Open mic like pot pie

November 1, 2011 and I'm off to a new venue. This place has been described as a hang-out for the young folk. My own boy in fact has been dropped off their a couple of times. My fear is as I drive there that this will be a young scene and the kids will be performing for each other, my set may be a struggle here, so similar to the Irishman I leave the guitar in the car and go check the place out.

As I approach I can see it's a smaller venue but there are a lot of people around. Some kids are sat on tables outside and there are people coming in and out. I head in and see something that warms me. The Clarence Center Cafe is divided in two by a partition on the near side is the counter and a couple of tables. There are a couple of guys sat with guitars against the left wall as I walk in and a couple at the table just inside the door. On the other side of the partition is a full audience sat at tables facing a stage area where an older guy sits to the side at a mixer and on stage a fellow open-mic'er is doing his thing to a very appreciative crowd.

So a couple of things which make this a great setup. 1) The older guy sat by the stage is monitoring each and every performer and making sure their sound balance is the best it can be (he even asks you how you want to be sat while the guy before you plays his last song) 2) The audience has come to hear independent song-writers, they aren't here by accident and there are too many for them all to be friends of the 3 performers I see here, 3) This kind of set up attracts the best musicians, it becomes a self fulfilling self perpetuating cycle where good music and good audiences meet regularly to share their music and music appreciation.

I watch the performances of the three guys ahead of me and they are all great, I ready myself for my performance. I am performing 3 tough songs including Masquerade which opens with the toughest picking part I play, and Solid Ground which is quite a mellow song it needs a good crowd to appreciate the sentiment. I open the set and immediately notice that the audience is silent and attentive and the not only is the crowd sound balance good but the monitoring is excellent - I can hear myself! This is really important for Solid Ground and Masquerade, I often play these unable to hear the picking sections guitar part.

The set goes by lightning fast... it's a strict 3 song maximum, I get chatting to the other players who stayed to hear the last of the sets of the night. I am introduced to fellow song-writer Rich Hendricks and am updated on a few other great open mics around. A young girl asks for my online details so she can check out more of my stuff, she tells me how much she loves English accents, the guy at the mixing desk insists I come back. This is the kind of night that motivates me to keep on keeping on.

I leave the place a happy man, like a man who just ate a pot pie.

When is an open mic not an open mic?

So it's now Wednesday. My plan to play all of these open mics is well under way, Nietzsche's was great on Monday so my spirits are high as I try to break through the fatigue and get myself ready for the next set tonight. I have always had tremendous respect for those who gig regularly and have full day jobs, it's an exhausting schedule, and one that I want to be able to handle so here we go week 1, day 3 off to The Irishman in Williamsville for their open mic night.

As it's an Irish bar I'm figuring they are going to warm to my tales of leaving Britain to come to the US as many of the staff and locals will have done the same so I plan to lead out with "change", "Won't mind the rain", "I'll wait for you" and "Broken Road" all deeply in that theme.

I arrive and decide to leave the guitar in the car while I check out what the dilly is. As I walk in first I notice that there's a good lot of people in the bar... maybe 30 or so. There's a full band set up in the corner with mics and drum kit, the band themselves must be somewhere around. I guess them to be a group of guys stood at the end of the bar with sheets of paper that look to have song titles on them. They are doing shots with the bartender. At the back of the group I make eye contact with an older guy.

"Is this an open mic night? " I ask
"Yes" says the guy "You wanna play?"
"Sure" I reply.

He says great go get your guitar and we'll get you set up. I get the guitar and order myself a water with ice. I am served a Michelob ultra in a bottle with a glass full of ice. I say I don't mind having the Michelob but can I get a glass of water too? She says the Michelob is on the house and gets me a glass of water. As I take the first couple of mouthfuls, the older guy (Bob I learn later) gestures me to the stage as the band makes their way back. The guys struggle to set me up, it doesn't look like anyone has shown up with a guitar before... but eventually I am ready. No introduction though so the whole bar is engaged in conversation with the exception of the band who are sat in front of me at a table with a strange look of "this is odd" on their face...

So I begin, I say "Hi my name's Harvey, I'm a British singer-songwriter and I'd like to play you a few songs off my forthcoming Album" I can't hear the crickets for the overwhelming noise of conversations going on around the bar, the band are still looking at me and there's one guy at a table to my left who is watching so I start playing...

The songs go really well from my perspective, the talking doesn't stop throughout the set. The band gets more and more enthusiastic with their clapping which is great, the guy on the tabel to the left claps and so does one other guy on the table behind him. Apart from that it appears that the rest of the bar are completely disinterested in what is happening on stage... oh well, a little odd but job done I got through my "practice" without slip-ups and the band at least seemed to enjoy it. I head up to the bar.

"Pint of Guinness please" I ask "Did you enjoy the songs?"
"What the band?" she replies
"no the songs I just played, the last four songs was me."
She looks very embarrassed.
"Well..." she said, "I only really hear it if it's really bad so I guess it must have been good!" She smiles, still glowing a little in the cheeks...

I take my pint of Guinness and my guitar and decide to enjoy a good pint and listen to the band as they are making their way onto stage.

As they start playing, it all starts to make sense. The band are bad. The entire bar has completely tuned out music from their audible range. I'll be honest they do get to a couple of tunes that they have obviously played more often and aren't too bad but essentially I'm able to piece this all together. My thinking is validated when the band start asking for tips... this is a gig for this band disguised as an open mic. They can't charge for gigs because they aren't quite there yet. I don't know but I'm guessing people don't often come in to play this "open mic" which is why it all felt a bit awkward.

The older guy I had spoken to earlier comes over and thanks me for the songs and lets me know he comes in every few weeks and that I should come back. This can go either of two ways now, either a bunch of us start going there and turn this into a proper open mic or we leave these guys to their night and hope they have success... I'm going with the latter ;) They are a good bunch of folks and I wish the band every success as they continue to play.

I close out my tab and notice I am being charged for the Michelob, I say nothing. I make my way home.

Reminded why I enjoy this

As I walk into the bar, a young man is shouting frantically at the small audience that shelters against the bar and behind tables in the darkness towards the back. All around me are strange random objects and signs, people have written on the high ceiling, people are beaming back at the young man shouting. He runs back to the stool in the "stage" area of the bar, picks up his guitar, finishes his ranting introduction to the song and begins playing. His song is short, his lyrics barely audible but the performance is very satisfying. I walk in and take an open seat at the bar. I am at the Monday night open mic at Nietzsche's, the longest running open mic in Buffalo hosted by Josh Gage.

I order a lager shandy (Harp and Sprite) as I'm driving. The bartender has never encountered such an unusual drink and eyes me suspiciously. I look around for someone who looks like they may be Josh and as the young man finishing shouting at the audience and takes the enthusiastic applause a guys walks from the doorway and takes the microphone.

"OK next up is one part of the duo "Sultry and the Wizard"... everybody welcome Sultry!"

Sultry is an older gentleman with a mandolin, Wizard I am guessing is his girlfriend who is sick and can't play this week but true to his audience Sultry has shown up anyway and plays a few ancient and warming shanty ballads ending on a bit of "Whiskey in the jar". While all this is going on I add myself to a list, I will have to wait to play, I am after Andy (or was it Frank... definitely Andy or Frank). I order my second shandy and settle in to enjoy the other musicians. As Sultry finishes playing its obvious that he is a well loved member of the local community, everyone claps and I throw out a couple of woop-woops for good measure.

Next up is a real gem of a band... as I write I am trying to remember the name they play under... give me a minute it will come to me, Josh kept saying prepare to be... and then the bands name with -ed at the end, it was halloweeny, I'll get it in a minute. There was an accordion player, an artsy and pretty girl with spiked hoops for earrings playing flute, a young guy with a violin and another guy with a trumpet. They are all consummate musicians, they take us far away to Eastern Europe and a couple of centuries back with dark and lyrical instrumentals from some ancient gipsy play-book that someone had found in a backstreet bookstore somewhere in the lost provinces of Romania. As they begin and take us on that journey I realize it will be some time before I play, these guys are really good and none of us are going to be rushing them off the stage as the bouncing accordion player leads us through dark and mystical song after dark and mystical song.

Andy is next... I am pleased to say because following .... (the band with the... crap what were they called) would not have been something I would have welcomed. The band that remains nameless leaves the bar and takes half the audience with them, oh well let's see what Andy is like. Andy is a beginner at all of this, his songs are a repetition of the same chord sequence, which is ok, it's a folk standard, but it lends a little monotony for the listener. His lyrics are ok but his voice is loud and out of tune. The audience that is left in the bar turns to conversation and claps politely at the end of Andy's songs, Josh comes in to turn down the vocal a bit. I chat with the guy who'd been shouting at everyone earlier. "This guy's pretty bad but probably better than my set right?" he asks. I disagreed, I thought his set was very entertaining we shook hands. Andy pulls out a doozy and has the whole bar singing that Jewish song that they always play in movies when they want to play instantly recognizably Jewish music. Andy ends with a song about his own death and makes us all feel a little uncomfortable...

"Thanks Andy! Let's have a round of applause for Andy [we are all still a little uncomfortable about the last song but throw in a few claps]. Next up is Harvey!"

Alright so here we go... a couple of folks go out for a smoke, a group right in front me has completely switched off from what's going on on stage and is having a nice loud chat, I have a couple of eye contacts as I introduce myself "Hi" and begin playing.

I begin with "Son of a common man" to try to win a few people back to the music and I have some success, by the end of the song, the loud conversations have died down a bit and I have a few more faces turned my way as I get into the rest of my set. I play through Castaways under it's alternative title of "This is not a love song" and I couple that with "Still can't say I left you" (Slowed down version of Knocking your door) the closest I have to a love song and by the end of the three I have a good audience woop at the end of the songs and people have come inside from smoking. Even the guys from the band with no name have come back in with their buddies, I'm in my happy place. I end the night with the Winnie the pooh song "Free Honey!" and everyone gets a good laugh out of it. Job done, I'm very happy with the set, no fluffs or forgotten lyrics and I have developed a very strong affection for Nietzsche's open mic night.


Before I leave, the girl behind the bar tries a bit of my last pint of shandy and admits it's not that bad, the shouting guy shakes my hand again "nice job man" and I share a few comments with Josh, he really liked the set and I let him know I'll be back.

Good times, hope to see them all further down the river. (I will write down the name of that band if I see them again...)

Pushing out the boat

Welcome to my blog.

I am a singer-songwriter about to release his first solo album entitled "by each river".

"By each river" is the title song of the album and to be honest it's the last song to be written and it's still evolving. The song is about challenging yourself to leave where you are and take a path that offers you less control over the outcome. Right now we are standing in our well ordered and familiar life on the bank of the river.

As I finish this album and release it I will push my boat out and see where it takes me. In the blog I will recount my journey as i drift downstream.