1. Edwards Mini Eclipse – speaker built in to neck position pickup. From clean to crunch; black with pick-guard; soft shell ESP case: $300
2. Taylor ‘Baby’ Taylor – the original with a soft shell case: $250
3. Yamaha 4-String Bass – this was a fairly basic and inexpensive bass, a starter bass with a soft shell case: $100

More to come…

KC Turner is a powerhouse of promotion; open mics; house concerts; songwriting; the local scene; etc… I sound like a fan boy, but KC and I have developed a great relationship and I deeply enjoy attending any event he handles. Finnegan’s in Novato is no exception and he’s ran it for over 5 years not – a truly seasoned host and super likeable guy, KC makes you feel special and gives you the space to perform and share you creations.

I went up there for the first time last week and I have to say that I was overwhelmed by the supportive and wonderful regulars as well as about 10 people from the SF scene who drove up there to be part of this event. I loved the place and the food and the wine! Finnegan’s was fantastic and the open mic is in the back of the establishment and right next to the bathrooms so even better!

My turn came up and I played my song ‘Mother Nature’ and then my instrumental dedicated to my eldest cat ‘Ix’. I had a lot of pe0ple who said they really enjoyed my performance and mu skills and made me feel like a pile of gold! Thank you Diane and Ken especially – your words were super kind and inspiring and I can’t wait to come back and share more of my creations with you as well as experience some of you own.

I highly recommend this open mic as a nice getaway from the city and a chance to share yourself somewhere that isn’t SF and under the wonderful management of KC and his honed and skillful hosting.

See you soon Novato!

Brent

I want to start out by saying that in now way do I consider this competition to The Rockit Room or other open mics in the city – I just see it as a nice way to bring some live music to our part of town and showcase some of our wonderful local talent and traveling people who just want to share their craft. I will most likely immediately go to The Rockit Room after I host and still support Tris’ open mic. What they do is different and they have an awesome bar and staff and do a great job – they also allow covers where we will not at The Creamery.

I also think each Wednesday night open mic is unique and each offer a different flavor of performers and atmosphere and I think people should continue to frequent all of this and support the local scene! I do, however, hope you’ll stop by The Creamery on February 8th and possibly every Wednesday thereafter to see what we’re going to offer. I’ll be the host and will have featured performers from time to time and if no one shows, then I’ll just sit there and play my originals!

We are open to all types of original performers and artists. Poetry; story tellers; comedians; musicians; etc… just make sure you’re doing your own original material or something that is officially public domain.

Hope to see you there!

Kara Goslin was the featured performer last night and the there was quite a line for the sign-up as well as people to watch Kara and friends of performers. Damn good evening – I played at 8:30 and even though I screwed up the 2nd verse in my new song ‘One Good Eye’, I felt I played pretty good and the energy was great. Kara started a little after 9 and was awesome as usual – I don’t want to spend too much time on performers but this young lady writes some great songs and is definitely worth seeing perform.

Back to the norm it was and as much as I enjoy the open mic, I also enjoy waiting in line and talking to people and the awesome Banh Mi sandwiches from Banh Mi Love You Long Time! I normally eat really early but I have to wait for the Banh Mi on Tuesday nights at Red Devil – delicious!

There was a great batch of performers and we even had someone come all the way from Santa Cruz (that’s really not that far). Again, it’s always great to meet people from all over the area and people traveling that stop in and share their music – this open mic is mainly acoustic as is the scene here but you get a variety of instruments, styles, and people – love it!

I’m the featured performer on February 7th at 9PM so if you haven’t checked out this awesome San Francisco open mic, then you should on that night so you can see me and experience the venue!

Brent

The doors are at 5PM and if there’s no featured performer, then the first 5 performers get 3 songs each and I was the 2nd person on the list so, woot! St. Luke’s has been putting on the open mic for over a year now and last night it was full of first timers which is good for them since that’s what fuels the continuation of the open mics and that’s what we want – more open mics!

The cathedral (it is a cathedral, right?) is beautiful and again, this place is made for singing and sounds phenomenal to say the least. The PA system is top notch and was rather intimidating at first – I’ve never sang somewhere that had such a huge natural reverb. It took me to about the middle of the second song to get the feel and then the last song I played I felt in complete control. Again, the place sounds amazing!

I was worried at first that this might be some ploy to get people to come to church and proselytize me – but it’s not and it’s cool and I even tossed some money in the outreach program coffer since they do a good thing and help needy people. That’s wins in my book and although I don’t like religion, I felt comfortable and the director, Rev. Dana Corsello Rector thanked us for coming and was very nice and welcoming. Again, I did not feel the slightest bit of pressure from a religious angle and I’m a guy with a chip on my shoulder looking for a debate but I was humbled and had a great time.

I give the open mic an A+ and encourage you to visit the performance and see for yourself.

Roem Baur is normally the host but he was out on ‘paternity’ leave and Dollface was running the show with the help of Maya on sound – great night and great event!

Brent

Rockit Room is a two floor music venue and bar that has open mic on Wednesday night and then regular bands (a lot of reggae) the rest of the time. A little over a year ago they moved the stage on the 1st floor to the back of the room and built a platform (a rather high one) and made it more like a real scene – I can’t say I ever went there before the new stage but one of my first trips there was right after they made the move so I don’t have a frame of reference however everyone who is in the know said that this is a major improvement.

The open mic sign up starts at 7:30 and the show begins at 8PM promptly – there’s a list in the back and it’s first come first serve so if you want a good spot you need to get there a little early.

There are a lot of the regular open mic crowd that I know from around the city out there and all are fantastic artists and really enhance any music scene – I’ve grown to admire and have been inspired by a lot of these folks and I’m grateful for that. Brentando was assisting the open mic due to the host being out that night and doing an awesome job on sound and then performing right after me and kick much ass. Brent also tends bar there so drop in and have a drink and give him a fat tip!

Rockit Room has a lot of great drinks at great prices and there’s a slew of restaurants in the area so food is never a worry. They even have a few TV’s above the bar that doesn’t really make it feel too ‘sporty’ but it was actually really nice that they do since WVU was playing Clemson in the Orange Bowl and I was extremely happy to watch them devastate them and walk away with a victory – I think that really enhanced the evening

I had a great time and played a great set and then had a few more beers and chatted and mingled with folks. I was really happy to see the open mic there doing so well and so many familiar and talented artists! I certainly will be going back to Rockit Room ASAP – I have a feature performance this week at The Creamery so it may be next week before I have the chance to go back – but nonetheless, Rockit Room is an awesome open mic, with a great little stage; good sound reinforcement; excellent staff and hosts. It’s a must see/hear if you’re in to the local music scene and I definitely recommend checking it out at least once.

Hola! Burlingame is located at 1448 Burlingame Avenue smack dab in the middle of town and right off El Camino Real – there was also ample parking on the street right in front and around and I don’t know if that’s just because it was a holiday or not considering there are numerous other establishments open that late – I don’t know. Nonetheless, there was plenty of parking tonight and I immediately found a space about 40 paces from the front door to Hola!

I immediately was pointed to the nice lady with the sing-up sheet and failed to get her name (here’s that reference to note taking!) but she signed me up and greeted me and thanked me for coming and asked where I heard of them. “Craigslist.” Was my reply and rightly so when it comes to this sort of thing around here; people pre-announce new open mics and venues there all the time and this one has been around for 8 total shows and already pulling a strong crowd full of seasoned musicians – at some points it felt like a live karaoke band!

So I was 4th or 5th – wasn’t paying attention as I was chowing on the carne asada and it was fantastic! Served with a side of black beans and rice and a grilled ear of corn on the cob! Damn good food and some beers and I was content. Excellent food on my first sampling of the place and I do intend to go back for more than just the food. Back to the music: The drummer and bassist asked if I wanted them to accompany me and I said sure! How could I pass that up? These guys were masters of the trade and extremely adept – they grooved right on to my songs and I belted them out with a bit more grunt than normal – a bit more to the point that I was singing edgy and rough and more hard rockish and I liked it! I’ve noticed this in me from time to time and I try to be a clean and smooth singer but when I have a band… Yeah, I dig it.

So they played great and we jammed out 3 of my songs: Mother Nature; You Know Me; and, I Met A Girl. There were a few hiccups but I’m sure they were me and finally, for the first time – I got to play 3 of my original songs with an awesome bassist and drummer and it felt fantastic. I love what they’ve thrown together at Hola! and the evening was filled with a slew of great players including one of the first – a 14 year old girl with an acoustic guitar that rocked!

This is a different vibe than the normal places in San Francisco that I frequent and the main difference was the full band and the fact that everyone kept switching instruments and by the time I left at 10:45, 4 different people had played drums and I doubt that was all that could! I think they’ve got a great thing going and I definitely plan to go back and play again and next time – next time, I’ll bring an electric guitar and jam out even harder! San Francisco is more of the acoustic/folk/Americana type open mics and I do know there are actually some house band types out there like this but I ain’t been to one and when I do I’ll rectify my opinion if needed

I almost took a video camera with me and I didn’t because I think it’s at the office in another guitar case and I didn’t feel like running in to get it but regardless! I wish I would have because that was wicked and Hola! Open Mic on Monday is a must see/do if you want to play with a band and/or jam out some covers – they’ve got good food, drink and atmosphere – what more could you want?

My ranking of Hola! is at the top of the open mics I’ve been to so far and look forward to future visits! Check it out if you get the chance and want to play with a full band and just sing or play an original or whatever – GO! They even had a fireplace with lots of space and tables in the back and a balcony above if you just want to sit back and watch.

Brent

The amount of people who treasure and love Bazaar is astounding and I’m hoping that enough people can afford to pitch in and save Bazaar and help keep this amazing little place stay open. I don’t know all the details and it doesn’t really matter – I know the economy has been bad and less people are going out and spending less money and that’s just the same everywhere so we have to take that in to consideration and we know a lot of places like Bazaar have succumbed to the same problems and fate dealt them a final blow – I’ve seen so many restaurants here in the city shut down or even worse – open then 6 months later close their doors.

I know personally from having worked a bit in the food industry when I was young that the profit margin is really low and the operational costs continue to go up. It’s a struggle for small and privately owned establishments to make it through the rough spots unlike a large corporate chain where the sheer number of them allows rough spots where the main company can financially support. When a small business has these low times, it’s usually the end of them and this is one time where it would be a massively tragic loss to see this happen – to see Bazaar Cafe close down and be no more. I don’t want to see that so I’ve pitched in some cash myself and I’m hoping that more and more people can before January 2nd and help this amazing cafe remain open and hopefully keep on cranking out the music and art and down home type awesomeness.

Click here to go to the Bazaar Cafe donation page.

I started on Monday when KC posted the new song title challenge and decided that I would use a capo for the first time and complete a song using it for this songwriting club – and I failed but I did finish a song and post it! This was a challenge to say the least! This was the 4th different chord progression and riff I’d devised for the piece and finally today I settled on this and went with it. I started out with the chorus “one good eye” and evolved it from there. I had the framework for the chorus and the lyric and then it was simple to compose the verse – which isn’t always the case but this time it was and it worked out!

The hardest part was working on the arrangement and then deciding to add that little bridge piece – I was going to keep it simple and just have verse and chorus but I came up with it and liked and decided I would make it fit even if it didn’t! I’m happy with the outcome and although you can hear me screw up the timing when playing it, I don’t think it’s a bad attempt for one day for someone who is fairly new to songwriting!

I think it’s a slow week due to the holiday but there were no other entries for week #61 and maybe that’s good but I would really have liked to have heard what other people did with the same set of words. The biggest thing I enjoy about the open mic scene is the unknown and the new and you sure get a lot of that with the variety of artists churning out original material on the local scene here in San Francisco. It’s truly quite amazing and I’m so fortunate to rub elbows with some amazing talent.

So there’s my entry and I don’t know how soon I’ll do another – this truly consumed a large part of my week and although I did produce a new song, I think I spent a lot time on it – in the future, surely I’ll do more and hopefully it’ll help me hone my song-crafting ability so that I can produce higher quality product in a shorter amount of time. I hate to use the word product but in the most general sense of the word, a musician will produce music/song therefore being his ‘product’. I am no different and will not deny this – I have product even if you can’t buy it yet!

Brent