For the Love of Mic: Tim's Big Heart

Hi Everybody,

This newsletter is a bit late; I usually send them out Wednesday before the next open mic.  Last Wednesday I found myself unexpectedly in the hospital having a couple of stents put into my heart; all went extremely well and I’m already springing back. 

It seems that I’ve joined the large club of open mic-ers that have had that procedure (I prefer clubs that just ask for dues and issue a membership card).

So here is that newsletter, better late than never, (in more ways than one).  I should have Greg’s report on this last week’s open mic for next Wednesday.

Christmas was behind us and, with New Years in our crosshairs, we were ready to play some more music.

6:30 Tim Woods:  I was the opening act for the evening. My first tune was one that Robert Mitchum recorded for the 1958 movie of the same name, “The Ballad of Thunder Road”; I followed that with Miranda Lambert’s “House that Built Me”; John Lennon’s “Imagine”; and Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Puff the Magic Dragon”.

6:45 Rebekah Williams: Brought us a song Elvis had a hit with, “Can’t Help Falling in Love”; The Rolling Stones’ “Angie”; and The Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody”.

7:00 John Movius:  John had Greg Gross give him a little guitar backing on his tunes, which included Richie Valens’ “Donna”; Del Shannon’s “Runaway”; The Chantay’s “Crystal T”; Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Green River”; and The Venturers’ “Perfidia”.

7:15 Les Armstrong & Ray Poe: With Alton out on sick leave and Ray playing a 6 string, the remaining duo did Stonewall Jackson’s “Wash My Hands in Dirty Water”; John Schneider’s “I Gonna Leave You Tomorrow”; Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues”; and John Anderson’s “Swinging”.

7:30 Bob & Sharon Cool with Bob Arsenault: They started off with a dedication to Lee Schweighauser, a traditional bluegrass tune called “Mother’s Bible”; Sharon and Bob A. then stepped down so Bob Cool could play solo versions of Nat King Cole’s “Misty”; Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”; and The Kingston Trio’s “One More Town”.

7:45 Jesse Eisenbarth:  Jesse writes several of his own tune’s, of which he did three.  The first for the evening was “My Ghost”; followed by “Big Blue Eyes”; and “Good Morning Sunshine”.

8:00 Tom Barbarie with John Movius, and (of course) Greg Gross :  Tom brought us some more Western tunes including Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings”; Johnny Cash’s “There You Go”; Johnny Cash’s “Give My Love to Rose”; Charley Pride’s “All I Have to Offer You is Me”; and yet another Cash tune, “Big River”—John Movius is really into playing leads for the Cash tunes.

8:15: Greg Gross:  Reprised his old reliable tune, Fred Kohler’s “God’s Gift to Women”; and for John Movius’s birthday, John McCutcheon’s “Birthday Cake”; he finished with Duane Elms’ “Don’t Touch that Button”;

8:30 The Bobs (Cool & Arsenault): It was starting to look like a band scramble with Sharon  Cool, Tom Barbarie, and Greg Gross joining them on stage.  They led off with Bob Arsenault’s favorite, Ken Orrik’s “November Rain”; next was Bob Cool’s original fiddle tune, “San Diego Breakdown”; Tom Barbarie lead the group on “Old Home Place”; and they all finished with Louise Certain’s “My Blueridge Mountain Home”.

8:45 Big Al:  Al put his unique spin on Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe”; The Grateful Dead’s “Brown Eyed Women”; and CCR’s “Someday Never Comes”.

9:00 Rose Scibelli: Rose also employed Greg G. to play along with her on Ernest Tubbs’ “Waltz Across Texas”; then she did Hoyt Axton’s “Lion in the Winter”; and Tom Russel’s “Blue Wing”.  I love the variety of songs each player brings to the open mic.

9:15 Greg Gross:  Greg closed out our evening with “Joy to the World”; then I joined him for “King of the Road”; “Country Roads”; and “Goodnight Irene”.

December was a bit of a light month for the open mic; we are fortunate that we have a nice audience and a core of loyal performers that stick with us.  I would like to thank those stalwarts; we couldn’t do it without you.  I’m looking forward to a strong 2012 and hope to see more of our whole open mic family coming to check out the new venue.  I guaranty that you’re gonna love it.

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

Photos by Greg Gross, Tim Woods