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

Hi All,

We had a good turnout to support what will be one of the at the .  By drawing time we had a full slate of talented musicians and a big crowd to hear them.

Our candy man, Jerry celebrated his 75th birthday with us—we wish him many more.

On with the show:

6:20 Greg Gross:  Our host, began the evening with some John Denver, in the form of “Country Roads”; onto Jim Stafford’s “I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes”; Fred Kohler’s “God’s Gift to Women”; and finally, a nicely picked version of David Gates’ “If”.

6:45 Gene Patton: A first timer, Gene started off with an excellent rendition of Ryan Adams’ “Oh My Sweet Carolina”; followed by Bob Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” (he sings and plays the harmonica a lot better than Dylan).  He kept his set at two songs and left the remaining time for the next act.

7:00 : Les Armstrong, Ray Poe, & Alton Simpson:  The boys put their country machine in overdrive with Buck Owens’ “Truck Driving Man”; took a hazard at John Schneider’s (one of the Dukes) “I’m Going to Leave You Tomorrow”; Stonewall Jackson’s “I’m Gonna Wash My Hands in Muddy Water”; Emmylou Harris’ “We’re Together Again”; and Waylon Jennings’ “Only Daddy’s That Walk the Line”.

7:15 Bob Wilson: Harkened back to beginning of the last century with “Abba Dabba Honeymoon”; Bud DeSilva’s “Minnie the Mermaid”; and “Where Did Robinson Caruso Go with Friday on Saturday Night?”.

7:30 The Pony Tales: Doreen and Mary brought us a set with a few medleys, including Anita Carter’s “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” and Doc Watson’s “Columbus Stockade Blues”; an instrumental medley of  “Sandy River Belle” and “Blackberry Blossom”; the traditional “Over in Glory Land”; and Woody Guthrie’s “Hard Travelin’”, combined with the Seekers’ “Lonesome Traveler”.

7:45 Bob Cool:  Played some new old tunes; Hank Williams’ “Half as Much as I Love You”; Patsy Cline’s “Heartaches”; and Louie Armstrong’s “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”

8:00 Pamela Reinagel with Don Strandberg: With Don’s guitar backing and added harmonies, Pamela did Gillian Welch’s “That’s the Way the Whole Thing Ends”; Alison Krauss’s “Dimming of the Day”; and Michael Peter Smith’s “The Dutchman”.

8:15: Bob Setzer:  Brought the eighties into the mix with Bruce Springsteens’ “I’m on Fire”; took a stab at country with Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally”; and finished with his own “Dreaming of You” and “Shut the Whole World Out”.

8:30 Don Strandberg: Returned to play a solo set for us; he just finished making a recording with a friend in England, via e-mail, and they’re already getting airplay on that side of the ocean.  Country was also his chosen genre for Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried”’; the folk-ish Jimmy Driftwood tune, “Long Chain On”; and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Can Cry”.

8:45 The Bluegrass Belles:  The ladies, Rose Scibelli, Mary McGerald and Doreen Harlow, were joined by Greg Gross for The Carter Family’s “Wildwood Flower”; the traditional “Red River Valley”; and Norman Blake’s “Last Train From Poor Valley”.

9:00 Cliff Niman: Has been playing music in San Diego since the sixties; in those days he hosted a show in La Mesa at a place called the Candy Company. This evening he played very nice originals, one about a local watering hole called  “The Circle D Song”; and another about his home in Alpine, “Where the Paved Road Ends”; then Bob Dylan’s classic “Don’t Think Twice”; and Hedge Capers’ “I Got a Long Way to Go”.

9:15: John Movius with Greg Gross:  Once more Greg Gross backed another performer, John; the pair wound down our evening with an instrumental of Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date”; then John did a Ricky Nelson set of “Lonesome Town”, “Traveling Man” and “Garden Party”.

It was nice to see such a good turnout; thanks everybody.  Come on by soon and join us for our last couple of weeks at the Friendly Grounds.

Note:  We may change venues before the —we’ll keep you posted.

God bless, and be of good cheer.

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

Photos by Greg Gross and Tim Woods