We are pleased to announce our fourth annual Open Mic on Friday, January 8, 2010. This show will have a special start time of 7:00 pm with doors opening at 6:30 pm. Hundreds of performers have played on our stage over the course of the coffehouse’s 40-year history, so for the past three years we have held this event to give many artists a chance to perform here. This year we are limiting performances to musicians, as we have become too popular to accommodate everyone who wants to perform. Each musician will be allowed 10 minutes. However, should we get the number of performers we have had in the past, we will limit those who go on after the feature to a 5-minute slot, as we wish to give everyone who signs up a chance to perform before the witching hour. Should we get completely overwhelmed with performers, there is a chance that some will not be allowed to perform. The featured performer will be Mike Morris, who has been performing in and around New England for the past two decades, playing thousands of shows in hundreds of venues inside and out. Mike’s thirty-minute set will start at 8:30 pm. Our past open mics have featured many outstanding talents from New England and beyond as well as some very talented performers from the immediate North Shore. This year promises to be no different, so do not miss out on the fun!

Born in El Paso, Texas, raised in New Hampshire, Mike Morris grew up around music. “When I was five, my mother turned to me during a bridge game and asked if I’d like to take piano lessons. I was already in a band, with my brother, where we’d fake sing along with Beatles’ records, and I wondered why I needed to actually learn to play when faking it was so much fun.” He studied the piano for several years, took up the trumpet in his teens, and settled on the acoustic guitar in his 20s. “Strangely enough, it was the Blues Brothers that really turned me on to the possibilities of performing. I still love a good horn section. From there I discovered blues artists like Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf. Once I picked up the acoustic guitar, it led me to entertainers like Taj Mahal, Loudon Wainwright and Mojo Nixon, singer-songwriters whose energy and passion could never be captured on a record. These were live performers.” As any who have seen Mike Morris perform know, it is his live show that sets him apart from other singer-songwriters. His guitar playing has drawn comparisons to Michael Hedges, the radical innovator whose multiple tunings and funky, larger-than life sound elevated the acoustic guitar to a new level. His singing, called both “powerful” and “intimate,” has been likened to Peter Gabriel and Dave Matthews. Says Morris: “Those are kind words, perhaps too kind. I think my music is the sum of everything and everyone I’ve ever heard. I can only hope I’ve added something of my self into the mix.”

Comparisons aside, perhaps it is his sense of humor and improvisational skills that make Mike Morris a true original. “I’d like every night to be something new. I’d like people to go home feeling better than when they walked in. If we can share a song and a laugh towards that end, I’m a happy man. If I fall on my face in the process, at least we all fall together. I’ve tried everything from children’s theater and dinner shows to rock operas and summer stock. I even played guitar in a penguin’s suit, which is hard with flippers. In the end I always came back to one man, one guitar. It’s all about communicating. About passion. About something we can all share. The white noise of life can be pretty overwhelming sometimes, and I like to think music, especially live music, can transcend our differences and bring us all closer together, if only for one evening, one song, or one moment.”

For this special show, doors will open at 6:30 pm and the music will begin at 7:00 pm.

On Mike Morris:

Funky acoustic folk . . . a distinct sound and a comfortable, home-cooked feel . . . a very uplifting, positive vibe.” Indieville.com

A very energetic, up tempo and uplifting percussive stylist . . . a cross between Michael Hedges and Peter Gabriel.” The Manchester Union Leader

This local singer/songwriter manages to lift himself out of the depths with a diverse library of guitar licks and self-deprecating humor. Morris is a gifted guitarist, and his talents on his instrument are rivaled by his abilities as both singer and songwriter. . . The Portsmouth Herald