"Ring of Fire" notes

There's some real rhythmic weirdness in this song...

Discounting the pickup notes, there are 4 strong beats of mariachi trumpets, then 3(!) beats of guitar vamp, then the second line, same thing each a set of 7.

(Actually, listening to the bass notes from the guitar, maybe it's really 3 and 4 (not 4 and 3). He seems to do 1-1-5, 1-5-1-5.)

Then the singing starts -- 4 beats of singing, 4 beats of trumpets, 3 beats of vamp, for 11 total beats, and into the next singing line. There is no trumpets after the fourth sung line of the verse ("I fell into..."), but we go straight into the chorus which is mercifully but jarringly straight-four.

After the chorus, the second verse is like the first, 11 beats per line, *except* for the third line, on which, apparently just by mistake, the trumpets come in a beat late, so that line gets a more normal 12 beats.

Really wacky! Now I know why I'm having trouble figuring out when to come back in with the vocal after each line of the verse -- something in me is trying to hit a "normal" rhythm pattern. I'm probably vamping one beat too long, just to get it into 12 beats.

I'd love to see the sheet music for this thing. You don't see many country songs changing meters every measure...

"You Were On My Mind"

I worked up the "We Five" hit "You Were On My Mind" lately. The lead singer is a girl, singing (at first) way down low (for her). I had to transpose it for my range, and it's working surprisingly well.

The original was probably in E, but that was even way higher than the usual tenor-based song. I kept dropping it until I found a pair of keys that were first-position playable: G and A. I have a hard time imagining someone deliberately modulating into F# (from E), but if that's not how they did it, I'm mystified. I suppose it could be capoed, what, 9? (so G would sound in E), but that's very unlikely. Maybe it was C and D, capo 5. There's a prominent sus4 chord, which is B4 when the key is E, which seems unlikely to work, too. I thought I'd eventually find a "natural" place to play it, but I'm not convinced I have.

Anyway, it's a favorite of mine (even if this isn't the "right" way to play it). I was surprised (and pleased) to find that it was playable at all, and didn't sound terrible without the pervasive vocal harmonies. I guess I'll aim at capo 3, unless I end up straining "in situ". I can never tell at home, except just by the actual pitches involved, which seem attainable. It definitely had that "jingle jangle" Byrds-like guitar sound -- maybe Warren's guitar can sound like that, given proper knob-tweaking.

It's good because I need more fast(er) songs. I guess my problem with them comes from various sources. One is that I'm lame at strumming, which comes from a combination of my not doing it much ('cuz I'm lame at it, 'cuz I don't do it much...), and that my guitar doesn't really strum well. Turns out when I use my old only-6-strings-on-it 12-string, I strum pretty OK. Not sure what the difference is -- the string spacing would seem to be part of it, but it can't be that much different. I've considered hauling it in to the coffee shops, for just the strummers, but can't bear the thought of the hassle -- both of bringing it in, and changing guitars back and forth all night.

The other problem is that I feel like most rock songs, even simple pop-rock, really require a bass and drums, and I feel like a Guy-Who-Doesn't-Know-Any-Better when I play 'em anyway (sans bass and drums). The softer, slower stuff (e.g., James Taylor) features far less prominent bass and drums, and I feel like my rendition is closer to what they "ought" to sound like. (An exception is "I Saw Her Standing There", but I'm doing that "as" a blues tune (with, in fact, a far blues-ier bass line than the original), and pretending that it's no longer a "rock" song.

"You Were On My Mind", though, and a few more, are fast, without relying on the bass and drummer to drive it. So it sounds just fine to me, played by me.

Del Lago -- booked!

I got us a second booking at "Café Vista Del Lago" on the Mission Viejo lake! We played once before, and the owner agreed in principle to book us again, but hadn't given a date. I tried to coax one out of him by email, but that wasn't working, so I dropped by in person. A band called "Roland and Etienne" were playing to a packed house (about 35 people). I asked Jose (the owner) how many he thought were "fan club" and how many were "come by to hear (whatever) music", and he thought the former were only 7.

Later, I was talking to his wife, Lorelei, outside, and she said "We gotta get you guys back in here.", and I said I had e-mailed Jose but hadn't gotten any reply. She apologized for him, and asked my to just call her on Sunday, and she'd make him write us in -- which I did, and they did: April 10, 7-10pm.

Anyway, Lorelei didn't mention money, nor did I. We'll see how that goes, again. Presumably, they'll assume we cost the same as last time. It's hard for me to imagine that "Roland and Etienne" do this for $40. Alex, maybe, assuming he doesn't pay the "accessory" boys. If, in fact, the place fills on Saturdays (already) without the band's needing (much of) a fan club, we may have the advantage of being their most cost effective Saturday solution. I guess the question would be, even if we were free, and the place fills of its own accord, would they want us every, or every other, Saturday, or will they want to keep a "variety" thing going (since they have access to at least 4 other bands), just to keep it from going stale. I don't know how to call that one -- I don't even know what I'd do if I owned the place.

But, I think I've figured out what's going on -- there's a big Retirement apartment/condo beehive across the street. It's pretty upscale, on account of being on the lake. I think Jose's managed to coax a bunch of those people into the place -- the "non-fan club" people in there were pretty well along. This is a huge upside for us, based on The List. In fact, a white-haired lady that saw us the first time was there, again, and I talked to her for a while with Lorelei. She remembered us. If Jose's managed to turn his place into a viable social gathering place for the retirement complex, it's gonna really work for him -- and us.

I'll work up an e-mail for all the usual suspects, relatives and friends, urging them to come out and make a big showing. I'm a little afraid of that backfiring -- if they all come the first time, we'll not get anyone out the (presumed) second time. But, considering how hard it is to drag folks out, I guess I'll risk it, just to get some people there at all.

Lorelei agreed with my idea of putting some song lists out as advertisements. Both she and Jose had instantly gotten interested in having us the first time, solely by reading the list, so I suggested that it might help them to hype us to day-time customers. I guess I'll do a custom version with their shop logo on top, and make it more flyer-like, date, time, location, pictures, *and* the list. I had thought that she'd want them the week running up to the gig, but she said to bring 'em in as soon as possible, so I'd better get on it.

Songs To Play At Del Lago

My impression is that the crowd at Del Lago are mostly adults, but it's not Leisure World. The complex across the street are just apartments (or condos), not "assisted living", or a nursing home. Some people are there with their school-age kids, but I think most are 50-something -- adult, with grown-up kids so they don't have to stay at home every night anymore.

When I saw Roland and Etienne lately, they were doing a lot more pop stuff (versus the All Torch Song set I'd heard before). The ones I remember are "Twist and Shout", "I've Just Seen a Face" (!), and a cheesy "You've Got a Friend / Somebody To Lean On" medley. Etienne introduced a very large Latino woman who sang a Mexican love (?) song along with Roland on classical guitar, and then a quite passable "Crazy" with Roland back on "honky-tonk" piano. (I'm beginning to think that Roland is a Really Good piano player, and very versatile. Etienne, on the other hand, is way too cheesy for me -- she thinks she's on Broadway, and it's a little much.)

I think the clientele is up for the middle-years songs we have going -- Beatles and James. Even my mom, at 70, is a big James Taylor fan -- she's not looking to hear "Someone To Watch Over Me" all the time. I didn't really learn those songs to have some age-matched songs for people of that bracket -- I learned 'em like Willie and Linda Ronstadt did, 'cuz they're classics, and fun to re-interpret. I would never learn 'em on cheesy jazz piano and try to do/be (no pun intended) Sinatra with 'em. (And, yes, I know that if I'm not *in* the cheese, I can reach out and touch it with "Crying", and some others, but sometimes you just gotta push that edge.)

Anyway, I think it'll be a lot easier to pass our late-60s-to-70s-heavy song list off on 50-somethings than on the 20-somethings we'd be getting at Diedrich.

"Somewhere"

I've always been impressed by Tom Waits' heart-rending version of "Somewhere" from "West Side Story". It's an amazing thing, but it's all lush orchestra chords -- impossible to decipher. But, I found a MIDI file, and analyzed the bass line, and worked out the chords -- not too hard after all. Amazing writing: there's at least one of every "letter" in there; D, E, F, F#m, G, A, Bb, Bm, and C. It's in D, I guess. Not sure I'll try to do it in public, but it's nice to have finally cracked it.

Tully's solo - 06Mar04

Interesting weekend...

I played at Tully's, solo, 'cuz Warren was busy. It went moderately well. When I got there, there were 4 kids playing cards, sans paid-for drinks, in the "area". I stalled a while, since there was (nearly) no one else in there, but finally Barista Brian asked them to move, which they did. I set up and played some guitar, and they decided to adjourn to somebody's house. I played a few new songs, for practice, to the now-empty shop. Finally, another set of kids came in (5). They were friendly, and apparently into music themselves, and asked for some tunes. An exotic-looking girl asked if I knew "Wicked Game", and professed to know it herself. I said, "Come on up then", which bluff she called! Guitar, mic and all, she launched into it, not too badly. Her friends put money in *my* jar, although I was telling them their mistake there.

Anyway, I got back up and did a few more for 'em. Apparently they had something else to get to (movie?) and left at 8:40. I practiced a little more, and packed up.

Went past "It's a Grind" to see if they were open later than Tully's, and they were. Or at least, still were -- I didn't find an hours sign, but there were 4 couples in there (more than I'd seen at Tully's all night). And not all, or even predominantly Asian. But, it's just too small to play in. Next-next door is a Tea place that was also nearly full, and 8 or 10 people out on the canvas-roofed patio, owing to the nice weather. Might turn into a possible summer place to play.

From there, I went to Del Lago, about 9:30. It was nearly packed! Alex was playing, with a bass player, bongo-guy, and flutist. There were at least 20 people there, and 8 or 10 more outside with over-active children. Jose was thrilled to see me (!), professing to having wanted to call me, but lost my number. Apparently his wife, Lorelei, had just been asking after us a day or two before. I, amazed at the turnout (which did *not* seem to be entirely Alex's fan club), told 'em that we're hip to play there whenever they're open. Jose said he'd check the calendar and give me a call -- I left a card with my numbers on the back.

I listened to Alex for a while. He's OK, and likable, but (to me anyway) the stuff is kinda generic. Strumming and mostly unintelligible singing. I was struck/annoyed that he somehow fills places, and I don't. I'm apparently charisma-impaired. There's an Event Calendar posted, and Jose's got the place booked nearly every Saturday: Alex, Roland and Etienne, Mark Madison, Linda Barbarino (the lady I saw at Moxie Java). I was suddenly *very* frustrated -- I think we're at least as good as any of these, and better than some, but we're consigned to accepting 6 to 10 people in a night and thinking we did pretty good.

I can only surmise that the "play songs people know" strategy is flawed. No one seems to be taking this tack, and everyone is doing better than we are -- including getting call-backs from Diedrich. I'm not sure what to do -- giving it up is one option. Another would be to learn a bunch of obscure songs, based on, apparently, no criteria at all. Best would be to get a night at Del Lago and fill the place. I know how to do the first half of that...