Practice Saturday with the Portland band and Sunday with the Coast band (we have got to get them some names). Coast band now has a drummer, a versatile one--Chris Miller, who also lives in Garibaldi. (The idea that we can assemble a whole band of good musicians living in a single town of 900 people is mind-boggling. Shades of the Dodson Drifters…)

On SUNDAY, John, Chris and I worked on the following, which are all definitely inclusions in the Failed Economy Show setlist:

50 Ways to Cure the Depression (me), in C

Free-Range Person (me), in C

Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues (me), in C

Oil in the Cornfield (me), in C

When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You (me), in C

Our Own Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt), in D

WD-40 the Economy (Stan Good), in C

Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett), in C

Glad That You’re Here (Stan Bolton), in A

They want to try Zmulls’ “The Emperor” (probably in C) and Coleman/Lazzerini’s “So 20th Century” (and I’m not sure what key, but we’ll try to simplify it to eliminate a lot of the fruity chords). Both are pretty complicated pieces of music, but intriguing—probably because of their complexity. I don’t have to do a whole lot in either one except remember the words; it’s John (on bass) and Chris (on drums) who have to do the fancy stuff.

Also in by popular demand, though we haven’t practiced them yet, are the Southern Pigfish song “For Their Own Ends” and Frank Papa’s “Have A Good Day.” Don’t know about the rest yet. Practice again next Sunday—and I’ve promised everybody another CD with another dozen songs to think about. John, Jeff and I will run through some of them, no doubt, when we play at the Ghost Hole Wednesday night.

I’d really like Jeff to sing some of the songs if he’d be willing. He has a much better voice than I (and if he sings, I can play lead guitar). Some of the songs written by other folks are a real stretch for my voice, which doesn’t have as wide a range as most people’s. Trying to sing over amplified instruments is a strain, too—next practice, I’ll plan on using the vocal mike. I don’t have a good boom mike stand, but may be able to assemble one that’d work out of pieces of two older mike stands I have. I don’t want to buy anything right now.

John got to go through the big box of audio equipment I’d earlier been given, and said the microphones are good instrument mikes, the headphones are professional grade, and some of the fittings and adapters are hard to find. Good stuff, in other words. (Thanks, Bodie.) John has ordered his new mixer, plus we have permission to use the Friday Night Group’s soundboard (an 8-channel). We should be able to record, and amplify ourselves, and run the video cameras, all at the same time.

On SATURDAY, we didn’t have the whole band together in Portland either, but Sharma (bass), Doug (drums) and I practiced in the early afternoon and then, Sharma, David (lead) and I in the late afternoon. We’ll practice again in two weeks (on Saturday again, I think)—we’re hoping three practices will be enough, since we’re basically dealing with only four new songs. (That does up the band’s repertoire to 13. We are making progress.) Everybody’s got setlists with lyrics, and CDs with recordings of the songs. The Red Room updated their Website (finally), confirming that we’re on for 30 APRIL at 9 P.M.

TO DO: Still need the Lions Club’s okay on the 2 MAY date for the Failed Economy Show (they’re the sponsors)—then we can start the “buzz.” Some of the newspapers I want to contact are monthlies, and they’ll be going to press soon. “Joelist” to notify of both concerts, plus bulletins on MySpace and Facebook. Two CDs to donate to my daughter’s old high school—they want to auction them off at the Speech Team’s annual Dessert Gala. One of the fun things about living in this area is being sorta famous…

Joe