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

Hi All,

On Monday the music cruise set sail and I was on it—so read on and don’t forget that Greg Gross will be hosting the open mic at as usual on Thursday.

The students from the Gateway West Community Day School were on hand to do their and, with their friends and family, Frubble looked like a store at 6 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving—in addition to that, we had our usual audience and enough other performers to fill our slate.

6:20 The Gateway West Guitar Students:  Instructor Diogo Andrade has been working with the students for four months. With Diogo singing the lyrics, Gabriel, Hunter, Ryan, and Josue played Four Non-Blondes’ “What’s Up?”; Dire Straits’ “How Long” with each student playing a lead break; Greenday’s “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams”; and The Romantics’ “What I Like About You”.

6:45 Tim Woods: I started by putting on a brief fashion show judging audience reaction to determine what type of hat I should consider making part of my stage ensemble.  You see, I determined that all the really cool performers have a great hat to enhance their persona.  Some people look and feel natural with hats, I guess I’m not one of them—oh well.  After all that, I played a tune for the guitar students, John Denver’s “This Old Guitar”; I figured they should know the benefits a guitar can contribute to their lives.  The rest of my set was John Denver’s “Back Home Again” and Ian Tyson’s “Four Strong Winds”.

7:00 Cliff Niman:   Cliff’s set began with Robbie Robertson’s “Across the Great Divide”; then continued with John Conley’s “Rose Colored Glasses”; and Tim Hardin’s “A Reason to Believe”.  Cliff also decided to do a little John Denver with “Country Roads”; Flatt & Scruggs’ “Rock Salt and Nails”; and John Mayall’s “Don’t Waste My Time With Your Jive”.

7:15 Bob Setzer: Bob played his own “Please Don’t Judge Me That Way” and “Shut the Whole World Out”; then ended with his evocative take on the Everly Brothers’ “Bye, Bye Love”.

7:30 Les, Alton & Ray: We were primed for a little boot scootin’ when the guys started playing George Strait’s “All My Exes Live in Texas”; Buck Owens’ “Getting Used to Losing You”; Freddy Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”; and George Jones’ “Comb Her Hair".  If you watch the guys, you’ll notice they pass the lead singing chores back and forth amongst them.

7:45 Emma Richardson:  Emma’s developing some nice guitar licks.  She brought us some Pearl Jam with “Yellow Ledbetter”; Nickelback’s “I’m Here Without You Baby”; Maroon Five’s “Sunday Morning”; and The Dirty Heads’ “Believe”.

8:00 Gregory Martin Campbell:  Greg brought out John Hartford’s classic “Gentle on My Mind”; the second Dire Straits’ tune for the evening “Sultans of Swing”; then Big Al joined him for the Beatles’ “What Goes On?”, and The Eagles “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (Jack Tempchin).

8:15: Tim Egan:  Tim channels James Taylor when he does his “You Can Close Your Eyes” (Can you channel someone who’s still alive?); he also does a fine job on Neil Young’s “There Comes a Time”.  His next tune was an original he calls “I Can”; and back to James Taylor for “Carolina in My Mind.”

8:30 Bob Wilson: Bob rolled the calendar back to 1921 for “Margie”; Jack Yellen and Martin Hegar’s “Louisville Lou” from that same era; the World War I tune “How You Gonna Keep Em Down on the Farm?”; and lastly, “Coney Island Washboard.”

8:45 Big Al:  Al continued a great run of music with Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” and “I Shall Be Released”; then R.E.M.s “Find the River”; and one more Dylan tune, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”.

9:00 John Movius with Greg Gross and Lynda Sterns: John asked Ray Poe to play bass on their first tune a hot instrumental, Bill Dogget’s “Honky Tonk”; followed by a medley of Beatle tunes “Girl”, and “I Love Her”; Greg ceded a little of his time to give Tom Barbary a chance to do a tune with John—they did Johnny Cash’s “Home of the Blues”.

9:15 Greg Gross:  Greg always does an especially fine job on his first tune, The Doobie Brothers’ “South City Midnight Lady”; following that he had me join him on Roger Millers’ “King of the Road” and Dale Evans “Happy Trails” to close the show.

It was a spectacular evening of music; we should be charging admission—what a show!

Bob Setzer has been recording the shows lately.  If he recorded your set and you want a copy, contact him at bobsetzer@mac.com.

God Bless, and see you soon,

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