Bay Area Open Mic Calendar - Blog

Well it was my second time down in Niles hosting the monthly Essanay Cafe Open Mic. Man, I love this little place. As always, there was a good showing and a great variety of acts. You want eclectic? Try two stand-up comedians (that’s Sammy Obeid pictured mid-routine, there) followed by a dulcimer player, followed by an autoharp player. Woo-whee, var-i-it-ee! Tends to keep a sound engineer on his toes as well.

We had some regulars in and they’re among our first contributions of music. This is Kris Olinger playing his song, Like Capucine. Next is Daphna Rahmil, who played some traditional jewish music and invited me to join her on one of her own compositions. It may be a first: Irish percussion on Jewish music! Great fun, that! Aren’t talented people great? Speaking of talented, I was heartily impressed with the next sharing performer, Earl J Rivard (pictured above), someone I had never seen before at the Essanay, who made the trip down from Alameda for the evening. Man, check out his voice on this troubadour-inspired song (his own piece as well)! Sweet.

I was lucky enough to be asked to grab the bodhran again to join Michael McNevin (pictured below) on one of his originals as well. Great fun, I gotta start bringing this drum around with me more often!

I have to say it was a bit of an odd evening in terms of reluctant performers. At one stage, I had five different performers in a row tell me to “let the next person go” . . . which made for some interesting scheduling to work them back into the order of acts. Luckily, in a place like the Essanay, folks just laugh it off. I’m really starting to feel like a regular down in these parts . . . or should I say, one of the irregulars. *grin*

Among the talented cadre of irregulars, we were surprised by more musical talent from Alameda in the form of a guitar/vocal duo near the end of the night. Sublime stuff. So what’s in the water in Alameda?

You know, I had that supercool wine bar set up thing rocking again this time around and AGAIN forgot to take a photo! *bangs head against screen* Ah well, there’s always next time, right? Until then, enjoy the gallery of photos I did take and might catch ya next month at the Essanay Cafe Open Mic.

Music files are posted here with permission of the artist/performer. Feel free to listen here, click on the artist links and please support local artists by buying their CDs/mp3s, going to their live shows and showering them with fan mail. Anything else, please be cool and contact the individual artists directly - or email me and I’ll try to put you in touch: sean(at)lightholder(dot)net