Open Mic, January 6, 2018

Latin Rhythm Night at the Arts Center

It was cold outside, but the Arts Center gallery was warm and friendly as host Robert Foster kicked off the show with "Father and Son," Cat Stephens. Foster's mellow voice and finger picking guitar style are always enjoyed by the audience. He finished his set with "Whiskey and You," by Chris Stapleton and "Turn the Page," by Bob Seger.

Singer and guitarist Alan Booth returned to our show after a long absence. "Alan last performed at our show when we were still at the Karma Bakeria," said Arts Center president Ron Hackett. Booth's song were short and quick, so he was able to squeeze five songs into his 15 minutes. He sang "This Old House," written by Stuart Hamblen; "Sneaky Snake," by Tom T. Hall; "Coca-Cola Cowboy" written by Steve Dorff, Sandy Pinkard, Sam Atchley and Bud Dain; "Leroy the Redneck Reindeer" by Joe Diffie; and "Seven Spanish Angels" by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser.

Saxophonist Evelyn Warden returned to perform an improvised solo for "Autumn Leaves," a French song by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma. She followed that with a soulful rendition of "Some to Watch Over Me," by George Gershwin. She finished with "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," a song by Frederick Loewe from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady.

Singer and guitarist Travis Leimer, who is studying to become a host for the show, began his set with "I will Follow You into the Dark" a song by indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie. "Ask Me How I Know," by Garth Brooks next, and he finished with "Colder Weather," by Zac Brown.

Arts Center president and open mic co-host Ron Hackett started with a special announcement about the First Annual “For Pete’s Sake” benefitting The Pete Huttlinger Fund for Adult Congenital Cardiac Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Then Hackett performed an instrumental guitar tune called, "Windy and Warm" that he learned from Huttlinger before Huttlinger's untimely passing in 2016.

Then Hackett began the audience participation portion of the show. With help from Leimer, they passed out Latin rhythm devices including a cabasa and a guiro. Warden returned to the stage to participate as Hackett used a looper to record a guitar accompaniment track for "The Girl from Ipanema," a well-known bossa nova by Antonio Jobim. With the accompaniment track playing and the audience participating, Hackett and Warden took turns improvising melodies. They finished the audience participation portion of the show with Keith Jarrett's "Lucky Southern."

Avant-garde singer, songwriter, and guitarist Thunderbyrd Newman returned again this week with several of his original songs that included, "Hill in the Family" and "Aw Jeanie."

With a few minutes remaining, Booth was invited to perform and encore. He chose "On the Road Again," by Willie Nelson and "Dream On" by Steven Tyler of the band Aerosmith.

Hackett started his encore with an old movie ballad written by Harold Arlen for the Wizard of Oz. Because Hackett's arrangement has a swing or Latin style, he calls it "Swinging Over the Rainbow." Hackett ended the show with a special solo arrangement of "Fly Me to the Moon" written by Bart Howard in 1954. "I started arranging this song for guitar while visiting with my parents at Thanksgiving. A few days later my mother died unexpectedly. This is the first time I've played the arrangement publicly," said Hackett.