Just got back from an open mic night

[chip withrow]

Fun! "Soulshine" is one of my absolute fave Warren/Allmans songs.
I used to host an open mic, and at one of the first ones, a band showed up with their "manager." (acquaintance with the gear reminded me of that.) It took them as long to set up as their set lasted.

[Blooby]

Got back from our second open mic as an acoustic duo.  This time, we played Gregg Allman's "Come and Go Blues," Gov't Mule's "In My Life," a slow version of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and Dave Matthews' "Grace is Gone."  I didn't get a lot of feedback, but it seemed to go well.  The guy before us played horn and sang a spot-on version of "Hello Dolly" while the guy after us read a poem that was lost on me.  He yelled "Hallelujah" quite a bit and said we wouldn't need jobs soon.  When I left, some guy was playing some blues.  Weird thing was he looked exactly like the killer in No Country for Old Men.

Weird.

Blooby

[Geir]

Don't tell us you didn't record it this time either  



Well souds like you had a good time tho, would have loved to have been there !!

[Greeny]

Got back from our second open mic as an acoustic duo.  This time, we played Gregg Allman's "Come and Go Blues," Gov't Mule's "In My Life, a slow version of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and Dave Matthews' "Grace is Gone."  I didn't get a lot of feedback, but it seemed to go well.  The guy before us played horn and sang a spot-on version of "hello Dolly" while the guy after us read a poem that was lost on me.  He yelled "Hallelujah" quite a bit and said we wouldn't need jobs soon.  When I left, some guy was playing some blues.  Weird thing was he looked exactly like the killer in No Country for Old Men.

Weird.

Blooby

WHEN OH WHEN are you going to record it?! lol

That's the beauty of open mics - you never know what variety of weirdness / madness / genius you're going to see. Sounds like you went for the full eclectic mix at yours!

No Country for Old Men is an incredible film. That guy played the psychotic killer a bit too convincingly, lol. Must have been weird seeing him laying down some blues. Hopefully he didn't have that compressed air canister nearby, lol.

Just out of interest, there's one song I'd love to hear you do: The Allman Brothers 'Sweet Melissa'. Maybe an obvious one, but I've been in love with that song a long time. You could really nail it. I'd help out on the vocals if you wanted, lol.

[Blooby]

Ironically, Greeny, we ran through "Melissa" a couple times yesterday in preparation for playing it.  We had it arranged so that when  the progression goes to the A chord ("Knowing many. Loving none..."), I would step on my loop pedal to do the chord progression while I would play the single-note melody.  As an outro, I would record another loop live of the main progression in E, so I could solo over it.  I thought it was coming along nicely, and it would have been cool to confuse the a few folks who wouldn't know where the second guitar was coming from, but I opted not to futz with having to use any pedals.  There were a lot of folks waiting to play, so I felt that was kind of bad form. 

Thanks, all, for the commentary and vibes.

Blooby

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

Glad you enjoyed it, sounds like a great program..............Willie

[FuzzFace]

Hey Blooby... I saw this note when you posted it Feb 10 and said "Ok me too".

I have done 3 open mic night since and I am an instant addict.

Playing for people is so much different than recording in one's home.

[Blooby]

Round III

Just got back from our third open mic together.  The last was early March, so it doesn't look like the world tour is happening.  

Same funky cafe.  This time we played "Body in the Lake" by Bobby Lee Rodgers (recent post), "Melissa" by The Allman Brothers, "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by The Monkees, "Old Man" by Neil Young, and "Can't Get High" by Bloodkin/Widespread Panic.  "Old Man" and "Can't Get High" both had drones going on from time to time via the looper thrown into reverse.  "Body..." and "Melissa" both had solos as I loaded up a chord progresion for each immediately before each tune.  Can't believe I pulled off the looping in "Melissa" as it is tricky for me.

Crowd was more talkative than last time.  More customers and fewer musicians, so they were less respectful.  Not too bad, though.  I dropped a CD off with the owner and asked to be considered for a gig.  She asked us (an acoustic duo mind you) if we could do dance music.  I left.

Ironically, John and I stopped off at a local, hip eatery for a beer, and the guy closing who also books the music said he would put us on the schedule after the holidays. Go figure.

Thanks once again for the positive vibes from all of you.  Without the good cheer, I couldn't have grown the nads to play out.

Blooby