Setlist is done for the Leftovers Day show. We have:

SET ONE (11 songs):

Pole Dancing for Jesus—slow & sleazy Gospel

Santa’s Fallen and He Can’t Get Up—fast bluegrass

Hank’s Song—deliberate two-step

Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz

Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues

Bungee Jumpin’ Jesus—mod. tempo Gospel

The Occupation Song—ragtime

Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues

Santa, Baby (Javits, Springer & Springer)—slow, sleazy quasi-jazz

Abomination Two-Step—fast polka

Take-out Food (Stan Good)—slow, sleazy quasi-blues

SET TWO (10 songs):

I’m Giving Mom a Dead Dog for Christmas—slow & sleazy

Dead Things in the Shower—fast two-step

Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues

Rotten Candy—fast Gospel

Christmas Roadkill—slow two-step

Bluebird on My Windshield—fast bluegrass

Always Pet the Dogs—slow two-step

Naked Space Hamsters in Love—fast bluegrass

Writer’s Block Blues—slow & sleazy

Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy

Second set is all love songs (defining “love” loosely, as usual). Still have two Christmas songs, plus three dead dogs, a dead cat, dead bird, dead armadillos (who were in love), and unspecified dead things by the side of the road. Love and dead things seem to go together, I guess.

First set’s got two Christmas songs, too—one of them my one and only cover, “Santa, Baby,” the oh-so-sleazy Javits/Springer/Springer song that Eartha Kitt made famous. It was my most-requested song a couple of Christmases ago, and people started requesting it again last week. The two local-color songs, three “religious” numbers, two about food (one with dead animals) since it’s Leftovers Day, “The Occupation Song” for social commentary and “Hank’s Song” just for fun.

Overall, the setlist tries to show off the fiddle—Jane is a great fiddle player. Some of the songs I’ll be doing in a different key than usual to give the fiddle more range (and a couple of them I’ve found are actually easier to sing in the “new” key). Next step: setlist CDs (I need to re-record four of the songs in the “new” key and record two more from scratch), and the Rap. Need to arrange to borrow amplification for the occasion, and need to get photos for the poster. (Must have a poster.) And we should invest an evening or two before the gig to practice.

Elsewhere: the “Jedi Pigs of Oz” script is done with revisions and it’s okay; got the theme song to record, too. I’m not sure when we get to perform it—maybe not until January. News stories to cover this week for the paper; square dance classes to help arrange; Friday’s the big trip to Portland, and it looks like I’ll have to go the long way ‘round to avoid the snow. Applied for yet another job—and since this one’s Something Completely Different, I’m sure that if they reject me it won’t be for the usual reasons.

Joe