Well, it wasn’t really an open mike due to the threat of another snow storm. One that didn’t really happen during the evening tonight. But, this afternoon we had to decide to be creative and pare down the open mike to a song swap, and it turned out to be wonderful.

 

John Hufford, the guest host, suggested folks bring an early song from our repertoires and a song that we loved when we were teens. The diversity was great, from Joni Mitchell to The Animals, Kingston Trio to Live, plus some poetry and original songs. Lots of listening and support. Seems like this is something Godfrey’s should pursue on a regular basis.

 

I brought up Zombie Jamboree and I talked about listening to Kingston Trio from the Hungry I, a live album (stereo!) that turned my ears around, not only because of the songs, but because of the live album with humorous presentation. I guess that rings true today.

 

When it came around again, I did The House of the Rising Sun, one that my first band tried to learn from the Animals, another example of the British Invasion bringing American folk songs back to the US. I also related how we had a hard time learning songs, with little chance to tape the tunes and learn them in real time. This song also was chordally challenging for our tender ears and wasn’t a love song. It still remains a fun song to play and I have a nice arrangement for it.

 

Sam, Bill, Dina, Mike, Leon, and some new faces came by and it had some magic moments. ‘so precious and so few’.