The Wood ‘n’ Lips Open Mic Newsletter

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

Hey,

First off—yes, we will be having our open mic on this Thursday night and the next, between Christmas and New Years.  I expect plenty of Christmas tunes this week.

Last week I started the evening with one of Frubble’s flat-bread sandwiches; they’re kind of like little pizzas—I really enjoyed it—I had the Hawaiian version with pineapple & ham, the previous week I had the BBQ Chicken…good stuff!

6:30 Tim Woods:  I led off a little early and managed to do quite a few songs, including: The Chad Mitchell Trio’s “The Unicorn Song”; John Denver’s “The  Marvelous Toy”; Miranda Lambert’s “House that Built Me”; Burl Ives’ “Funny Way of Laughing”; Lebosky & Newman’s “The Wayward Wind”; and Johnny Cash’s “The Reverend Mr. Black”.

6:45 Mitch Wilson: Mitch enjoys playing Christmas music in July, so he’s in his glory in December.  He started with a medley of “Silent Night”, “Jolly Old St. Nicholas, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”, “Deck the Halls”, “Jingle Bells”, and “Joy to the World”.  He doesn’t often sing with his finger-style music, but he did write a tune with words called “Come See the Baby”, which he performed for us.  His son-in-law,Daniel Reed, joined him to sing a Chris August tune, “Come Now Our King”.

7:00 John Movius:  Mary McGerald heard John play the “Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on the Open Fire) last week, so she asked if she could sing it with him this week.  After that Lynda Sterns and Greg Gross joined him for “Silent Night”; then he and Greg switched to instrumentals for The Pyramids’ “Penetration”; and The Venturers’ “Walk Don’t Run”.

7:15 Greg Gross: Treated us to a set of tunes from the prolific songwriter John McCutcheon; including, “Soup”; “Christmas in the Trenches”; and “Calling All the Children Home”.  “Christmas in the Trenches” is said to be based on a true story.  Look up the lyrics; it’s a great story.  McCutcheon will be doing a concert in January for the San Diego Folk Heritage Concert Series—it’s always a good show.

7:30 Big Al: Al brought out his 12-string and played a set of Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush”; Bob Dylan’s “I Shall be Released”; and Counting Crows’ “Long December”.  Al and Carol Knudsen will be joining us for a Wood ‘n’ Lips performance of Christmas tunes at the San Diego Bluegrass Club’s December meeting; it will be at Boll Weevil’s on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, off of the 15 Freeway, on December 27th.  We’ll be performing between 6:30 and 7:00 pm.

7:45 Bob Setzer:  Bob did a set of his own tunes; “Shut the Whole World Out”; “Slipped and Fell”; “Maybe”; and “Dreaming of You”.  Like many songwriters, Bob’s tunes are autobiographical in nature.

8:00 8:00 Jesse Eisenbarth:  Jess is a talented young barista at Frubble and, lucky for us, he decided to give our open mic a try. He played a couple of originals “Believer”; and “I Can’t Fall Asleep Tonight”; a cover, This Providence’s “Sand in Your Shoes”; and another original, “Addicted”.

8:15: Cliff Niman:  Cliff continued what appeared to be string of songwriters; he did his “The Dream”; then Peter, Paul and Mary’s “A Soulin”; a song he picked up in the sixties, (not sure who wrote it) “In My Time”; and Claud King’s “Wolverton Mountain” (several people sang along).

8:30 Alton, Ray & Les: The guys did Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy”; Johnny Cash’s “A Legend in My Time”; Waylon Jennings’ “Good Hearted Woman”; and “One More Time” (Kris Kristofferson?).  We are so fortunate to have these guys as regulars at our open mic.

8:45 Bill Compton with Les, Alton & Ray:  Bill is a drummer, a bandleader, a heck of a singer, and a friend of the aforementioned guys.  They backed him with Susan Raye’s “Would You Settle for Roses”; Paul Brant’s “Pass Me By”; a nicely stylized version of “White Christmas”.

9:00 Lynda Sterns:  Lynda is one third of the Pony Tales, but she can handle a solo set very well.  She did Bob Dylan’s “May You Be Forever Young”; then Mary McGerald joined her for Simon & Garfunkle’s “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”; then she finished with a solo version of Pete Seeger’s “Turn, Turn, Turn”.

9:15 Nita Homan & Tim Woods: Nita and I hadn’t done a set together since we were at the Friendly Grounds; we did a set of the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do is Dream”; Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Stewball”; Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart”; Lerner and Lowe’s “They Called the Wind Mariah”; an abbreviated version of “Cuando Caliente El Sol”; and Greg Gross joined us for Dale Evans’ “Happy Trails”.

Thus finished another night of solid entertainment at the Wood ‘n’ Lip Open Mic at Frubble’s.  Come join us soon; especially if you haven’t checked out Frubble—I think you’ll agree that it’s a great venue.

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

Photos by Greg Gross, Tim Woods