Wind it up again… Rocktober’s Open Mic at Cup of Joe…

Third Friday of the month is Open Mic night at Cedar Fall’s Cup of Joe and it is the event that guitar playing devotees such as myself use to motivate ourselves to develop new tunes and to enhance out musical technique.
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October’s Open Mic was again hosted by Rick Vanderwall and Bill Guernsey, as well as Rick’s grandson, Colin Simpson. They provide the sound system and some sense of order by ushering through performers in 15 minute time slots. Order was required that night as Cup of Joe was a full house by the time performances commenced. The payback for Rick and company is they themselves get to open the night with a performance.

As I said, Open Mic night is big stuff for those of us trying to develop our performing chops. Two of the regulars are my friend Grant Tracey and me. Here we are the day before Open Mic at one of our wood and steel gatherings, checking out some of the finer guitar instrumental offerings at Bob’s Guitars in Cedar Falls. Grant’s holding a Taylor GS Mini and I am twanging away on a Taylor T5z Pro Ltd., which is a singular guitar!

I like to play first, right after Rick, Bill and Colin do their thing. Perhaps it was nerves when I first started doing Open Mic, but now it’s a habit… I am rethinking opening the night in the future as this past Friday it was pandemonium while I was playing, with people milling around in front of me still signing up for slots to play. Very hard to connect with the audience or play cleanly with that sort of chaos surrounding me.

Nevertheless, I managed to get through my set with minimal “shanks” into the musical rough. For the first time ever, I played a medley of Take a Whiff on Me & Stagolee, both being in the key of D. My guitar teacher Tom Garman helped me create a “professional” transition between the two pieces. I also knocked out a couple of my favorite tunes, Cocaine Blues and Railroad Bill. Probably the highlight for me was to play a spirited version of Etta Baker’s Carolina Breakdown, a tune I stumbled through a year ago during my first sojourn into the world of Open Mic. The photograph of me on Friday night was taken by my wife Annette, who showed up just in the nick of time to catch my performance. She’d been on the road with her students touring the fashion industry in Minneapolis earlier that day!

Kudos to my friend Grant who played his set, including a Hank Williams cover and several of his own tunes, all played for the first time at Open Mic on an acoustic guitar. I thought for that venue it sounded far better than the Fender Mustang he’s played in the past! His home penned tunes, such the fan favorite, Black Sky, work really well with acoustic guitar accompaniment.

See you next month… and I must get to work on some new tunes!