openmikes.org

Well, Willie's bus made its final stop of the Almost Famous Folksinger 5th Comeback Tour last night at the Perry Hall United Methodist Church for Folk Music Night, after a few detours during the week (apparently the driver had discovered some of Willie's leftovers hidden away in the back seat). And what a nice evening it was, including open mike performances from Marlin and Tom (playing instrumentals on squeezebox and recorder), John (playing a resophonic guitar including an old piece by Reverend Gary Davis, something unfortunately you don't hear too much of these days), Leah and Debbie (playing and singing three beautiful duets including the Kate Wolf tune Gold in California and the Joni tune Urge for Going), John (playing some ragtime/old-time piano that fit just right with the slightly, well almost slightly, out of tuneness of the keyboard), Dan (singing some nice country tunes on guitar and playing this tight instrumental in which he joked he was being paid by the note), Dick (singing some great old tunes on his baritone uke including Sixteen Tons), and a fellow with the last name of Shapiro (sang three originals including a sad one about a family member and a humorous one about global warming). There was also a featured performer, Kimmon Waldruff, who played some some rock oriented tunes on his acoustic guitar and then finished with some fine instrumentals on a guitar tuned to CFCFFC, giving it a beautiful haunting quality (and must be quite a challenge to tune :-).

My three song set:

1. You Ain't Going Nowhere (the old Bob Dylan tune that I still adore after singing it for close to 40 years, with some key changes and chord changes along the way-I am fascinated how songs evolve as they stay with you-as John McCutcheon once said, if you were to play the song exactly like the record, you might as well play the record up there on the stage.It would be hard to find a record player anyway. Or in the words of Joni Mitchell, you would never ask Picasso to paint the same picture twice).
2. Kitty Alone and I (from Joe and Janette Carter of the Carter Family tree (not Jimmy) and learned from the singing of Ed Trickett (or as the folksinger Bruce Hutton used to refer to him as Dead Crickett-sorry Ed :-)
3. Here Comes the Sun (the Beatles tune as channeled through one of my musical heroes Richie Havens)

Well, my thanks to Neil and Debbie Zimmerman, who host the coffeehouse every month. Check out their website at [www.perryhallumc.org] .

For now, we're all cleaning out Willie's bus before we return it. And we are keeping one eye on the driver…

Peace,

"An untuned guitar is not worth playing… " (apologies to Socrates)

Well last night, Saturday, January 19th, I made it to the open mike run by Neil Zimmerman at Perry Hall United Methodist Church. with featured performer Bob Sima. It was such a nice evening, a real musical shot in the arm. The featured performer, Bob Sima, a singer-songwriter with his own CD, played some strong songs including one about not dying with the music still in you (I could relate to that one) and one about warm ham and cold bodies. Heard some fine open mike performances too, ranging from humorous songs (about state songs) to Yiddish folk songs (sung by Leah Ulanskey who runs the Friendly Coffeehouse). The church of the basement was pleasantly filled with good people who listened and even sang along.

I sang three songs and the audience seemed very receptive. The set list:

1. If I Had a Hammer (I know, an old chestnut, but I've reworked it recently and it has a little different feel to it-more late 20th century :-)

2. Ballad of a Crystal Man (old Donovan song reworked to fit the current political climate)

3. Bring Them Home (old Pete Seeger tune covered by the Boss (Bruce Springstenen) last year that I learned off of http:

www.youtube.com ) and it was a folksinger's dream to have the audience sing along (if a song like this doesn't bring the troops home what will?)

It was good getting out and seeing some old musical friends that I hadn't seen for over two years (Dick Oles and Leah) and I will be back. Oh, and did I mention that they had cookies, coffee, and veggies (donation requested)?