Wednesday nights continue to be an adventure and though March will definitely see the night moving up by half an hour, I’m still debating whether or not I should randomize my list. It’s funny that this is never a conversation with anything I’ve run anywhere else but the Takoma Park area. There’s just something special going on there.

In any case, a lot of my old school regulars continue to find us, which is wonderful. David Potts-Dupre, who I haven’t seen since the Capital City Cheesecake open mics (did he come to Republic? Once or twice I think) popped out with guitars, bass and … of course? Bagpipes – and played one my absolute favourite songs, “The Dead They Speak At Night”. Heather and Kristen recorded parts for the studio version of this song, and Live performances of it never fail to give me chills.

Another wonderful pop in by Tom Prasada-Rao who … frankly I need to find a balance between fanboy and host for him because I’d like to know him better, but… yeah… don’t want to just be another TPR groupie! His (either genuine or merely down-tuned) baritone Danelectro with modded (definitely genuine) sitar bridge was an absolute pleasure to listen to. He was playing to either backing tracks or some sort of drone / tabla / shruti app so I’m not ENTIRELY sure what tones were coming from the guitar and what was coming from his phone, but it made for a transporting, beautiful change up to his sound. Betwixt the baritone tonight and his bass violins last week, I’m wondering how many more appearances he’ll make before he repeats an instrument!

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I may gripe about civility down here, but the area continues to surprise me with instrumentation. Whether it’s just the community of House of Musical Traditions or simply the close proximity to the multi-cultural hotbed of Washington DC (and though we can argue about whether or not we mean “multi-cultural appropriation hotbed”” or genuine multiple cultures – the DC version of this term doesn’t simply mean wearing traditional African patterns to work and sporting a knowledge of family history, but a genuine influx of people from other nations constantly churning the arts and accents of the DC-metro area) I continue to be pleasantly surprised by someone bringing me a new instrument here and there.

Having hosted open mics for a long time at this point (who knew this’d be my path?) I feel like I’ve amplified just about everything at least once but tonight I got both Tom’s modded electric baritone / sitar / guitar and also a tiny set of bagpipes that I’d like to know a little bit more about. I think they were European, but not Scottish… I have to track down the player and ask about them.

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Anywho – I imported something for MYSELF last night in the form of the feature and Marissa Zechinato of Baltimore didn’t disappoint our little Silver Spring scene.

Marissa Zechinato

As always, her stunning vocal control reminds me that there’s a LOT of notes on the scale that just don’t get used, and her ability to often hit many of them without seeming to SLIDE from one to the next is a healthy display of what a well-trained / exercised voice can accomplish. Her piano chops are fantastic and she falls into that TPR category of people who seem to genuinely radiate peace and tranquility.

Her songs continue to move me, though some of them feel downright brutal and knowing a little bit of the background… well, they probably ARE downright brutal. MZ deserves great things and I’m glad she was so well received even on a rainy, windy night.

A rainy, windy night as news reports about Corona Virus are pushing toward the panicky. I clean my mics extra during flu season… but I don’t want people to see that and think I’m freaking out about anything other than the common cold, because that’s bad enough, but what’s good for the goose (a cold) is good for the gander (flu and corona viruses) so… I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing until the CDC like… starts warning us of things in Montgomery County…

Fingers crossed my friends (but away from our mouths).

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The El Golfo open mic is made possible through the generous support of Institute of Musical Traditions and House of Musical Traditions. Our featured artists are supported through the generous donations of our audience!

Gallery here : http://www.ilyaimy.com/wordpress/?p=16961

Video here: https://youtu.be/fkSkl6KtfLc

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The El Golfo open mic happens every Wednesday at El Golfo in Silver Spring, MD. Signup at .30pm, performances at 7.30pm. 2 songs / 10 minutes whichever’s shorter, with a family-friendly environment – and is hosted by rob Hinkal of the band ilyAIMY. Rob’s Open Mics were declared a National Open Mic by Shure Microphones, “Best of DC” from Dcmusicdownload.com and have received recognition from the Library of Congress. If you want a copy of YOUR video, please visit : http://www.ilyaimy.com/wordpress/robs-open-mics-3/#video

Tonight we were graced with:

1. rob
2. Chimiak and Zook
3. Brian
4. Rob Gould
5. Tomas Drgon
6. Tom Prasada-Rao
7. Dan
8. David Potts-Dupre
9. Marissa Zechinato
10. Daniel Lu
11. Annette Wasilik
12. Richard Weil
13. Kervin Cunanan
14. Juels
15. Lou Black
16. Jimmy
17. Brian Higgins
18. Ian & Erik