Massive Open Mic!!!

As part of Songfest, we are going to have a Massive Open Mic: Saturday, Dec. 3, 6pm 'til whenever at the Blue Nile on Frenchmen Street.

Sign Up To Play - First Come, First-Play!!!

Sign up will be on-site at the Blue Nile starting at 6 pm.

At the Open Mic, we will give away two LR Baggs acoustic guitar M1 pickups (MSRP $249), 8 hours of free studio time (2 hours each studios TBA, two free TAXI annual memberships (value: $300), and two Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) annual memberships (value: $150).

Here's the drill: show up at the Open Mic, play, and stick around until midnight when we announce the winners—and it's not based on talent—it'll be a random drawing of all who play the Open Mic!!! As the Bluebird's Barbara Cloyd says, "you must be present to win!!!" We just got some secret donations which we won't divulge—but EVERYBODY who plays AND stays will receive a gift of some sort!!!

Why do you want to do this? Because you just never know who will be sitting in the audience at this Open Mic listening to you just like they do at the real Bluebird in Nashville!!!

So You're "Beyond" Playing Open Mics!!!!! Read This

1) You will meet plenty of kindred souls and potential co-writers—and anyway, if you are going to be in town for the festival, as a writer and a musician—why the hell not play??!!

2) We are giving away $thousands of stuff!!!!!!! All you have to do is show up and play, and stay 'til the end of the night when we do the drawing!!!

Open Mic "Rules"

* No "covers" - Songs you wrote by yourself or are a co-writer of ONLY.
* No "tracks" - You may accompany yourself on an instrument or have ONE accompanist, but you may not sing to a pre-recorded track. In any event, we will only have two microphones set up and two direct boxes (for instruments). (Actually, we will have 4 mics on stage—two for vocals and two backup mics for folks that don't have a pickup in their guitar, but don't think that means you can put four singers on stage—the two-person rule still applies.)
* No "bands" - This is a singer/songwriter event. If you are part of a band and you wrote the song, come and play it solo.
* Time Limit - No Songs over 5 minutes - we will turn off your mic!!.
* Introducing you, your song, your web site, your phone number, your hopes, dreams, and aspirations - DON'T DO IT. Let the song speak for you. Believe us, if it's GREAT, everybody will know it and want to know you.
* Be tuned up - We will explain how things go before the event and you will know when you are to go on—be tuned and ready to go.
* Piano - To save time, we will have a house keyboard. It will be set to piano mode in standard tuning. Don't mess with it—just play it!! Also, check it before you play it to make sure it is set correctly!!!
* If you mess up - Don't sweat it and don't apologize—it's an Open Mic dude!! Just pick up where ever you are comfortable and go on.
* Other - Don't tell us you're really not a singer or apologize for your playing, etc. Just do your song to the best of your ability. It's all about the song here.
* Reading lyrics: Nope, nah gonna do it. If you are a lyricist only, you have to find somebody to write the music for your lyric and make it into a song AND perform it. Sorry, but it's not a song until it's a song!!
* Reading off lyric sheet: If the song's so new you haven't memorized it, are you sure you really want to take a chance performing it?? (Remember how pitiful fat Elvis looked in his later years readin' off those lyric sheets!!) It's your call, but we wouldn't do it.
* Pedals: No pedals—we just ain't got the time to mess with them. Moreover, we will have reverb on the board to sweeten you up. If your song relies on playing over loops, you will have to pick somebody else's event. Our focus is to get as many people on stage in the night as we can and that means we have to keep it simple.