The gig at the Thirsty Lion is confirmed. TUESDAY, 9 FEBRUARY; show starts 8:30 p.m., and I’m on after host Eric John Kaiser—probably about 9:00. I’ll be playing solo, and I’ll have 25 minutes. Unpaid, of course (I’ll bring the Big Yellow “Tipping Is Not A City in China” Bucket, and see if I can at least recover gas money).

Last time I did this—last June—that was enough time for seven songs; I’ll plan on seven this time. I usually introduce myself with the “describe what you do in one sentence” tag I gave Songstuff, the British writers’ group—“Happy, upbeat, uptempo songs about death, lost love, betrayal, religion, and dead animals”—and that begs the question whether I can include all those things in a set. I can. I can even do ‘em in order:

DEATH: Take-Out Food (Stan Good)—manic & sleazy

LOST LOVE: When I Jump Off the Cliff I’ll Think of You—fast bluegrass

BETRAYAL: Hey, Little Chicken—sleazy quasi-blues

RELIGION: The Abomination Two-Step—fast bluegrass

DEAD ANIMALS: Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy

That’s five; need two more. How about:

GLOBAL WARMING: The Termite Song—fast bluegrass

ONE SERIOUS SONG: Crosses by the Roadside—mod. two-step

I’m thoroughly comfortable with it this time around, I think; I’m not trying to impress anybody, and I have no expectations. Like last time, there’s going to be a prize awarded at the end of the month, but like last time, it’s going to go to the performer(s) that brought the largest cheering section, and that’s not me, because I’m not bringing one at all. Oh, I’ll send a notice to the “joelist,” and post an “event” on Facebook, and there are people in both places who live in Portland, but I’m not expecting them to come.

The prize this time is a recording session at Portland’s 8 Ball Studios (which does have a good reputation, by the way), but as I told Eric, I don’t need it—we’re already recording the album. So I don’t care—and not caring is satisfyingly liberating. I intend simply to have fun. The Thirsty Lion is a nice place (a big one, too), and if there’s a ball game just before the music (there was last time), and I get to be on first (after host Eric), I get to inherit a good-sized and generally appreciative crowd. The setlist is just fun stuff, too—I’ll get to see how the crowd reacts without having to worry about it.

Supposedly the performance will be videotaped by the Portland Concert Co-op, and streamed later from their Website; that was promised last time, too, but it never happened (even though I signed a release form). So again, I expect nothing.

Poster’s mostly done, I think; I just had to change the date from last time (though I might want to put in a gratuitous plug for host Eric John Kaiser, just because). I still have the notice to do.

It is shaping up to be a busy week. Besides calling in nightly to see if I’m on a jury (I’ll be doing that all of February), I have the audition for Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Sunday night (rehearsals won’t start for another two weeks), the Bay City Arts Center Board meeting Monday night (I’m trying to talk them into hiring me as their executive director), music Friday night at City Hall and Saturday afternoon at the Tillamook Library, a birthday party to go to in Portland Saturday night, and the Thirsty Lion the following Tuesday. I have Glyn Duncan’s song to work on, The Ballad to finish, and I think I talked Wyman Lloyd into letting me musicate “The Cat Goddess Creeps.” I have the songs from the band in Astoria to work on, too. Maybe if I fill the schedule up really good, somebody will call me for a job interview. It usually works like that.

Joe