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

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

Hi Ya,

Once more we had a nice crowd of both performers and audience members.  It’s special to see how many performers’ spouses, mine included, continue to support their mate’s musical efforts.  That helps to contribute to the family-like atmosphere that our open mic is known for.

6:30 – Tim Woods – I opened the evening with Johnny Preston’s “Running Bear”; followed by Johnny Horton’s “North to Alaska” and “The Battle of New Orleans”; then Tanya Tucker’s “Delta Dawn”; and Ricky Nelson’s “Abilene”.

6:45 – Bob Setzer – Bob got his guitar back from a full tune-up and is thrilled with the new clean sound.  He played a friend’s tune, “River Jordan”; his own “Oh Love”, “Dreaming of You”, and “Slipped and Fell”; and finished with Simon & Garfunkle’s “Richard Corey”.

7:00 – Curtis Hodson – Curtis gave us his version of the Beatles’ “Something (in the Way She Moves Me)”; The Everly Brothers’ “Let it Be Me”; and Elvis Presley’s “Power of My Love”.

7:15 – Tall Paul – Playing his graphite (or carbon fiber, I’m not sure which) guitar, he played Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Charlie Dunn”; his own adaptation, “Wildflower Honey”;  Vince Gauraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”; and Pat Alger’s “True Love”.  Paul’s fingers dance around the fingerboard as he plays his music—he has skills.

7:30 – Les Armstrong, Ray Poe & Greg Gross – Les started with Merle Haggard’s  “Let’s Chase Each Other Around the Room Tonight”; Ray gave us Ray Price’s “Heartaches by the Number”; Les came back with Waylon Jenning’s “Good Hearted Woman”; Ray wrapped it up with Hank Williams’ “You Win Again”.

7:45 – C.J.– For C.J.’s second-ever open mic, he played Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”; Peter, Paul, & Mary’s “Autumn to May”; Jimmy Rodgers’ “It’s Over”; and an instrumental, “Spanish Ballad”.

8:00 – John Movius – John said he had a song that hadn’t been played here before—that’s saying something—the tune was Buddy Holly’s “Love’s Made a Fool of You”; Greg Gross joined him for The Shadow’s “Apache”; Ricky Nelson’s “Traveling Man”; and The Tornado’s “Telstar”.

8:15 – Gregory Gross – Greg’s own set consisted of Stan Rogers’ “Field Behind the Plow”; Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “Puff the Magic Dragon”; Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”; and the bluesy version of “Folsom Prison Blues”.

8:30 – Bob Arsenault, Bob Cool, Bob Setzer – “Bob Cubed” (as we like to call the three Bobs) played a blue-grassy set of “Wabash Cannonball”; “The Big Eyed Rabbit’s Gone”; and “Up Jumped the Devil”.

8:45 – Bob Wilson – It seemed to be a night for Bobs.  Bob Wilson plays a banjolele and tonight he treated us to a couple of his vintage tunes including “Jazz Me Blues”; Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams’ “I’ve Found a New Baby”.

8:55 – Andy Cohen – Andy is from Memphis and dropped by while on tour; he’s been on the road since March 1, until the end of June when he turns around for another tour.  He heard about our open mic and wanted to show us his Dolceola (made about 1905); it’s a gorgeous old instrument that combines a chord zither with a harpsichord.  Bob Wilson graciously ceded some time from his own set so Andy could give us a short demonstration of his unusual instrument.  He played “A Mother’s Last Words to Her Son”; and a quick little boogie number, “Shake Your Boogie”.

9:00 – Tom Barbarie and Les Armstrong – With Les for support, Tom played Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life”; Hank William’s “You Win Again”; Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home”; and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”.

9:15 Cody Moore – In the past, Cody played for us at the Friendly Grounds—it was good to see him back.  He started with an original, a Dylan influenced tune “If We Were Human”; then continued with his own “Isn’t Seen”; “Forgot the name” (he remembered it and told me, then I forgot it); and “My Lie”. 

Right after the last open mic, I heard about a survey that Santee Patch was doing with their readers, which included “.”  I opened my e-mail telling me about it at 10 am—the contest had ended at 9 am that same morning.  It didn’t matter, because anyway, with a special mention of our open mic in the article that accompanied the announcement.

We all love to share our music and it’s so hard to find good venues willing to accommodate us; please make an effort to support those venues whenever you can.  We appreciate it.  Be of good cheer and God bless.

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