Yes, it was good. Our 22 songs filled exactly two hours with a 10-minute break, and there were people who came specifically to see us. And we got tips. (Hadn’t seen one of those new Presidential “silver†dollars before. We got five of ‘em.)

I think I have some of the Celtic fiddle tunes down now. I had sheet music for the jigs, and didn’t look at it at all; I remembered the Irish polka (easy, admittedly—only two chords), and I had finished my “Every dog eats bacon†mnemonic for “The Breton Waltz,†and it works—I could remember the every-three-beats chord changes. Got complimented on the variety of music—a little jazz, a little ragtime, some bluegrass, some country, some ethnic Irish, Ulster and Breton, and some rock ‘n’ roll—and that we could do it all pretty seamlessly.

I think the audience liked most of the songs of mine that we did. Odd Vindstad’s “Simple Questions†is a crowd-pleaser, as is (surprise) “Cuddle in the Darkness.†I expected them to like “Hank’s Song,†“Duct Tape,†“Pole Dancing for Jesus,†“Naked Space Hamsters in Love†and “The Abomination Two-Stepâ€â€”those have all been performed before—and they did. “Hank’s Song†we started slow, and then gradually sped up (because I had started it too slow) to the point where it was really cooking—and it worked well that way.

Clint would like to record us playing my songs so he’s got a recording of us to practice with, and I think I can do that with my equipment. I’ve got five inputs on the mixer (and shouldn’t need all of them for us), plus two more on the PA amp itself (ditto—I’d use one for the vocal microphone), and run the package into (I think) the “line in†port on the Tascam. So we’d have the sound mixed but everybody would be playing live. (Have to do that because I’ve got only one set of headphones.) I’d need the laptop with me so I could squirt each song to the laptop and then erase the file on the Tascam—its little digital-camera-chip “brain†can hold only one song at a time.

I won’t do that this week. The band are practicing twice a week still, but I’ll miss both practices this week because I’ll be working those nights. Another 36 hours at the hotel this coming week, but different shifts—I still don’t have a regular schedule. (Got my first paycheck, though. Now I really feel employed.)

And an idea. When I mentioned the “upcoming†13 Reasons Why Joe Is Going to Hell album at the Arts Center, a fellow gave me afterwards a “Get Out of Hell Free†card, modeled after the old Monopoly “chance†cards; he said he got it from a local print shop. I could do those—easily, in fact. A lot of musicians are pre-funding albums these days—I’ve seen about four from people I know just in the past couple of months. Those who pay the pre-funding up front usually get some kind of goodie, even if it’s just an autographed album. I could give those who pre-fund the 13 Reasons Why Joe Is Going to Hell album a “Get Out of Hell Free†card. (I could even autograph it.)

It’s not a new idea. Medieval popes did this, to raise money for various projects; it was called “selling indulgences.†For a large donation, you could be forgiven in advance for sins you hadn’t committed yet. It was a very popular program among the European nobility. I rather doubt most of those medieval donors really expected forgiveness—it was quite a cynical period; it may have been more an excuse to give (and get) money, like the U.S. tax code. I would assume (and hope) none of the recipients of my cards would be expecting to get out of Hell free. I’m sure not.

I have an advantage: I can produce an album very inexpensively (I have done so twice)—I can get the recording done for hundreds rather than thousands of dollars, because we’ll do it “Patsy Cline style,†live rather than layered; I’ll do the artwork myself (getting professional design work for free, in other words); and I know where I can get the best deal on the manufacturing. So I wouldn’t need a lot of pre-funders, really—I’d be doing it mostly for fun and to get attention.

Could I combine this with the Song-a-Month Experiment (which I still haven’t implemented)—release one of those songs every month, then the whole album at the end? Probably.

Joe