A winnable contest, maybe—the Chris Austin Songwriting contest, put on by Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C. as part of the annual MerleFest. (No, the “Merle” is not Merle Haggard. This Merle is kin to Doc Watson.) Three finalists get to perform their entries on stage at MerleFest, and that’s what is attractive as far as I’m concerned. I have always done best at competitions that entailed performing on stage—I don’t know why. If you get to be a finalist, they put you up for free in Wilkesboro, but you have to get there on your own nickel (I’ve run into that in other contests). Deadline for entries is in mid-February, and the MerleFest itself is the end of April. I could handle entering one, maybe two songs.

Which? Well, the song’s got to be good, but production has to be first-rate, too; yes, the rules say (they always say) you can send them anything, but I had a fellow who judges at one of these contests tell me that no matter what the rules said, he’d never vote for anything that wasn’t professionally produced, and I assume his attitude is shared.

There are two Stan Good songs (his lyrics, my music) I’d consider superior contenders. The most recent, “Take-Out Food,” was recorded just in the home studio, but the recording is pretty good; I wouldn’t hesitate to put it up against commercially-done material. The other is “Un-Easy Street,” which is a great crowd-pleaser and has become a permanent fixture of the band’s repertoire—and was going to go on the next album. The home-studio recording I have of it isn’t very good, however.

So I’ll enter either “Take-Out Food” or “Un-Easy Street.” If it makes finals, I have to go to Wilkesboro and perform it on stage. “Take-Out Food” has to have a lead break—song’s too short without it—which means I have to have accompaniment on stage. The MerleFest folks will pay to put up one “accompanist,” too, but not pay for getting him or her there. I need somebody in the immediate Wilkesboro area to be my lead player—but I may have found one in the person of Steve “Little Stevie” Biederman, who lives sorta nearby.

“Un-Easy Street” works without a lead break (we performed it that way at “Rocktoberfest”), so I can do it solo on stage if I have to (it’s better with a lead player, though). But I need a better, and ideally professional, recording to enter in the contest. “Un-Easy Street” was one of the songs we were recording for the album, so it WILL be professionally recorded. Can I get the recording done in time? (It’s a possibility. The band were real excited when we won the “Doing Dylan” contest in England. They could be excited about having the chance to do it again.)

And I’m glad people are so excited about it. Makes me feel more confident about entering the thing.

ON OTHER FRONTS: The new computer is assembled, but I haven’t made it work—it’s troubleshooting time, and there’s a lot of trouble to shoot. I should have tested the machine every step of the assemblage process, but I didn’t, and now have to pay for my hubris. New strings to put on the Strat. And music tonight.

Joe