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

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

Howdy all,

When we arrived, Santa had his throne on the stage and was listening to Christmas lists and taking pictures with kids; he wrapped up soon enough, and we dove in to setting up our equipment.  We have the set-up down to a finely choreographed dance, so we managed—we’ve done it a few times.

6:30 Greg Gross:  As host, Greg started the evening for us.  He did Eric Bogle’s a’ cappela number, “The Sound of Singing”; The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Daydream”; “The Wabash Cannonball”; and an unusual, somewhat dark, arrangement of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”; and Jimmy Buffet’s “Come Monday”.

6:45 Rebekah Williams: Brought us the first Christmas tune of the evening, “Silent Night”; the Dixie Chix’ “Traveling Soldier”; Glen Hansard’s “Falling Slowly”; and “Over the Rainbow”.  She’s recently picked up her guitar and is doing a great job, including some fingerpicking—good for her!

7:00 Cliff Niman:  Cliff had his Santa hat, so we knew he was in the spirit.  He gave us an authentic version of Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train”; John Denver’s “(You Dun) Stomped on My Heart”; Townes VanSant’s “Pancho & Lefty”; and Del Shannon’s “Runaway”.

7:15 John Movius: John decided to do the Eagles’ take on Christmas, “Please Come Home For Christmas”; Greg Gross joined him for Ricky Nelson’s “Hello Mary Lou”; The Venturers’ “Perfidia”; and Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man”.

7:30 Mitch Wilson: Mitch also started his set with a full version of “Silent Night”; then he did a medley of Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus & Lucy”, “Deck the Halls”, and “The Little Drummer Boy”; his own composition “I Can Hardly Wait for Christmas to Come”; and “In the Bleak Midwinter”, a traditional spiritual tune based on a poem by Christina Rosetti.

7:45 Big Al:  Al was still 12-stringing it for his set of the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Better Days”; The Grateful Dead’s “Sing Me Back Home”; Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound”.

8:00 Alton, Ray & Les:  Amped things up a bit with Buck Owens’ “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail”; Mel McDaniel’s “Take Me to the Country”; Bob Wills’ “Take Me Back to Tulsa”; Merle Haggard’s “Way I am”; and John Denver’s “Country Roads”, with Les on harmonica.

8:15: Bill Compton & Darlene Johnson:  The guys stayed on the stage to back Darlene and Bill; Darlene did Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart”; then Bill did Eddie Arnold’s “Make the World Go Away”; Darlene replied with Kitty Wells’ “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”; then Bill finished with John Denver’s “Oakie From Muskogee”.

8:30 Wood ‘n’ Lips: Big Al joined us to do some Christmas tunes for our Bluegrass Club gig.  Sans Carol Knudsen, who was also doing the gig with us, we did “Jingle Bells”; “White Christmas”; “Silver Bells”; “Away in a Manger”; and “Blue Christmas”.

8:45 Tom Barbarie:  With John Movius on lead guitar, Tom played Johnny Cash’s “Big River”; (oops, I missed one); then Greg Gross joined them on bass for Johnny Tillotson’s “Talk Back Trembling Lips”; and Johnny Cash’s “Cry, Cry, Cry”.

9:00 Jesse Eisenbarth:  Jesse returned for a second week; he debuted a new song he had just written called “My Ghost”, then he did a couple of other originals, “I Can’t Fall Asleep Tonight”; and “The Lie and I Love You”.

9:15 Davy Jones: Davy showed up late and we managed to make room for him.  He did Sarah Brightman’s “The Journey Home”; Lyle Lovitt’s “Memphis Midnight/ Memphis Morning”; Tom Waits’ “I Hope I Don’t Fall in Love with You”; and Keb Mo’s “City Boy”.  Davy has his own unique style and a repertoire of tunes we don’t hear very often.

And so the pre-Christmas open mic came to an end.  Come join us soon, especially if you haven’t checked out Frubble—I think you’ll agree that it’s a great venue.

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

Photos by Greg Gross, Tim Woods