engineer. I explained my limitations. The Tascam has just 4 tracks, and 2 inputs (guitar and mike) that have to be used separately. I have one singing mike, and one stand. If I’m going to record two of anything—two voices, or two guit
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