Gateway Community Day School’s Final Exam: Open Mic

goes down every Thursday night at .

Hidey Ho Neighbor,

The students from the Gateway Community Day School’s guitar class are required to play for our open mic as a final exam of sorts. The groups, under the tutelage of Diogo Andrade, can be depended on to deliver an entertaining show. 

This semester Diogo had friends filming the festivities to create a video to promote the concept for other schools in the district.  Parents have been extremely grateful that their, often troubled, teens are given such a constructive and wholesome activity to turn their energies toward. The video link is: http://www.youtube.com/user/DiogoAndrade30#p/a/f/0/7FsJSn4Lfik

With all the parents and friends of the students, plus our normal crowd, it was a packed house—and it didn’t empty out—as is so often the case—when the students finished.

6:30 Gateway Guitar Students: Diogo Andrade, Adam Reed, John McWilliams, Jacob David Peters, & Randall Kenneth Starba: With Diogo providing vocals, the group did: Oasis’ “Wonder Wall”; in honor of the anniversary of Bob Marley’s death, his “Redemption Song”; Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”; and “Stand by Me” with each student taking a turn at an instrumental lead. As a solo performance, Randall played a tribute to his namesake, Randy Rhoades, with his song “Dee”.

7:00 Tim Woods I dished out The Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried”; Johnny Cash’s “The Reverend Mr. Black”; Johnny Horton’s “Running Bear”; and Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya”. I was told I “rocked the house”—I like that.

7:15: Jerry Pena:  For the second week in a row Jerry blessed us with his presence, he did Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville”; Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock” (Chevy Trucks’ theme song); with Big Al joining him for harmonies, The Animal’s “The House of the Rising Sun” and Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page”.

7:30 Greg Gross: After doing a great job of monitoring the sound for all the performers, he took to the stage with The Eagles’ “Take it Easy”; Staine’s “The Roseville Fair”; and John Sebastian’s “What a Day for a Daydream”.

7:45 John Movius:  Was up for a solo set, and he started with the iconic tune, Don McClean’s “Bye, Bye, American Pie”; and on his electric guitar, George Gershwin’s “Summer Time”; and the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man.

8:00  Mitch Wilson: Writes his own material, often in open tunings, this evening he played: “Sunset”; “Planted by a Stream”; “Falling” (about autumn leaves); and what he calls “Guitar 101 in C” consisting of a medley of “La Bamba”; “Dust in the Wind”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Rhiannan”, and “Wildwood Flower”; ending with “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

8:15 Pete Erlandsen: On his Larivee, brought us Gordon Lightfoot’s “It’s Worth Believing”; his own, “Betrayed by a Kiss”; “Old School”; and “Georgia Blue”.

8:30 Big Al:  Can do a great set in his own style, when he isn’t adding great harmonies to someone else’s sets.  This week he did Nine Inch Nails’ ( and Johnny Cash’s) “Hurt”; Counting Crows’ “Long December”; Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”; and the Grateful Dead’s “Cold Rain and Snow”

8:45 Ray Poe & Alton Simpson (the drummer in his band, Pickin’ Time): Ray normally plays bass in their group but this week he wielded a guitar for Bob Dylan’s “Trouble in Mind”; John Cash’s “Daddy Sang Bass” with Alton adding the tenor part in a funny falsetto; Alton provided the vocals for George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today”; the preceded on to Buck Owens’ (the Beatles covered it too)“Act Naturally”; and Little Jimmy Dickens’ “Another Bridge to Burn”.  Their group plays Monday nights at Anna’s Restaurant in Lemon Grove,

9:00 Bob Cool: Also opted for a mostly one man show; he played Louie Armstrong’s “The Sunny Side of the Street”; Bing Crosby’s tune from the end of WWII, “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”; and Nat King Cole’s “Autumn Leaves”; Greg Gross joined him for “Harvest Home” and “The Arizona Waltz”.  Bob’s picking was exceptional this evening.

9:15  Austin Gardiner with our sometimes barista, Olivia Emory: A first time for our open mic, the pair did The Frames’ “Falling Slowly”; The Civil Wars’ “Poison and Wine” and an original, a very nice tune they wrote together, called “Tattered Sails”.  They have a good thing going, well matched voices and nice music presented well.  I hope they keep coming back.

It was just another of a string of great evenings at the Friendly Grounds.  Thank you all for your continued support of our open mic.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the July 16th, For Love of Mic Music Festival at the Trolley Square Shopping Center’s Amphitheater in Santee.  Celebrating ten years of the Wood ‘n’ Lips Open Mic, it will be from 10:00 in the morning until 6:00 pm with some of our best performers.

God Bless and have a good week,

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