\u201cSongwriters Open Mic\u201d (SOM) is a monthly show held at Oz\u2019s Music Environment in Ann Arbor (www.ozmusic.com ).\u00a0 Half-hour videotapes of the live show are broadcast every week in Ann Arbor (www. a2ctn.org) and in Grand Rapids (www.grcmc.org\/tv\/)\u00a0 I host the open mic and edit the tv show.\u00a0 More about that some other time.<\/p>\n
2008 was another wonderful, fun year for Songwriters Open Mic.\u00a0 Here in no particular order \u2013 or perhaps in some subconscious order you can fathom \u2013 are Jim Novak\u2019s Favorite Performances of 2008.\u00a0 These are my favorites \u2013 not really \u201cbest of,\u201d except in a subjective sense.\u00a0 After all, when I edit these performances I get to watch and listen over and over and over again.\u00a0 So, after what I guess you could call repeated exposure, here are my fav\u2019s, limited to one per songwriter.\u00a0 This is how I remember SOM2008.<\/p>\n
Dan Cooper, The Real Thing
\n(Dan is a Broadway pro and is starring as Che in \u201cEvita\u201d at The Encore Theater in Dexter, Michigan, in February, 2009; (www.theencoretheatre.org\/)<\/p>\n
Laurel Federbush, Opportunity Knocks
\n(Laurel on harp and vocal, lyrics by Robert Ponte)<\/p>\n
Paul Epstein, Ain\u2019t No Love in This World No More
\n(Paul passionately pounding the piano)<\/p>\n
The Hummingbirds, Washtenaw (www.thehummingbirds.com )
\n(S.G. and Rachel Lynn came in to talk up their songwriters\u2019 workshop in the U.P.)<\/p>\n
The Kronic Vibes, You Turn Me to Stone (www.myspace.com\/thekronicvibes)
\n(Great bunch of guys\u2014they booked Oz\u2019s for a rehearsal during my open mic, but we worked it out)<\/p>\n
Dave Morse, My Eyes Don\u2019t Lie
\n(He took a phrase of his daughter\u2019s and added great chords and rhythm)<\/p>\n
Hunter Wade, Baseball Song (http:\/\/profile.myspace.com\/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=71734679 )
\n(A gay guy with a certain attraction to The Game)<\/p>\n
Chad Williams, December
\n(A song just like Melville\u2019s \u201cdamp drizzly November in my soul\u201d)<\/p>\n
David Alles, Alchemy
\n(David was in law school here, then moved back East)<\/p>\n
Kurt Ringquist, Did We Go Where
\n(Kurt\u2019s in the media biz, also has moved back East)<\/p>\n
Taya Lee, Grasshopper
\n(Taya used to live down the street from me, in the big old house where they had drum parties on the Summer Solstice etc)<\/p>\n
Cristian Cirosca, Sincere Stranger
\n(Recent immigrant to Ann Arbor, from Rumania)<\/p>\n
\u201cT\u201d, Tattoo Psychosis
\n(Immigrant from Beatnik-land and Lord Buckley)<\/p>\n
Gary Taylor, Good Trouble
\n(Also wrote a whole suite of broken-hearted country songs)<\/p>\n
Ruth Salles, Big Poppa
\n(That voice and that song go so well together)<\/p>\n
Jack Richards, Southern Country Traveling
\n(Jack got a new guitar this year!)<\/p>\n
\u201cBrooke\u201d, Letters from 1881
\n(She did a couple funny songs, and then this one based on love letters written over 100 years ago)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it\u2014Jim Novak\u2019s SOM Favorites of 2008.<\/p>\n
Later this year, I\u2019ll add some photo\u2019s of these SOM performers to this site.<\/p>\n
If you were at the shows, or watched the performances on TV, let me know if you like my favorites or if your favorites are different from mine.<\/p>\n
Next Songwriters Open Mic live show:\u00a0 the first Tuesday of every month at 7:30pm.\u00a0 Songwriters can do 3 songs or 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Next tv show: every Tuesday at 8pm and Thursday at 4 pm, Channel 17, Ann Arbor (Comcast Cable).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cSongwriters Open Mic\u201d (SOM) is a monthly show held at Oz\u2019s Music Environment in Ann Arbor (www.ozmusic.com ).\u00a0 Half-hour videotapes of the live show are broadcast every week in Ann Arbor (www. a2ctn.org) and in Grand Rapids (www.grcmc.org\/tv\/)\u00a0 I host the open mic and edit the tv show.\u00a0 More about that some other time. 2008 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11,"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimnovaksongwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}