Got Jim Loughrie’s recording of “The Resurrection Blues,†and it’s nice. Jim, Jane and I tweaked it a little at Jane’s house tonight. Three leads on the song, by Jim on dual harmonicas, Jane on fiddle, and (surprise!) Jim on kazoo. Posted it on Soundclick (it’s at http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11577540), and also sent it to the Coventry songwriters, who were reportedly interested. Album material, definitely; it’s a very professional-sounding recording.

I also got Jim’s recording of “Spend the End of the World with Me,†and I like it too—but it needs something: a “non-whiny†lead, I think, or at least a “non-whiny†instrument besides my rhythm guitar. I’ll plug the recording into the Tascam and try adding a banjo, and see if that helps. Since it’s ragtime music, a banjo strummed Dixieland style (about all I can do on a banjo besides play real simple leads) might be enough to fill out the sound. (And here I am talking like a sound engineer again. I am really not competent to give advice on this stuff. I just happen to be all I’ve got.)

Tentatively, I’ll go to Jim’s shop this coming Wednesday and record base tracks for “Sleepover at My House.†It could use a full band treatment, with bass (Jim knows a bass player, that he’s been using in his Johnny Cash shtick), drums (which Jim can play himself), a “whiny†lead (probably Jim’s harmonica—I don’t think Jane wants to hear the song), and a “non-whiny†lead (me on lead guitar, I think—I can do a simple lead, and that’s all the song needs).

I have no idea whether the song is any good; I haven’t tried it out on a live audience (and audiences it might be appropriate for are a little limited—the song is a bit risque). I just have to get it out so I can be done with it. The song was Jane’s idea, really; she wanted to write one (and still should). The imagery she described—full moon, pet rabbit, comfy wood stove—just triggered ideas of my own. (And in mine, the rabbit has to die, of course. I hadn’t written any dead rabbit songs yet. And I figured as long as we had a wood stove in the song, we might as well use it to cook the rabbit.)

My work schedule is slowly starting to settle down; past two weeks (and again this week) I’m working two swing shifts (8 hours each) and two graveyard shifts (10 hours each); come the end of May, when my square dance caller class in Portland is over, I think I’ll start having Monday nights off instead of Tuesdays. I should still have Saturdays free because employer understands I have gigs. (Of course, employer is still shorthanded. They really need an additional front desk person, and don’t have one—that’s why those 10-hour shifts. Once they get one, who knows what my hours will be?)

The above work schedule does mean that playing music at the Tsunami on Thursday nights and at the Rapture Room on Sunday nights is out for the foreseeable future. So is marimba practice on Sunday afternoons. I will be able (come June) to practice again with the band Monday nights, though. For everything else, we either do Schedule Triage or cram the activity into a shorter slot. (I did e-mail Eric and tell him my last chance to play at the Thirsty Lion in Portland is going to be the next two weeks. Those are the last two Tuesdays I’m going to have off from work.)

I didn’t do much with my Friday off except sleep and go to band practice; lots to do tomorrow. Four songs to record for Jane and Ken for the Dylan Night show at The Mercantile in Beaver (and that’s just one week away), and I still need to learn the lyrics for one of them (Dylan songs tend to have a whole lot of words, no choruses and no specific pattern—they’re not easy to memorize). We may have only one chance to practice this week, and it’ll be a short one to boot because of the work schedule.

Joe