Open Mic Nights

So what have the Rail Yard Ghosts been up to lately?

We recently attended two of the great North Shore's area open mic nights.  Now, this may not seem like something you could actually WRITE about, but when you live in the middle of the woods an hour away from the nearest town, this was something we DID one night for fun, enjoyment, entertainment, etc.

So we all piled into the big red jeep, Will as our roadie, and headed down the Trail to Lutsen where I played my first ever open mic night show!  Riley and I performed a couple of good old standards that we wrote together, to the applaud and enjoyment of everyone involved.  It was really great to meet other musicians in the area, which we hadn't experienced yet, and we've been living up north since this past Fall.  Some of the musicians we met work at the local radio station (everybody tune in! WTIP in the house!) and invited us to send along copies of our finished album.  Going to play at an open mic night was great; this had a lot of 'pomp and circumstance' to it, with all the lights and the stage and the sound equipment.  Riley and I are just used to screaming loud folk punk on a street corner for money, so you can imagine how different this was.  It was just so Ritzy!

As of right now, we are still in the process of recording.  The demo, for free download at http://porker.blog.com is finished, but we'd like to do a little more tweaking, add some instruments here and there and send a really finished copy out. You can probably also download the live open mic night show.

Our friend and camp companion, Drew Heinonen, came along and met a fellow luthier who he coincidentally went to luthiery school with. 

At the end of a great evening, everyone got up on stage and jammed out a tune, as the barman, from Lousiana came around with free shots of Jameson, orange juice and chocolate vodka, I believe.  It was delicious! 

Then, this past week, we found another open mic night, slightly cozier, just 10 miles or so outside of Grand Marais (which we woods folk lovingly call "Town").  Held in a lodge, and bundled in a tight-knit circle of avid musicians, they have an Irish music night twice a month.  Some more area musicians who we had run into previously but not musically, invited us to take up chairs in the circle and we all went round picking a tune to play for the entertainment.  There was a nice offer from one of the waitresses/bartenders after she said she'd overheard the owners, who'd been present, saying they really liked us (The Rail Yard Ghosts, of course...) and we exchanged the hopeful information of e-mail to perhaps get a gig there sometime, earning our wages by tip jars, free dinner and all the beer you could want.

On that note, please, please, PLEASE! help yourselves to all of our FREE music at the link provided.  There is lots more from both of us individually as musicians, and also our friends.  Together we are known as the Dirty River Music Collective.  Enjoy!

Yessirree, it sure looks like things are shaping up in the world of music for the dear little rabbit and coyote!