And we occasionally do the unnecessary… Musicated a Betty Holt song, “Our Own Stimulus Plan, “ a good uptempo, between-the-sheets tune; she’d contacted me earlier about using the song in the Failed Economy Show, but said she may actually have someone else doing music for it. It got music anyway because I had to get it out of my head. (Indicates it’s a good song.) I can go back to doing necessary things now.

Stan Good’s “WD-40 the Economy” has a revised soundtrack, with the changes Stan wanted, and is waiting on his okay. One more Stan song to do—“The Big Obscene Green Money Machine.” Those two, plus “Death of the Middle Class,” are all candidates for the Failed Economy Show. Stan has a gift for poignant (and hilarious) social commentary.

If this were the ‘60s, his stuff would be on the radio—no doubt with music by someone more competent than I am. Since it’s (as one Brit I know put it) the “Noughts,” with the airwaves controlled by a handful of Big Players, it’s not—virtually no independent music is. One goal of the Failed Economy Show is to get a little exposure for some of the good writers out there. It won’t be much exposure: a heavily-attended concert in a small town (with maybe more to come), a TV show broadcast in two counties (lightly-populated counties, be it noted), maybe the song on a limited-edition record that people might buy because it’s for a good cause. One does what one can.

Tentative date and time for the Failed Economy Show is SATURDAY, 2 MAY, 7 P.M. on the Dance Floor at Garibaldi City Hall. We’ll have the facility for the whole day, so we can play with the sound. (The Dance Floor has rotten acoustics, because of the low, acoustic-tile false ceiling, but it’s a big hall, able to hold 500 people.) John is trying to get a new mixer (a 12-channel), and I bought an old tripod today for the video camera at the “We Are Not A Pawn Shop” store in Tillamook. We’ll have a month to practice, Sundays at John’s house (with Chris the drummer) and Wednesday nights at the tavern (just Jeff, John, and me).

I’ve stopped trying to find downloadable-for-free music for the five Woody Guthrie songs I want us to do, and started looking for tablature instead. We-the-band are going to have to perform these things, and I might as well re-record them in a key I can sing in. All of the five I want to use are simple music; one Woody Guthrie proverb I ran across on my search was “If you use more than two chords, you’re showing off.” (Most of Woody’s songs have three to five chords, however. Guess he was showing off.)

Simultaneously with this, I’ve got the Portland band to practice with, too (we have got to get these outfits some names). The “Red Room Two” gig is THURSDAY, 30 APRIL, 9 P.M., and again, we’ve got a month to practice. (We will probably be practicing on Saturdays, like we did before.) I think I have less worries about those guys. Just four new songs for them to get familiar with, out of a setlist of nine, and they’re all simple, uptempo tunes. Our main challenge will be making sure the sound system works without a hitch; we’ll be following another band this time, and we’ll have only minutes to set up, not the hour we did last time. And this time, we will get videoed.

Music/practice (I’m not sure what to call it) tonight at the tavern; the Friday Night Group on Friday (of course); no music at the library the next two Saturdays, but I’ll be practicing in Portland anyway. Sunday (March 29) is St. Leif’s Day, and one should be playing music on St. Leif’s Day, he being the patron saint of bagpipes and all. And I will be.

Joe