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.

Hey Everybody,

Well, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving—I know I did.  We need to talk to whoever it was that decided to make it on Thursdays—don’t they know we have our open mic on Thursdays? 

My newsletter for the previous week had a couple of inaccuracies; yes, it was Jimmy Rodgers, not Roger Miller, that wrote “Kisses Sweeter than Wine” (where was my head when I typed that?).  Also, Johnny Preston, not Johnny Horton, wrote “Running Bear”—my info was wrong on that one.  It’s gratifying to know that people read these missives I turn out each week; thanks Bear!

6:30 Wood ‘n’ Lips:  We started a little early in hopes of adding another performer to our roster, (we were short one time slot).  We played some new material for us, a group version of Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train”; Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”; the Everly Brothers’ “Devoted to You”; Greg Scott’s “Working for the County”; and the Statler Brothers’ “Counting Flowers on the Wall”.  The open mic is a great vehicle for testing material—these needed a little more work.

We were preparing for the Allen Singer memorial concert this Saturday, December 3rd, at the Old Poway Park.  It’s on the corner of Midland Drive and Aubrey Street in Poway.

The concert starts at 5:30 pm and includes:

ETHEN SINGER

GREGORY PAGE

WOOD ‘N’ LIPS

ROBIN HENKEL

BRYAN CALDWELL

DANE TERRY -  CHRIS CLARKE

PATTY HALL

JEFF BERTINO

DICK JAY

PHILL BAROFF

CHARLES JOHNSON

DAVORA

WALT RICHARDS

BAJA BLUES BOYS

It should be a great show; I hope to see you there.

6:45 Cliff Niman: Cliff said Bob Dylan usually played  “Pretty Peggy-o” at all his concerts, (I’ve never been to a Dylan concert so I hadn’t heard it); he followed that with Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans”; and Mad River’s “The Paradise Bar and Grill”

7:00 Bob Setzer:  An amateur songwriter, Bob decided to a set of covers, including:  Church’s “Under the Milky Way”; Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally”; and Simon & Garfunkle’s “Richard Cory”.

7:15 Tim Egan: Started out with Nancy Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime”; onto Lionel Richie’s “Easy”, (which he personalized for our audience); Led Zeppelin’s “Going to California”; and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon”.  It was a very nice set; one lady in the audience commented that he was definitely a pro.

7:30 John Movius with Greg Gross: John played the first song of his set solo, Nat King Cole’s “Misty”; then Greg joined him for the Venturers’ “Perfidia”; The Chantay’s “Crystal T”; and the Bel Airs’ “Mr. Moto”.  John’s surf-picking gets stronger each week.

7:45 Big Al:  Brought Bob Dylan back with “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”; then another Dylan tune, “I Shall Be Released”; and Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, (which Johnny Cash also did a memorable version of).

8:00 Bob Arsenault, Tom Barbarie & Greg Gross: The boys did Louise Certain’s “My Blue Ridge Mountain Home”; The Dillard’s “The Old Home Place”; Ken Orik’s “November Rain”; and _________ (What was that last song?).

8:15: Ray Poe:  With Alton in the hospital, Ray opted to do a solo set; he gave us Tom T. Hall’s “Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine”; Ray Price’s “I Wish I Was Eighteen Again” (Don’t we all?); Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line”; Jim Reeves’ “A Fool Such as I”; and a creative country western take on John Denver’s “Country Roads”.

8:30 Mitch Wilson: Mitch is an adept finger-style player, on this evening, after playing “All Creatures of Our God and King”, he started our holiday season with “Silent Night”; and “Jolly Old St. Nicholas”.  Mitch cut his set short and ceded his remaining time to the next performer.

8:45 Jerry Pena:  There is nobody better to give your time to than Jerry Pena.  He played Charley Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl”; Garth Brooks’  “If Tomorrow Never Comes”; Gary Allen’s “When Tough Little Boys Grow Up to be Dads”; Dave Turnbull & David Lee Cory’s “Lucky Man”; and Billy Currington’s  “God is Great, Beer is Good, People are Crazy” (nuff said).

9:00 Chuck Page, Monty Kemp & Matt Lowry:  The threesome put together a set that included an old spiritual tune, “Farther Along”; Conway Twitty’s “Only Make Believe”; and Brad Paisley’s “Ain’t Nothing Like”.

9:15 Greg Gross: As host for the evening, Greg closed the show with the traditional classic “Danny Boy”; The Doobie Brothers’ “South City Moonlight Lady”; Fred Kohler’s “God’s Gift to Women”; and his usual chaser to that last tune, David Gates’ ultra-sensitive “If” (It’s his way of compensating for his detour from the PC highway).

Once more, it was a full house with many talented performers; thanks everybody!

Come on by soon and join us at Frubble; God bless, and be of good cheer.

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