For the Love of Mic: Woods N' Lips Newsletter

Hi All,

It was another evening starting with a lot of hubbub. There were several new faces and some we hadn’t seen for a while.  We had a full slate of performers and a full house to play to.  Fingerstyle picker showed up later and unfortunately we didn’t have a spot for him (we did squeeze a couple of minutes out at the end of the evening); he’s done with school, so maybe we will get to hear him, occasionally.

6:30 Greg Gross:  Confessed to having an affinity to the character in the first song, Duane Elms’s “Don’t Touch That Button”; along the same comedic vein, Eric Bogle’s “The Silly Slang Song”; then The Eagles’ “Take it Easy”; and the traditional “Danny Boy”.

6:45 Bob Setzer: Dedicated his first number to his friend Issac who loves hair-metal music, Poison’s “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”; then his own “Oh Love”; and a song by a former friend of his, titled “Basement”; and a quick version of his original “Shut the Whole World Out”.

7:00 Gavin Clark and Alex Pearson from a group called N.O.K.:  First timers to our open mic, they started out with an original penned by Gavin, “God Give Me a Sign”; then a version of Bob Dylan’s “Rock Me Mama”; and another original by Gavin and Alex, “Fallacy”.

7:15 Karen Rodgers: Was juggling her music books and finally found the tune she was looking for, Karen Wilson’s “Dreamer”; then she got into the groove with Cindy McQuillian’s “Pieces”; and Christine Lavin’s “Rituals”.

7:30 Jewel Marie: It was also her first open mic with us and she led off her set of her originals including: “My Wish” sung in a nice clear, strong voice, (she lucked into a time when the blender and steamer were relatively quiet); “Midnight Sky”; then she tuned down for her last tune, “Falling Faster” a song about the end of a romantic relationship.

7:45 Alan Land:  Yet another new guest, but not new to performing; he started with Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do”; and original about Montana, “Coyote Choirs”; Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin’”; another original inspired by the death of Kurt Cobain, “Johnny Don’cha Know”.   Alan has a strong voice and is an adept picker, hopefully he will return.

8:00 Big Al:  Was up next and he brought us some Neil Young, with “On the Losing End”; Counting Crow’s “Long December”; The Allman Brothers’ “Sweet Melissa”;.

8:15 Mike Richards:  Mike is a Brit, he returned to perform for us once again, so I guess he gets the prize for the longest commute.  He sings a’capella tunes he writes—ironically his first song was about someone buying a guitar, called “Music Store”; the next referred to a friend who had passed, “Pride” (There must be a story there); and “Will Ye Come Back Home?”.

8:30 Bill Liscomb & Steve Goldner:  Bill has been bouncing between San Diego and his new home in Boston, so it was good to see him again. He brought his friend Steve to add some tasteful electric guitar lead licks to his songs.  Bill is an accomplished songwriter and they did a brand new number of his, “Hang Around”; followed by “Colorado”; and “Sing That Song” with some strong surf-ish sounds off of Steve’s Stratocaster.

8:45 John Movius: Also was doing the electric sound, “The Endless Summer”; The Bel Airs’ “Mr. Moto” from 1961; The Astronauts’ “Baja”; and departing from the surf genre, Buck Owens’ “Buckaroo”; ending with a quick version of The Venturers’ “Walk Don’t Run”.

9:00 Bob Arsenault & Tom Barbarie: The duo brought the Bluegrass vibe into the evening with “Shady Grove”; Bill Monroe’s “When My Blue Moon turns to Gold Again”; “Old Home Place”; “Cabin in the Pines”; and  “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”.

9:15 Bob Wilson: Turned the clock to the early part of the last century with a set of Walter Donaldson’s songs; “How You Gonna Keep Em Down on the Farm”, “Tain’t No Sin to Take Off Your Skin and Dance Around in Your Bones”; and “Yes Sir That’s My Baby”.

9:25 Ben and Jamison Owens:  The musical family is bringing another guitar player into the fold, younger brother Jameson joined Ben for a medley of some Django Reinhart gypsy jazz numbers.  Fortunately, we still had a pretty good sized audience to watch the duo burn up the strings.  It’s clear that Jameson is following in big brother Ben’s and cousin Ricky Ruis’s shoes.

God Bless and have a good week,

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

Come enjoy some great music and maybe even join in the playing at at 6:30 p.m.