ONE WEEK until the Big Rockabilly Night Gig at Johnny B.’s. I’m not ready by any means—haven’t even worked out a setlist. I’ll have to ask at practice Wednesday night how much time I’m allotted.

Did meet the lady who does the booking for the Wild Goose in Ashland. Two nights a week, they have performers (as distinct from the long-running open mike on Sundays). She seemed excited I was interested. It’ll be sometime in March. I’ll need to fill three hours… Sounds daunting, but that’s really only 36 songs, and I have more than that that are performable. I’d like to have backup, though; like I told the lady, three hours of just me and solo guitar could be a little hard to take. Will be my first real paying gig in this area—and at a venue where my music has been fairly popular.

My job, of course, to generate the crowd—but that’s doable. Based on the reactions I’ve gotten from the open mikes and other gigs, I may have the makings of a fan base. As soon as I know the date, I’ll start promoting.

PINEYFEST is tentatively August 6-8, with another Demo Derby probably Aug. 5-6; an entire week in Nashville, in other words, just like last year. I can stay with Bill, who is moving to the Nashville area this winter, but I’ll probably need to be renting a car. It would be nice to line up some writers’ night performance slots—probably at venues less famous than the Bluebird. I wonder how hard that is to do from a couple thousand miles away.

UPDATES: Another “Showcase” poster for the Songwriters’ Association—and I think they’ve got a venue every weekend, now, so that means a poster a week, plus one for the “Quartet Series” every third Friday. (I’ll miss the next one—another speech tournament to judge.) Got sent some really good photos from the last two SOSA gigs. Bet I could do for SOSA what Robert Plant (was it Plant?) did for the Grateful Dead—each poster an instantly recognizable template, but nonetheless a distinct work of art. That’s how advertising is supposed to work.

Joe