So I got an email asking if I knew any women out there who wanted to participate in a fantasy music career makeover. Interested? Read on:
Do you know a woman in her 40s or 50s who wants to reinvent herself into a singer/songwriter or comedian? Read more…
It always sucks to hear about an open mic closing. In this case, Cafe Gratitude’s Thursday night open mic is not happening only for lack of an MC. The cafe is gung-ho about hosting an event, so here’s a shout out: anyone in San Rafael looking for a chance to host their own open mic event? Call the cafe at (415) 578-4928 and get something started.
Man, I love the Essanay. It might just be the only open mic I know of where audience members show up an hour (or more) early to vye for seating so as not to miss a minute of the night’s entertainment. The dedicated, regular attendees are, of course, only the half of the story at this fantastic little cafe. Great food, friendly, participant owners and . . . it just has this fantastic vibe that’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t been there.
A number of weeks ago, I noticed an ad on craigslist inviting people to get involved in a “guerilla street music event.” The series of ad-hoc concerts organized by the Oakland Music Collective is happening Saturday afternoons through September. My band, Kerbside, along with 3 other acts (James Whiton, Retrograde Revolution & Annah), were invited to participate this past Saturday, the first in the series.
It was another standing-room only Bay Street Open mic this month, despite the fact that we had moved from our usual Friday to a Tuesday night. Read more…
Among the many events on the bay area open mic calendar, we have had an after-hours one in a copy shop (Jungle Copy, now defunct, sadly), a music store (Epiphany in Marin, also gone) and a random street corner (16th & Mission, still going!) but as much sense as it SHOULD make, we have only ONE radio open mic and that one fairly recently started up: the Common Threads show on Pirate Cat Radio, 87.9FM in the city.
I hopped on BART last Friday and went to check it out . . . Read more…
Holy mic-age, batman! I just discovered that my feedback form was, uh, broken. So I spent most of today combing through recent missives from y’all and replying. My sincere apologies if you’ve written me and heard nothing - this stoopid thing has been broken for aaaages, but it’s fixed now! Cake and ice cream for everybody!
Maybe something got started last Bay Street Open Mic, because some kind of momentum sure spilled over into Essanay’s Open Mic this week. I arrived early and was set up and ready to go by the time the place began to fill . . . and fill it did! There were some interesting things that happened at this month’s open mic - the most notable being that there is talk of Essanay hosting their Open Mic twice as frequently.
I have done a lot of flying back and forth to Ireland. If I can avoid it, I simply reFUSE to check my guitar. Most airplanes have enough room in their overhead bin to allow a full-size guitar hard case. Smaller planes also have a stowage closet that kind airline staff may be willing to put your guitar in for you. This, of course, will not work if you’re carrying more than one guitar. Be warned, though, o travelling guitarist, of United airlines and the plight of Dave Carroll. Be ye warned, airlines, as well . . . Hell hath no fury like a musician whose guitar has been mishandled:
Folks, I’m still reeling from Friday night’s Open Mic at Bay Street. Aside from it being probably the best-attended event thus far, the calibre of talent that showed up really blew me away.
I had some suspicion that it would be an exceptional event with all the email I was getting prior to the event. Three excellent acts contacted me about playing as a feature act -something I very much want to do. However, there were so many great players this Friday; blocking out a half hour for a feature act means limiting the number of people get to sign up to play - and I hate to think I might have missed a single one of the excellent performers who showed up on Friday. Having said that, maybe limiting the number of sign-ups to allow a feature slot may be something I’ll consider in the future - it’d be a nice way to vary the pace of the evening and give a worthy act a bit more time to play.