For the Love of Mic: Wood 'n' Lips Newsletter

People began arriving at five-o’clock, including some faces we hadn’t seen for a while, so I had a feeling it was going to be a good evening- and boy, was it!

6:30 Walt Lipski, & Big Al (Vocals & Guitars), Joann Mercer (Bass), and Joe Flores (Lead Guitar): Have been practicing some material as a new group and tonight was their premier presentation. They led off with Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”; The Animal’s “House of the Rising Sun”; Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”; The Eagles’ “Tequila Sunrise”; and Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.

6:45 Conner Brown: Checked out our open mic last week and returned this week  to perform for us; he kept the Dylan vibe going with “Don’t Think Twice”; he had some originals, including “Four Little Words”; “Love, Please Strike Again”; and “Into the Summer Sun”.

7:00 Greg Gross: Stared his set a’cappella with Eric Bogle’s “The Sound of Singing”; added guitar for Kenny Loggins’ “Danny’s Song”; The Doobie Brothers’ “South City Midnight Lady”; and Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans”, (written by Steve Goodman).

7:15 Doreen Harlow:  Enjoyed having the audience join in last week so she brought some John Denver songs to encourage that concept: “Some Days are Diamonds”; “Back Home Again”; Lynda joined her on her last tune, Gene Autry & Smiley Burnett’s “Riding Down the Canyon”.

7:30  Novel Concept (Brian Reames & Megan Fisher): Hadn’t been by for quite a while, so it was good to see them; they had a supply of their latest CDs with them and gave us a sampling with their originals: “Clumsy”; “Capricorn”; and “Lullaby”. The duo finished with Iron & Wine’s version of Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights”.

7:45 Jeanette Anderson & Yvette Hopper: The sisters lit up the evening with “ Faron Young’s “Wind Me Up”; Marty Robbins’ “Two Gun Daddy”; Hank Snow’s Convict and the Rose”; Waylon Jennings; “Low Down Ways”; Kenny Munns’ “Shame”; and Porter Wagoner’s  “Another Day Another Dollar”.

8:00 Pete Erlandsen:  Writes his own songs, this week he did; “Sara Gean”; “Down the Lazy River”; “Time is a Woman”; and “I Wanna Be”.  Is there anything more fun than siblings performing together?

815  Gregory Martin Campbell fresh from last week’s Roots Festival treated us to Patsy Cline’s “Heart Aches”; he had a new tune he just written, a very unique number called “Guitar and Microphone” (you had to be there to appreciate it); Bob Bennet’s “Kings of Summer Street”; Big Al and Mike Shuemaker joined him for the Eagles’ “Train Leaves Here This Morning”.

8:30 Lynda Sterns : Is trying to develop a solo set and this night chose to play  “Simple Man”; James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James”; Green Day’s “Good Riddance”; and Neil Young’s “One of These Days”.  Nicely done, I might add.

8:45   Bob Arsenault & Bob Cool: May not hail from the Blue Ridge Mountains, but you wouldn’t know it from their music; with some help from Greg Gross on bass, they did “I Saw the Light”; “Arizona Waltz”; “Mountain Dew”; and “Big Eyed Rabbit’s Gone”.

9:00   Pamela Reinagel with Tim Woods: Did a set of “One Tin Soldier” (Jinx Dawson & Coven from the movie Billy Jack); John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind”, made famous by Glen Campbell; and Gordon Lightfoot’s “In the Early Morning Rain”.  It was our first time working together,.

9:15   Greg Campbell: With one performer dropping out, Greg agreed to close out the evening for us: he did his version of Victor Borge’s Inflationary Language, called “Two-derful Three-Night” (Wonderful Tonight, plus one); Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki”; “Lovers Love the Spring”, words by William Shakespeare, music by Don Mclean; and Glen Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo Choo”. It was a fine cap to a great night of entertainment.

And he said “Let there be music”…and it was good.  You should have been there; we had a great time.

God Bless and have a good week.

Tim Woods, Greg Gross, and the Wood ‘n’ Lips open mic crew