Open Mic Newsletter: For the Love of Mic

Stop by the Wood ‘n’ Lips Open Mic at Frubble every Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Hey,

It was another dynamic week at “," Frubble. Newcomers were aplenty, and that’s always good.

Recently I’ve had occasion to attend other open mics in the area; none of them have fifteen-minute time slots—most allow only two songs.  That’s part of what makes our open mic so special; you really get a chance to get into your groove and share your music. With that in mind; please, please, if you have two minutes left in your set, don’t start another song unless you’re positive that you can introduce it and finish it in those two minutes.  If you go over your time slot, you’re stepping on the next performer’s toes; if enough people give up a minute or two at the end of their sets, we may even be able to fit in another performer that arrived too late to get onto the list.  Another very important thing I’d like to point out; have your instrument tuned and out of the case when your turn arrives—you could play another song in the time it takes to uncase and tune your guitar.

6:30 – Gregory Gross & Tim Woods – As two-thirds of Wood ‘n’ Lips, Greg and I did our tried and true tunes, The Statler Brother’s “Countin’ Flowers on the Wall”; John Denver’s “Country Roads”; Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”; Joanie Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”; and The Chad Mitchell Trio’s “Lizzie Borden”.

6:45 – Bob Cool – Bob treated us to the Ghost Rider’s parody, “Ghost Chicken’s in the Sky”; “Just Trying to Have Me Some Fun”; Bob’s song about his eye malady, “The Blephartis Melbomian Blues”; Louis Armstrong’s “The Sunny Side of the Street”; and Don Williams’ “Falling in Love”.

7:00 – Allison Whitlow – A first-timer to our open mic, Allison brought a backing-track CD with her tunes to sing along with; Miley Cyrus’s “Stay”; and Bobby Day’s “Rockin’ Robin”.

7:15 – Curtis Hodson – Curtis gave us the classic tune, “The House of the Rising Sun”; Elvis Presley’s “Fame and Fortune”; Del Shannon’s “Runaway”; and Elvis’s “I’ll Never Know”.  Curtis loves those old Elvis tunes, and he does a good job on them.

7:30 – Rick Kaylor & Roger Taylor – More newcomers—the guys played Bill Monroe’s “All the Good Times are Past and Gone”; Doyle Lawson’s “Girl From West Virginia”; The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood”; The Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”; and Lefty Frizzel’s “Long Black Veil”.

7:45 – Les, Alton & Ray with Bob Setzer  – Les led the guys off with Larry Stewart’s “Alright Already”; Alton took the next lead with George Jones “Accidentally on Purpose”; then Ray gave us Tom Waits’ “Invitation to the Blues”; Les’s second round tune was Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary”; and they finished with a quick rendition of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”—they finished in their allotted fifteen minutes, exactly, these guys are pros and as nice as they come.

8:00 – Mitch Wilson – Mitch brought us some finger-style tunes; he decided to add to the evening’s Beatles’ recital with “Eleanor Rigby”; followed by his own “Mr. Escher”; “Planted by a Stream”; “This is the Place”; and a medley of “Amazing Grace”, “Lord of the Dance”, and “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

8:15 – Bobby Arms – This was also Bobby’s premier open mic; he started and finished with a Neil Young tune, “Old Laughing Lady”; I guess he felt that was enough for his first time.  Actually he did an exemplary job, especially for a first time.

8:20 – John Movius – John did a solo set of  Elvis Presley’s “I Forgot to Remember to Forget Her”; Elvis’ “Mystery Train”; Carl Perkins’ “Matchbox”; and Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date”.

8:35 – Farrie Ann Nichols – Farrie Ann dedicated her first tune to her daddy, Holly Dunn’s “Daddy’s Hands”; then she did Kay Starr’s “The Rock and Roll Waltz”; and Walter Brennan’s “Life Gets Tedious, Don’t It?”.

8:50 – Bob Wilson – Bob’s first tune was from 1927, “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?”; he followed that classic with “Fatima”; and “Crazy Words, Crazy Tune”.

9:05 Tall Paul – Paul’s set consisted of Paul Todd’s (a friend of his), “No Thanks”; “Careless Love” (Bill Monroe?); Paul Siebel’s “Louise”; and Larry Marks’ and Dick Charles’ “May You Always”.

Due to a couple of people having short sets, we managed to squeeze another performer onto the end of the evening.

9:20 Bob Arsenault with Bob Setzer – The two Bobs did “That Old Mountain Dew”; “Will the Circle be Unbroken”.

My goodness—five Bob’s in one evening—just like that red-red robin, we’re Bob, Bob, Bobbing along.

We all love to share our music and it’s so hard to find good venues willing to accommodate us; please make an effort to support those venues whenever you can.  Show them that you appreciate it.  Be of good cheer, God bless, and see you next week.

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

Photos by Greg Gross, Bob Setzer, and Pamela Reinagel