It was pitch black. A voice rang out in the darkness, "Roy, shut that switch on your left there!"
A cheer rose as the stage lights came up to reveal the bespectacled, smiling face of Austin Hurst, host and co-founder of Front Porch Music, standing on "The Big Room" stage at Lamorinda Music.
Front Porch Music is the Lafayette-based organization run by Austin and his wife Andree, focused on adult hobby musicians and emerging artists. This past Saturday was my first visit to their event (which has been going on for more than six years), as well as to Lamorinda Music's "Big Room."
Lafayette is a charming town, but parking can be difficult, so I was glad to see a large parking lot in front of the venue.
The entrance to the Big Room is under the arches, all the way down to the right. Due to some illnesses, there was some last-minute shuffling of performers, which opened up a spot for yours truly.
Performers at Front Porch Music Open Mic get one song apiece, but if an ensemble has more than one singer, those members may remain onstage as backing players for each other's songs. The Big Room is a 65-seat room with a raised stage, professional lighting, and a professional PA. A baby grand piano sits onstage, though it was not used the night I was there.
"Well," Austin said, looking at his notes as he moved a chair off the stage, "The first set is going to be a standing set, the second set will be a seated set."
The first performer of the night was Patrick Martin, who did indeed perform while standing. "Last month I was the last one on.
I must have made a comment or something, because I walked in tonight and oh! I'm first! I gotta learn to keep my damn mouth shut!"
"This is a song I worked out with my wife and another guy. It's lacking without the violin."
Patrick's song was a gentle descent through minor chords with some sevenths. When he sang "Love, where did you go?" and trailed off with a breathy vibrato, it gave me chills.
Ron Corrick, whom I'd last seen at Up the Creek Open Mic, took the second slot of the night.
"This is a song I wrote almost 50 years ago when I was gigging at night and working the graveyard shift. I didn't get much sleep. It's called 'All Night Baker.'" At the last open mic Ron had played two political songs, so it was nice to hear some of his other material.
Austin took to the stage again: "Jaylen Block-Smith is next. She's got her little 4-year-old back there."
A woman in a denim shirt took the stage with an acoustic guitar. "It's been a minute since I've been here. I want to bring my daughter to as many music events as I can. This is special for another reason, because her father is here. We are not together, we are co-parents. Even though we are not together, we are friends and we can be here together. This song is called 'anamchara,' which means 'soul friend.' Andrew: you are very much a soul friend."
Swaying as she sang a lilting, bluesy melody, Jaylen made excellent use of dynamics throughout her performance.
As Mike Danese took the stage next, Austin shared, "By the way, there's a bottle of wine back there with no label. That would be some Cabernet Mike grew in his own yard."
Mike jauntily thumb-picked his way into a riff even before announcing, "This is a Jimmy Buffett tune." He launched into Leon Russell's "Back to the Island" — a tune Jimmy Buffett made famous.
It was my turn next. I'd spent part of the afternoon transposing my song "The Ballad of Lou McKenzie" into a different fingering and was mostly successful playing it through in its new form.
After me, Laura Brandt and Jeff Klein got onstage, and as Austin worked to get them music stands and a second input, Jeff joked,
"It takes us ukulele players a little longer to set up because our instruments are more complicated than you guitar players!"
"This is a song Arlo Guthrie played that I just learned is a true story — and 33 people died." The song, "Run, Come See Jerusalem" is a Bahamanian folk tune about the loss of sailors' lives during the 1929 hurricane, but Laura and Jeff's rendition was jolly, with a syncopated, catchy chorus. I suppose if you want your historical disasters remembered, best to write an earworm for the ages!
Laura took vocals on the second song, which Jeff introduced: "This is a great breakup song: 'Goodbye and So Long to You.'"
Austin took the stage to advise people of an intermission and to share that, starting next month, the event is moving: "We're going outside, just up the road to the Hurst Farm!"
The lights came back up and folks milled about, chatting. I got a chance to get to know the couple I'd been sitting next to, Eric and Laura.
"Your first time here?" Eric asked. I indicated it was. "Lotta grey hair here and arthritic knees!" he grinned. I had to admit the crowd trended older — but then, Front Porch Music does say it is for "Adult Hobbyist Musicians," so fair enough.
Speaking of things "old," the second set began with an ensemble calling themselves "The Old Time String Band."
"We don't really have a name," the group's guitarist Marty Brinckerhoff said, apologetically. "The sign up website wanted a name, so I just kind of made that up."
The band played "You're Just in Love" by Irving Berlin, followed by "Wagon Wheel" — for which Marty switched to 5-string banjo.
Next up were my seat neighbors. Eric (guitar) and Laura (bass) were joined by George Anderson on tambourine. Eric introduced the song, "Fair and Tender Ladies," saying,
"This song came over on the Mayflower. Our version is from Gene Clark, who wrote two verses of his own — but it's the version I like.
"Sometimes it's referred to as 'Sparrow' or 'Little Sparrow.'"
The chorus stuck with me: "I'd rather be in some dark hollow than to live here in Missouri with your memory always haunting my mind."
As they finished, I reflected on how much I enjoyed Laura's excellent bass playing on the piece.
Michael Ching took the stage next, gently leaning into the mic: "This song was sung by Gene Powell," before launching into a swing guitar version of "It's a Most Unusual Day" that segued into a jazzy interpretation of "Penny Lane."
Jim Larsen (vocals and bongo) and Roy Kelvin (guitar) were next on the bill. "This is the progressive rock portion of the evening. We decided to mash up Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer — this is called 'Roundabout from the Beginning.' It's illegal to play 'Stairway to Heaven' and this in any Guitar Center, so we're breaking some rules here."
Roy's guitar tone was otherworldly; awash in chorus and reverb. Jim held off until halfway through before blowing some harmonica over the set. Roy followed with an instrumental piece on his own.
Austin announced the next performer had come "all the way from San Jose — Kevin Hughes!"
Lacking a pickup, Kevin pulled the mic down to his guitar's soundhole and said,
"This is a piece I wrote in 1992 called 'The Shroud,'" which proved to be a moody, dramatic piece, well-voiced for the dark tones of his acoustic guitar.
The next duo, Jeff McMoyler (singer/guitarist) and Jim Wiant (upright bass), performing as Thick As Thieves, took the stage despite some earlier calamity.
"If you heard that loud crash earlier, that was my bass," Jim said, turning his upright around to display the damage from the fall. He plucked at a string: "Well, it wasn't in tune before — maybe it's in tune now!"
The two delivered a feisty version of "Long Black Veil" that had the whole room singing along.
Jeff took to the mic for the second piece: "Here's a song I wrote over 50 years ago."
His song told an improbable — and very funny — tale of a hapless Utah bachelor who runs into a woman in a Colorado town who borrows his rolling papers.
By the end of the night the song's protagonist drives off in a stolen squad car:
"I got me sacks of bright green tobacky and a car with a lightbulb on top!"
The last performer of the night was Doug Wong, who cracked the whole crowd up with his introduction, "I'm very honored to be your headliner by attrition."
He performed a lovely version of "Love at the Five and Dime" that featured a natural harmonic as part of the finger-picking pattern.
"Nancy Griffith said the sound of the harmonic is the sound of the elevator going up and down at the Five and Dime."
Then the night was over, and the crowd filed out into the chill Lafayette evening.
Front Porch Music Open Mic is a perfect open mic for mature hobbyist musicians who want a well-run, listening-room-caliber night in a beautifully equipped space on a Saturday night.
Click on any photo in this post to see the full, uncropped version.
