This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

Photos: Wood n' Lips Open Mic Newsletter

Once a week local musicians of all ages meet in Santee to play music and enjoy the night.

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

Howdy Folks,

This was one of those rare evenings that we had a small turn-out.  Toward the end of the evening it was looking really sparse in the audience department; I counted heads and there were still eighteen people—when we were starting out at the Coffee Cottage we considered that a pretty good crowd.  I guess the size of Frubble makes it look like it’s deserted with that many people.  I did herd back in a few of the folks that were outside practicing for a group set just so the performer on stage wouldn’t feel like everybody had abandoned him.  Everybody appreciates an audience.

Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

6:30 – Wood ‘n’ Lips – Greg, Bari, and I were able to start early, so we got in a few more songs than usual, including: The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “What a Day for a Daydream”; Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”; The Sons of the Pioneers “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”; The Drifters’ “Greenfields”; Dion and the Belmonts’ “Teenager in Love”; and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s “Cover of the Rolling Stone”.

6:45 – Cliff Niman – Cliff started his set with Ian Tyson’s “Four Strong Winds”; then did Steve Gillette’s “Darcy Farrow”; and Joan Baez’s “Fennario”.

Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

7:00 – Brittany Litchfield – This was Brittany’s first open mic experience, and she wrote most of the tunes she played for us; “The Happiest Place on Earth”; “I Can’t Come Home”; “Society”; and Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”.  She did an exceptional job on the guitar work for Tears in Heaven—I tried that a few years back and just couldn’t master it.

7:15 – Gregory Gross – Greg did Don McLean’s “Castles in the Air”; Jim Stafford’s “I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes”; Fred Kohler’s “God’s Gift to Women”; and Weird Al Yankovic’s “The Saga Begins” (somehow appropriate, considering that Comic-Con starts this week.).

7:30 – John Movius – John was in his electric guitar mode and treated us to Buddy Holly’s “Everyday”; Ricky Nelson’s “Garden Party”; The Venturers’ “Perfidia”; and the Tornado’s “Telstar”.

7:45 – Alan Land – Alan’s a real pro-performer and a fine songwriter, too; he played a tune of his own, “Really Not Over You”;  Harry Nilsson’s (written by Fred Neal) “Everybody’s Talkin’”; and a couple more of his own songs, “Johnny, Doncha Know”, and “I’d Rather Be Alone With You”.

8:00 – Les, Alton & Ray – The cowboys gave us a set of George Jones’ “Walk Through this World with Me”; Faron Young’s “Wine Me Up”; John Sneider’s “I’ve Been Around Enough to Know”; Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light”; Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”; Diamond Rio’s “Mirror, Mirror”; Merle Haggard’s “It’s Not Love, But It’s not Bad”; and Confederate Railroad’s “Trashy Women”.  I still have a hard time relating to John Schneider as a country singer—I think the Dukes of Hazard tainted his image a bit; he really is a talented artist.

8:30 – Bob Setzer – Bob was ready to rock—he did Status Quo’s “Caroline”; his own “Shut the Whole World Out”; Simon and Garfunkle’s “Richard Cory”; a couple of more of his own, “Dreaming of You”, and “Oh, Love”.

8:50 – Bob Arsenault, Bob Cool, Bob Setzer, & Greg Gross – The Bob’s started their set with “Bile them Cabbage Down”; Hank Williams’ “Howling at the Moon”; Bob Cool’s “San Diego Breakdown”; “Will the Circle be Unbroken”; “Off to California”; “That Old Mountain Dew”; “That Was Before I Met You”; “Up Jumped the Devil” (at this point John Movius joined them, or jumped up?); Alton was drumming from the floor, this was turning into a proper jam. They ended on “Red Haired Boy” and “November Rain”.  John Movius joined them for the last couple of songs.

9:20  – Greg Gross– Greg closed out our evening with Steve Goodman’s “The City of New Orleans”; and “Pair of Geese”.

Be sure to drop on by and see us soon; it’s always good to see our old friends and we can use the warm bodies to make us feel better.  Be of good cheer, God bless, and see you next week.

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

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?