Last night I performed three songs at the Open Mic Night at the long-lived, wonderful bar in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood called the Hidden Shamrock (http://www.thehiddenshamrock.com/).
The open mic was completely packed -- with regulars and fellow students from a class I just took at the Old Town School of Folk Music called Open Stage 101. We had a blast, drank, ate, sang, and applauded each other through a wide variety of great tunes -- covers and original alike. I played two songs from my new album Follow the River Bend plus a new one I've been working on for a few weeks, but not before listening to my great new friends from Old Town -- Keith, Sheila, Peggy and Paula totally kicked out the jams, and everyone was smiling all night long.
The open mic at the Hidden Shamrock is hosted by Chicago musicians Leigh Evin McCullough and Scott Besaw. All evening they energetically and enthusiastically set each performer in motion and provided the ideal audio levels to best capture the qualities of each performer. I highly recommend attending and performing there!