Every now and then, you get a nice little “upper” that makes you feel like you’re doing something worthwhile I’d mentioned before that “When They Die, I Put Them in the Cookies” was a hit with kids. I heard from one mom who said her 8-year-old is going to be in a talent show, and wants to perform “the cookie song.” Can he? Of course. I’m honored. I’ll record a non-vocal track so he can sing to it. Wish I could be there, but all this is going to take place somewhere in Texas. (His mom says she’s going to videotape it.)

Mike Simpson wants to record me and him playing the “Tillamook Railroad Blues” and maybe also the “Welcome to Hebo Waltz,” my two local-color songs. (He wants to put together an album of songs about Tillamook County, I think.) This will be an opportunity to see what Mike’s got in his studio, and how he uses it. I don’t know if we could incorporate the whole band in this project—I’m sure they’d be willing, but I don’t know what the limitations of Mike’s setup are.

The performance for the Monday Night Musical Club with Bill Briott (vocals), Joan Petty (piano), “Doc” Wagner (blues harp), and me (guitar) now has four songs—they’ve added “Sioux City Sue,” the Ray Freedman/Dick Thomas song which Willie Nelson and Leon Russell (and earlier, Bing Crosby) made famous. I downloaded the tablature (thank you, Internet); it’s pretty simple. Our 2-hour practice session is Tuesday afternoon, March 2. Show is the following Monday night, March 8.

That means next week I have the Bay City Arts Center’s Board meeting Monday night (to make sure about the Jim Nelson open mike Saturday), practice with the quartet Tuesday, music at the Garibaldi Pub Wednesday, rehearsal for “The Tempest” Thursday, music at City Hall on Friday, and at the Library Saturday afternoon (and the open mike Saturday night). There’s a “job fair” I should go to that Saturday morning, too. The following week, rehearsals for “The Tempest” begin in earnest.

That means I really need to have my voice back in order in the next few days (it left along with the cold I’m mostly over—happens every time). There are a few songs I can perform with a croak for a voice, and I did those Friday and Saturday, but my part in “The Tempest” requires me to shout my lines, and that’s not possible right now. One song I can croak that’s surprisingly popular is the Southern Pigfish talking blues, “The Strange Saga of Quoth, the Parrot”; it’s more musical than the average talking blues, because it’s really a two-step, but it doesn’t require any voice at all to perform it, since the lyrics are spoken. I expect people like the song because of its political message (understated, of course, in classic Southern Pigfish style)—there’s a lot of anti-government sentiment going around these days.

Thought I’d try my hand at a “Deathgrass” logo—something simple, with a skull, cowboy hat, and (of course) grass; I decided rather than Photoshopping it (which would be time-consuming), if I could find the right pieces, I could just stage a photograph. At the local Wheeler Dealer store, which was having a 90%-off sale, I got a miniature skull, and a rumpled-shirt ceramic body it’ll fit; I have grass outside (which I’ve had to mow twice this month). I may have a hat to fit the skull in my leftover stuff from Union (my entry in the Great Interplanetary Duck Race there wore a cowboy hat); if not, I know where I got the hat—the craft department at Wal-Mart. Once I’ve taken the photograph, I can add special effects easily. (I also got a cute stuffed skull with dreadlocks that might make a good logo on its own. Failing that, it’s a neat thing to hang from a microphone stand.)

Joe