Tentative setlist for the April 24 “Deathgrass” concert looks like:

SET #1 (11 SONGS)

Dead Things in the Shower (Bobbie Gallup)—mod. fast two-step

Armadillo on the Interstate—slow & sleazy

Things Are Getting Better Now That Things Are Getting Worse (Gene Burnett)—fast two-step

Tillamook Railroad Blues—deliberate blues

For Their Own Ends (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock

Eatin’ Cornflakes from a Hubcap Blues—slow & sleazy quasi-blues

Our Own Little Stimulus Plan (Betty Holt)—Buddy Holly-style rockabilly

Welcome to Hebo Waltz—fast waltz

Ain’t Got No Home in This World Any More (Woody Guthrie)—mod. two-step

Test Tube Baby—rock ‘n’ roll

Un-Easy Street (Stan Good)—mod. two-step

SET #2 (9 SONGS)

Duct Tape—mod. country

Hey, Little Chicken—slow & sleazy quasi-blues

Dance a Little Longer (Woody Guthrie)—country rock

No Good Songs About the War—mod. slow two-step

[NEW] Love Trails of the Zombie Snails (Southern Pigfish)—folk-rock

[NEW] She Ain’t Starvin’ Herself—mod. fast blues

Free-Range Person—fast bluegrass

Milepost 43—mod. two-step

Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad (Woody Guthrie)—fast bluegrass

A 55-minute set and a 50-minute set; that allows for a 15-minute break in the middle. Some rock, some blues, some country, and some bluegrass; one waltz. Mostly good dance numbers, I think, and includes the songs that we perform best. There are two songs on the list Doc and Mike haven’t played before, and two more that none of us have played together. The setlist has our standard opening and ending songs in their usual places (it’s almost a tradition now), but maybe enough variety and re-arranging so it sounds a little different.

Next steps: re-record “Love Trails of the Zombie Snails” in a key in which I can sing it better, master and record the CDs for everybody, print lyric sheets for the songs they don’t know—and get copies to Doc before he and his dog leave on vacation. I have a Rap to work out, and I’ll need to talk to Chris so I can pepper it with appropriate pitches for donations and promos for the band that’ll be coming after us. Poster to design, too.

I don’t think anybody else functions quite like we do, and I’m not sure why. It works, I think. The frontman (me) does not give the audience a chance to get bored; if you can’t jump right from one song to the next (and we’ve never tried that), there should be some sort of patter that prevents the silence. That’s a trick I picked up from the late Jeff Tanzer of the Dodson Drifters (and an entertainer par excellence). Giving everybody CDs with the songs in order, with cue sheets and (where needed) lyrics, was designed to assuage my need to be thoroughly organized in advance—but the band likes it, and it does minimize the need for practice. That we play almost all unheard-of original music (most of it mine) doesn’t seem to have stopped audiences from coming.

Practice after April 1. Before then, there’s “The Tempest” to get through. I think I have my lines down now.

Joe