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

Hey,

There was a lot of excitement in the air with the big coming up on Saturday; this week several performers came by to work on their sets for the big day. A re-cap of that terrific day will follow.

We had a full house for the whole evening, and a full slate of performers… it was good.

6:30 Wood ‘n’ Lips:  Squeezed in The Everly Brothers’ “Bye, Bye Love”; Leadbelly’s “Cotton Fields”; The Sons of the Pioneers’ “Cool Water”; Randy Sparks’ “Today”; and Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack”.  They were songs we had worked on for the concert but we didn’t think we’d have time for on that day, (except Hit the Road Jack, that’s a must).

6:45 Bob Setzer:  Was fresh off a recording session of his original about the war in Viet Nam, called, “It All Goes Down”, which he demonstrated for us; then he did Simon & Garfunkle’s “Richard Cory”; and his own “Shut the Whole World Out”.

7:00 Marlene & Rose: Rose has played solo for us a couple of times, but tonight she paired up with Marlene Levitt; they had a really nice set of Peter, Paul & Mary’s “The Cuckoo”; John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery”; Larry Cordel & Larry Shell’s “Black Diamond Strings”; and (due to time constraints) a short version of Marlene’s “Heart Breakin’ Woman”, a very well written song.

7:15 Karen Carrizales:  The precocious nine year old gave us her version of Katie Perry’s “Firework”; Pink’s “So What” (complete with lead picking); Justin Beiber’s “Baby”.  It was one of those cases where your cheeks hurt from smiling when she’s done.  She was sooo cute.  Her guitar teacher, Bari Zwirn, accompanied her to the stage for page turning and moral support.

7:30 Tom Smerk: With some backing from his I-pad, played some hot leads on “Makin’ Whoopie”, a tune recorded by the likes of Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Rod Stewart and Sinatra;  next he did his own tune about growing up in the fifties, “In the Land of Sandra Dee”; he finished with his original instrumental called “Dulzura”.

7:45 Gregory Martin Campbell:  The smooth performer set off with Jerry Wallace’s “Primrose Lane”, seguing into Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea”; he gave us a little rhythm lesson with Ruby and the Romantics’ “Our Day Will Come” (you had to be there), also seguing into “Fools Rush In” (Brenda Lee); and Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “Ferry Across the Mersey”.

8:00 Bob & Bob’s Bluegrass Band: Consisting of Bob Cool, Bob Arsenault, John Movius & Tom Barbarie; the group gave us a rousing set of:  “My Blue Ridge Mountain Home”; “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”; Bill Monroe’s “Bluegrass Stomp”; and Bob Cool’s San Diego Breakdown”.

8:15 Patty Hall:  Was really excited about the upcoming festival, she and Greg Campbell’s sets were going to overlap, so she had Greg join her at a certain point. She chose to do an all Carter Family set, with “Gospel Ship”, “Gold Watch & Chain”; and, with Greg, A.P Carter’s “You’ve Been a Friend to Me”.

8:30 Tom Barbarie (with John Movius): With Tom handling the vocals, the due did Johnny Cash’s “There You Go”, and “The Home of the Blues”; George Jones’ “I’m Ragged But I’m Right”; and, with Bob Cool on fiddle, Ray Price’s “Crazy Arms”, finishing with Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” (I added the train whistle, where appropriate).

8:45 Big Al: Changed the pace with The Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These”; he also liked the idea of a Johnny Cash tune, so he did “Hurt” (a Nine-Inch Nails tune Cash covered); and R.E.M.s “Find The River”.  We can always depend on Al to bring some more contemporary and interesting music to the mix.

9:00 Pete Erlansen:  Is a singer-songwriter, his first tune gave a nod to his grandfather’s pilgrimage to this country from Ireland, called “Shore of America”; followed by “Heart of America”; and “This is What I am”.  It turned into bit of a biographical set.

9:15 Les Armstrong, Ray Poe, and Tom Barbarie:  The boys know their way around Country & Western music; they did Buck Owens’ “Truck Driving Man”; Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away”; Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues”; Hank Williams’ “There’s a Tear in My Beer”; and closed the evening for us with Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Trashy Women”.

For access to the Facebook page on the For Love of Mic Music Festival, click here.

God Bless and have a good week. 

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