Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
so if bush takes FLA couldn't we just let him be president of Florida and
let Gore govern the majority of the country that voted to elect him?
  

    
President of Florida? That would be punishing him, wouldn't it?  And
make it a Two-Bush state, to boot.

Question for either Alan, or both: If we put aside the satire for a
moment, do you have other ambitions musically?  Have you played in
bands in other genres, and how did you like that?  What would be your
ideal musical gig?

Oh, and kafclown's question is still out there - how about local
topics, for local audiences?
  

    
Oh yeah, sorry. We do a percentage of local material but it's mostly stuff
that would work in other places and does when we explain that we're singing
about our local Rapid Transit problems or trying to keep the Chattahoochee
River clean.  I think that the trick here is not to refer to local folks
that are not well known nationally. We have a pro Jimmy Carter song and an
anti John Rocker song for example.

As far as other music goes, it is my second language. I've been playing
music in public for about 30 years but that has been mostly on people's
living room floors and in musical theater.

I learned to play guitar to trick people into listening to me sing the songs
that I wanted them to hear.

I've often thought of working with a large men's vocal group, and not just
because I'm a large man myself but because of my love of that sound. I
though about starting the Atlanta Straight Men's Choir but none of those
jerks could sing!
  

    
I've been out of pocket all day with a lot of catching up to do. 
Thanks for holding down the fort, Alan T.  Let me take the questions in
reverse order (let's just call it the Palm Beach process).

I took classical voice lessons for a number of years while I was in
Washington, DC, but stopped when they couldn't find a voice
classification for me.  Seriously, doing Southern Discomfort is really
my ideal gig.  I get to write material (some of which makes people
laugh), I get to sing some of it, but mostly I get to have some
terrific performers present it.  So we make music with original
material and get laughs.  For me, it doesn't get any better than that
(except when we get paid for doing it).

Dear Rosamond, hope you've found a laugh or two in our dialogue here.
If that doesn't work, wait until they hold another vote in Florida.

Hi Kafclown, thanks for your questions.  As to material, to be honest,
I try to never listen to the Capitol Steps.  Not that they're not
funny, but I don't want to be unduly influenced.  If we do come up with
similar ideas, I'd like it to be pure coincidence.  Besides, I try not
to let the tail wag the dog.  I just try to come up with original song
ideas and see how they work out in performance.  If we have a song
similar to someone else, so be it.  However, my experience has been
that my personal thinking is just quirky enough to enable me to avoid
duplicating someone else.  Of course, I try to stay away from the real
obvious stuff.  But as far as I've been able to tell, our material is
pretty unique.
  

    
PS-As to subjects, I try to stick to fairly broad material so we can
appeal to national audiences.  And even when we do local stuff, we try
to couch it in a way that will enable non-Atlantans and non-Georgians
to somehow relate to it.  Alan T. made a good point about this. 
Thanks!
  

    

Mike and I went to Savannah this year - do you have any Savannah songs?
  

    
hmmmmmmm, we've played Savannah, during a flood in fact.
we've used Johnny Mercer tunes.
that is about as close as in can get, linda.
Note that the stuff from Jim Williams' home is being auctioned off this
week.
  

    

No kidding!  Anything online we can look at?
  

    
hmmmm don't know if you mean mercer tunes or williams' stuff:
when in doubt:

We wrote a Hillary song to the tune of Moon River that went something like:

White Water
How it makes me smile
I've been vacuuming files all day
Now Web Hubble's
In big Trouble
And he could get lifey
if wifey has her say...

something like that. all ancient history now of course.

There are tons of Mercer lyrics by the way at:
http://lemonadelounge.com/jmtunes.html

seems the auction was last month but here is a link to the story from the
Savannah Morning News:
http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/070700/LOCmercer.shtml
it notes that the Mercer house was for sale at the time of the article, too.
  

    

Not to drift tooooooooo much, but the Mercer house was for sale when we
were there in May, with rumors flying thickly that John Cougar Mellankamp
had bought it.  I later saw confirmation of this in the San Francisco
Chronicle.  So maybe it fell through.

Anyway, thanks for the Johnny Mercer-ized lyrics!
  

    
I know from performing (acting, in my case) that there are those
wonderful nights where everything comes together - exhilarating,
fulfilling, wonderful.  Then there are those nightmare shows where
saying "Hi, my name is ....." is way too much of a challenge.  Any road
stories to share?
  

    
Angie, of course there are plenty of ups and downs in this sort of
endeavor, and you can't always tell which is going to be which until
you actually get under way.  And while I'd like to think that most of
our shows are well done and enjoyed by the audience, sometimes there
are extraneous circumstances beyond our control.  For instance, we
recently did a coporate gig where they asked for a good 45 minutes
worth of material and were paying us pretty well.  Well, they had an
awards segment of their evening's festivities (after which we were to
go on) that was supposed to last 10 minutes but went on for 45.  We
went on at about 9:35 and they came back stage and told me we had to be
done by 10 because someone was coming to dismantle our stage.  So on
the fly I had to do a wholesale cutting of songs to fit the time
requirements.  Our performance that evening was o.k. under the
circumstances, but our goal for the evening became as much about
getting done on tiem as it was about doing our best performance and
entertaining our audience.  That, as they say, is show biz.
  

    
how far do you travel to do corp gigs?  Is it mainly in Atlanta?  Woudl you
care to discuss your fees, not for me, but incase anyone is listening that
might be intersted in hiring y'all?
  

    
Dave, thanks for the inquiry.  We will travel as far to corporate gigs
as clients are willing to transport us.  I belive our material and our
show could play most anywhere in the country.  Our fee for an out of
town gig is $4,000 plus expenses (in this case, expenses means travel
and lodging.  We generally handle our own food.)  Our cast size can run
anywhere from about 7 to 9 people plus our piano player.  Our
performing needs are pretty minimal....an in-tune piano, a sound system
with 3 or 4 microphones on stands, a stage or riser where we can be
seen and just basic lighting.  We don't use any special effects in
terms of lighting.  Hope that helps.  Thanks for the interest.
  

    
Speaking of the cast of characters - how about a brief introduction to
each? What instruments do they play? What do they each bring to the
group?  How many people have spent at least some time with SD since its
inception?
  

    
Angie,since our inception, we've had about 27 different people who, at
one time or another,  have been in an SD show.  Current cast:

Alan Thornton, our director, plays the only musical instrument other
than a piano that is in our show.  He plays guitar, and a mean one at
that.  He is also our key impersonator (Bob Dylan, Satchmo Armstrong)
and a very funny guy.  Outstanding director.

Terri Thornton, Alan's wife, has a lovely soprano voice and terrific
stage presence.  She's also very creative and has written some great
songs for us.

Frank Steele, our accompanist, is a longtime choral director and voice
and piano teacher.  Very talented and great to work with. Understands
and is effective at teaching the principles behind good sound
production.

Leslie Truman, that rare combination of being extremely funny (creates
great characters) and possessing a tremendous voice that can be both
beautiful and bombastic.

Nancy Riggs is a fulltime Thespian, a very good singer and actor with
terrific stage presence who adds a lot to our show.

Michelle Schroeder was meant for musical comedy.  Fine singing voice,
very funny personality who's an excellent communicator on stage.

Jay Rollins (a real life attorney) is a fine singer who can also act
and does an excellent job with the different roles and characters we
assign to him.

Randy Roberson is a valuable member of our group in that he not only
sings and performs quite well (he does the George Bush song on our
latest CD), he is an extremely talented pianist who fills in when
Frank's unavailable.  His keen understanding of music is also a big
help in us putting together some of our song creations.

Jeffrey Bigger is one funny guy.  Very outgoing and uninhibited, he
sings well and can easily command the stage all by himself.

These are all terrific people to work with, dedicated to their craft
and to the overall team effort.  SD is fortunate to have them.
  

    
I'd like to add to the above the Alan Friedman not only writes very
funny material but is one heck of a performer himself.

...and that a direct box for the guitar is a lovely addition to the
requirements above.

...no blue m&ms etc. etc.

We're particularly interested in finding SF and NY gigs if anyone has
a space to fill.
  

    
Have your singers and impressionists and all been brimming with ideas about
the current vote paralysis?  Are folks partisan offstage, even if you have a
mixture of commentary about both major parties?
  

    
Gail, actually we don't get into too many political discussions
(probably because we're all of a similar political persuasion and
because we spend most rehearsal time working on our songs).  As long as
the material is funny and audiences enjoy our show and we're not
one-sided, everyone in the group seems pretty happy with what we're
doing.  I find if we take the political stuff too seriously, then it
becomes hard to come up with material that's funny.
  

    
We haven't met since the voting business started. Rehersal in a few
hours, though. Normally someone will say something like the
conversation that is going on in the 'help Southern Discomfort write a
song' topic and we might riff on it for a minute and decide who is
going to see what they can do with it. That is about as close to a
collaboration as we get at rehersal. Normally we email things back and
forth for a little tweeking.

The court and the massive gridlock that are coming for either person
and the congress seem ripe for discussion to me. 

I should mention that a few of our cast members sing in the Church
choir where Frank Steele directs and in other choirs around town. I've
heard them in church, though and they are nowhere near as funny.
  

    
Wow, Alan, if it wouldn't violate any confidentiality, it would be fun
to hear how the meeting progresses tonite.  What ideas are tossed out,
which survive and why, spontaneous lines that we could be the first to
hear. Keep us posted!
  

    
Well, it turns out that there are some songs in the works. Hope to be able
to let you know how they are coming pretty soon. The rehersal tonight was
for the Coca Cola Company project and there was a client rep sitting in so w
e pretty much concentrated on the last few songs for them. Back to the
studio on the 27th to finish that up.

Meanwhile, the NPR Weekend Radio show that features us had been archived at
the home station in Cleveland. Available on the web as either MP3 or
streaming audio at:

http://www.wclv.com/archive/archive-wrc.html

choose program  wrc0045.

Our segment starts about 13 minutes into the program.
Thanks to Robert Conrad and WCLV!
  

    
It's interesting to watch as the public tolerance for the Florida
Follies drops into resentment and anger - not necessarily at the wait
itself, but at the way it's being handled by the participants and the
media.

I find myself wondering whether that's something SD has to watch for -
the topic that's oh-so-amusing at first, that is in danger of
transforming itself into something no one is willing to laugh at much.
Any experience along that line?

The reverse could present an interesting situation as well - while
it's going on, there's nothing amusing about a serial killer or natural
disaster, but with time and distance humor reasserts itself. I
remember when I was a kid, John Wayne Gacy jokes were a cool way to
assert that you could be tasteless and tough, even while the country
watched the bodies being dug up.  But now, a punchline around, say,
Jack the Ripper wouldn't raise too many hackles. Any thoughts?  Any
times you've had to debate those fine lines yourself?
  

    
very good point. it is something we deal with all the time.

the local NPR station lead this morning's newscast with the teaser that
their report would be 'election coverage free'.

reminds me of the disco era when radio stations would feature beegee-less
weekends.

that is one reason that we like to go into the studio and record songs to
upload to the website right away. the lag time for producing a cd is too
long for many of our songs.
  

    
Interesting on the upload for current events...  These downloads are all
free and they allow you to get your mname out.  Any comments on your group
and the napster fiasco's....  or should we take that to another topic in
this conference already opened up for that purpose.