THE COMPUTER FILES: I found the “Music Joe Letterhead” on the computer—one less thing to re-create. Did re-create the business cards. Some lyrics are missing—all the ones that weren’t filed in Microsoft’s “My Documents” folder. The “Joe is Great!” brochure (a PageMaker file) is missing for the same reason—the installation of Windows XP erased all document folders that weren’t Microsoft document folders (dang them). And I had WordPerfect, Lotus, and WordStar on the ‘puter. (Microsoft apparently does not like competition.)

James, who’s playing lead guitar with me Friday night, asked if I could send lyric sheets for the songs we’re doing, and it looks like I’ll have to re-create four of them (that’s four out of SIX): “Dead Things in the Shower,” “Armadillo on the Interstate,” “The Frog Next Door,” and “Naked Space Hamsters in Love.” I have set up new folders on the ‘puter so Microsoft will not do this to me again. I hate repeating myself.

QUARTET GIG: Coming up Friday night. It’ll be me and virtuoso guitarist James Maille doing half an hour of my stuff. Fourth Quartettie is Seth Richardson, whose music I’ve never heard that I know of. Got photos of everybody for the poster, but some of them aren’t very good. I will make sure to get good clear photos (by me) when the gig happens. Everybody should have good promotional photographs in their “toolbox,” and I’ll supply them if I can.

THIS WEEK: Practice with Screamin’ Gulch Wednesday night, the Quartet on Friday night, another SOSA “showcase” Saturday night, and the Wild Goose again Sunday night. Can’t do the country dance in Rogue River Tuesday night—I have an Urban Renewal Board meeting. Opportunity to practice with Darrin Wayne either this weekend or next weekend; I can play lead guitar for his simpler blues numbers, and I’d love to have him play harmonica on some of mine. One way to encourage these writers to play together is to do it myself.

PUBLISHING: I’m still on the Goodnight Kiss Music mailing list, and when they sent out a call last week for a song for Wynonna (nee Wynonna Judd), I responded. Wynonna’s music these days is pretty rock-oriented, but she goes for fairly dark lyrics, so I sent my favorite (and only) Valentine’s Day song, “Rotten Candy.” And we’ll see.

My recording is pretty country (everything I do comes out country), but I’ve learned from experience (other people covering my songs, in other words, and doing their own “take” on them) that a lot of the stuff I write converts well to almost any genre. (My favorite is the electronica version of my bluegrass tune “When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You” by zonemusicinc. It’s really good. And I never thought it was possible.) The question is whether Wynonna (or the publisher) can see past the recording and recognize its possibilities. There is, alas, not much imagination in the Music Biz these days.

CONTESTS: I try to enter a couple of contests a year, concentrating on ones I think I can win. (Didn’t do too badly last year. In the two I’d planned on entering (I actually entered four), I took first place in one and honorable mention in the other.) This year, I think it’ll be the Jackson County Fair Talent Show, which is local, and the Hank Williams Festival, which is not. (If I end up being a finalist in the Hank one, I have to get to North Carolina on my own nickel to perform on stage. Still, if I can afford it, it’d be fun.) In the former, “entering” consists of performing on stage; in the latter, the finalists get to perform on stage. I usually do good with live performances.

AND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO: I recorded a draft of “Naked Space Hamsters in Love” (just me and rhythm guitar) to give the “band” to play along with in their spare time. (Has worked for me when I’m doing leads to those Soundclick blues compilations.) I saw Delonde, George and Russ at the Wild Goose Sunday night. Got to perform the hamster song, plus “Hey, Little Chicken” and “Can I Have Your Car When the Rapture Comes?” with both Jack Fischer on lead guitar and George on harmonica. Starting to sound more and more like a band. And it was nice to have somebody say we were a hard act to follow.

Joe