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

Stop by the every Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

The crowd was a little slower gathering this week; we actually had a few younger folk in the audience adding to our family-friendly atmosphere.  It still didn’t look like we had lot of people;  but when I looked in the sign-up jar, I counted twelve slips of paper; fortunately it turned out that a few were blank, so we had just enough spots to go around.

6:30 – Tim Woods – I started out with a new tune for me, The Kingston Trio’s “Three Jolly Coachmen” (We had friends from the Coachmen Motorhome Club in attendance—they loved it); then I went on to more familiar territory with The Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried”; Johnny Cash’s “The Reverend Mr. Black; The Chad Mitchell Trio’s “Unicorn Song”; and The Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to do is Dream”.

6:45 – Cliff Niman – Cliff began his set with the classic Bob Dylan tune everybody seems to know and play, “Don’t Think Twice”; and Kate Wolf’s “Carolina Pines”.  John Movius joined him with a mandolin for Del Shannon’s “Runaway”.

7:00– Greg Gross – Greg paid tribute to the late local songwriter, Ken Graydon, with his “Three Quarter Time”; then he did Robbie Robertson’s “Across the Great Divide”; The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “What a Day for a Daydream”; and Duane Elms’ “Don’t Push that Button”.

7:15 – Bob Wilson – Bob got all collegiate with the 1920’s tune “Freddie the Freshman”; followed by “The Blackbottom Rag”; Herman Hupfeld’s “When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba down in Cuba”.  Got that?

7:30 – The Curtis Parker Band ie: Curtis Parker, Tom Gannaway & Chris Stauch – Curtis led them with “My Little Red Coupe”; they did their version of “Across the Great Divide”; then “The River Jordan”; and Loretta Lynn’s “Harp with Golden Strings”.

7:45 – Bill & Katie Lodin – This was Katie’s first gig, and she shared it with her dad. They did John Couger’s (Mellancamp) “Pink Houses”; the next song was one Bill wrote for his oldest son, called “Jack of All Trades”; their last tune was the Beatles’ “Chains”.  It’s special when a father and his daughter get to perform together.

8:00 – Randy Watson with Ray Poe, Alton Simpson, and Greg Gross – With the guys adding instrumental backing to his vocals, Randy gave us Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman”; Jimmy Rogers’ “Train”; Carl Smith’s “If Teardrops Were Pennies”; Colin Ray’s “Every Second”; and Alan Jackson’s “Livin’ on Love”.

8:15 – John Movius, James Brown & Greg Gross – John was exercising some of his vintage equipment (Echophonic) for The Shadows’ “Apache”; Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day”; The Tornado’s “Telstar”; and Hank Marvin and the Shadows’ “Sleepwalk”.

8:30 – Janie Plante – Janie recently moved to town and heard about our open mic from Linda and Cliff Niman.  For her maiden voyage with us she chose Simon & Garfinkle’s “59th Street Bridge Song”—it quickly became obvious that she was no neophyte.  Janie has a good stage presence, a nice voice, and is a capable guitar player.  A tune she learned from her mother was Harry McGregor Woods’ “Side by Side” (Patsy Cline covered it); then she did Ray Charles’ “You Don’t Know Me”; Joni Mitchell’s “Twisted” and ended with James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend”.

8:45 – Bob Setzer – Bob was grateful that we had retired the squeaky stool (it was a bit tippy, too).  He gave us Poison’s “Every Rose Has it’s Thorn” (sans the eighties-style mullet); next he did his own “Shut the Whole World Out”; and finished with “Oh Love”.

9:00 – Gregory Martin Campbell and Mike Shoemaker – The duo played “The Other Side”; Big Mo’s “The Filling Station”; Monk & Neagle’s “Dancing with the Angels”; and “This is My Father’s World”.  It was a set with a spiritual theme.

9:15 – Bud Huntsinger – Bud was an acquaintance I made on the Bluegrass, Folk & Gospel cruise; I was pleased that he’s made our open mic a regular stop.  This was the first time he played on our stage.  He drafted Greg for a bass backing on his set of “My Darling Cora is Gone”; “Cabin in Caroline”; Anita Carter’s “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”; and The Stanley Brothers’ “East Virginia Blues”.

Greg and I closed with “Happy Trails” and Nita Homan joined us for the finale.

Well, it’s another fine mess we’ve got ourselves into—a fine mess of music.  It was a winner of an evening.

God Bless, and see you soon,

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

Photos by Greg Gross, and Bob Setzer