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

Hi all,

Things were humming this week a lot of great performers were showing up early; it looked like it was going to be another memorable evening. Jerry Pena was back from Kuwait for a short period due to a back injury, so he dropped by to play for us.

Saturday was approaching, with the Sam Hinton Folk Festival, and Greg Campbell, Patty Hall and Allen Singer dropped in to tune their pipes for the big show.           

With more performers than time slots, we had to do some juggling; a couple people paired up and Greg started early and managed to fit everyone in.           

It was an all-star night, one that made you wish the Reader’s writer had chosen this evening to revue.  We are blessed with some amazing performers and a truly enthusiastic audience.  Nita Homan showed up with her 10 year-old grandson, Blair, who first attended our open mic in his stroller as a newborn.

6:25 Greg Gross: Jumped right in with Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”; John Prine’s “Muhlenberg County”; and Jay Unger’s “Ashokan Farewell”.

6:35 Gary McCullah has been attending the open mic as an audience member for quite a long time and played once before, so it was good to see him get up on the stage to do a set for us.  He borrowed Greg’s guitar and played The Modern Folk Quartet’s “Sassafras Tea”; Elvis’ “In the Ghetto”; and an original, “Dandelion”.

6:45: Patty Hall with Greg Campbell:  Patty’s banjo brought us a hillbilly vibe with Flatt & Scruggs’ “Don’t Let the Deal Go Down”; “The Johnson Boys” or “Hop Up Pretty Gal” (Covered by Jerry Garcia with the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers); and a medley of “The Coo Coo” and “Fare Thee Well Blues”, and Hank Snow’s “Texas Plains.”

7:00 Dan Strum: Enjoyed himself so much last week that he was back again, clearly a convert. The Waco Texas native gave us his arrangement of John Denver’s “Country Roads”;  Billy Joe Shafer’s (another Waco Native) “Fast Train to Georgia”; Steve Earle’s “My Old Friend the Blues”; and Marshall Tucker’s “Ab’s Song”.

7:15 Conner Brown:  Was also back for a second time, he did The Beatles’ “I’m Looking Through You”; a Beatlesque original, “Please Don’t Walk Away”; another self-described “Folkie-type original”, “Everything and Every Day?”; followed by Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice”, a song that seems to adapt well to different personalities’ interpretations.

7:30 Big Al and Jerry Pena: Always a crowd favorite, the due was back together at last, Al adding spot-on harmonies to Jerry’s terrific voice.  They did Kenny Rogers’ “Buy Me a Rose”; Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page”; Mark Wills’ “Don’t Laugh at Me”

7:45 Allen Singer with Dane Terry on harmonica: In Allen’s unique bluesy style, he did Norman Blake “Church Street Blues”; Bob Dylan’s “Corrina, Corrina”; Arlo Guthrie’s arrangement of “Stealing”; and Bob Dylan’s “Highway 51 Blues”.  If you’ve never heard Dane on the harmonica, you’ve missed a treat.

8:00 Gregory Martin (Campbell):  Greg is having an identity crisis, it’s been bad enough that he gets called Glen Campbell, this week he heard a Craig Campbell sing the Stars Spangled Banner at a NASCA race. He treated us to a set of: Tom Petty’s “You Alone”; Monk & Naegle’s “Dancing with the Angels”; with Dane Terry, and Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby”.

8:15 Bob Cool, Bob Arsenault, Tom Barbarie, Gregory Gross & John Movius: Our resident Bluegrassers, did Louise Certain’s “My Blue Ridge Mountain Home”; Bill Monroe’s “Little Cabin Home on the Hill”; and Buck Owens’ “Ashes of Love”.  Their brand of bluegrass is the real deal.

8:30 Pamela Reinagel & Dan Strum: Pam started her set a’ cappella with “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”; Dan added guitar to her version of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery”; June Carter Cash’s “Ring of Fire”; and finished with a’cappella versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on a Wire”; and Mississippi John Hurt’s “Louis Collins”.

8:45  Thein Phung: Was visiting from Memphis Tennessee and wanted to check out the San Diego music scene. He couldn’t have picked a better night and was loving it.  His Memphis set consisted of Donovan’s “I’ll Sing for You”; Feist’s “1-2-3-4”; and Andrew Bird’s “Tables and Chairs”.

9:00 Ian Douglas: Has been on tour and unable to join us—it was good to have him back.  He brought us some current material with Patrick Stone’s “Spotlight, New Regrets”; the original “Things That I Won’t Mention” with some intricate picking; and Bayside’ “Winter”.

9:15 Jerry Pena: Was a great way to close the show, he did Tracy Lawrence’s “Paint Me a Birmingham”; Jamey Johnson’s “In Color”; Rocio Durcal’s “Amor Eterno”; and Neil Diamon’s “Love on the Rocks”.  Jerry had to cut his set short when back pain hit him so hard it brought tears to his eyes.  Say a prayer for him and his back.
It was one of those shows you just want to bottle and take a whiff of now and then just to remember how special our evenings have been.  Come on by and join us for our next show.

God Bless and have a good week,
 
Tim Woods, Greg Gross, and the Wood ‘n’ Lips open mic crew