Open Mic Gang - 2025 01 26

 

My sister and I shared a new experience last evening. We attended an open mic gathering at our local community service centre. 

Holly arrived at my house at 2 pm in the afternoon. We had a cup of tea and caught up on project developments and then rehearsed for an hour and a half. We wanted to prepare a couple of songs for the open mic, we also wanted to work on songs that are new to each of us.

When Holly and I play together, our default instrumentation is for Holly to play the dulcimer and I play the bass. Our alternate instrumentation is to have Holly play the piano, and I play either the bass or a recorder or whistle. For this expedition we were self-contained with our string instruments and our own amplification.

The songs we settled on for the open mic were pieces that we have performed before. We were going into a new situation with new people. We decided it would be best if we also didn't add new music and arrangements to the mix. That said, we spent time working out our vocal harmony arrangement for Leonard Cohen's song, 'Anthem'.

For our first song, we decided on Holly's wonderful song from a sailing trip to the Broughton Archipelago, 'Pott's Lagoon'. 

We were early arriving at the venue. It was only a 10 minute drive from my house. Volunteers and the feature performer for the evening were still completing the sound check. We were let into the entrance foyer to get out of the cold to wait for the doors to open. Holly and I were first into the hall, and so, were first to put our names on the sign up sheet.

There was a full stage set up, with three vocal microphones on stands and guitar cables on hand to plug into the sound system. Chris, the sound engineer, had a table front and centre to monitor sound, tweek volume, and make sure everyone was plugged in properly. 

I plugged my bass amp in separately. Too late I realized I had forgotten to bring my little amp stand to lift and tilt the amp. I remembered Nathen's instruction that it was ok for me to make sure my bass amp is positioned so I can hear it easily. Ideally, that would mean I had it up on a stool or chair right behind me. In this situation, it was on the floor to my right, pointing at an angle toward the audience and me. There was no time for a sound check. I just had to cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I used the microphone provided, but realized, again too late, that I wished I had brought my windscreen. There are a couple of reasons to add this into my travel kit - first, it is more sanitary to cover the mic, when we are singing we get very close to the mic; second, to reduce popping and breathing noise picked up by the amplifier.

It was a wonderful evening of music that I would not have heard anywhere else. It was super fun to sing and play with my sister, to share our lifetime of music with our new friends and neighbours. The performers ranged in age across generations. It was inspiring to hear a young man of twenty-three interpret three hundred year old song lyrics, "my age," he added, ruefully, to his introductory remarks. The songs ranged from well-known folk songs from the 1960s folk revival, many original songs sharing stories of contemporary life in folk tradition, and other folk songs from other times and ages arranged in quirky, interesting arrangements.

What I love about being part of an Open Mic Gang is that we are inclusive. There are brilliant, well practice instrumental flourishes and new performers playing into an amplified system for the first time, "I just want you to know that I can play this very well at home by myself, but I might have some trouble here, playing for you." There are lyrics that slice to the heart of the matter played to simple, traditional chord progressions and melodies.

Holly and I had a good time sharing our songs. We received positive feedback from audience members, particularly appreciating the harmonies Holly and I had worked out for those songs.

I am inspired to put more time into playing the bass and singing at the same time. I don't do that enough in my daily practice. I'm also inspired to dig into my collection of Child's Ballads lyric collection and think about depictions of caring, equality and justice in song.

The next open mic at Frog Hollow is Saturday, February 22. I'm going to start working on my next two songs for that.