Redwoods in Chester, N.J.

This is my first post in quite some time, because I haven't gone to any open mics. Decided to check out the open mic at Redwoods. Redwoods is a popular restaurant with a small bar area. The open mic was hosted by Brian, who said he also hosts other regular open mics at other places on other nights, some of which are pretty far away. One of them, however, is at Hennesey's in Morristown on Thursdays. Not too far. He set up and started at 9 P.M., played only two songs on guitar, and then got out of the way so that others could get started. That's the way it should be done: I appreciated his professionalism. There is no stage; the musicians stand or sit in a corner. It would be tough to get a drumset in there, and more than 3 people would be tight. Nevertheless, it is a comfortable room to play in, and the load-in is easy. There was another act that did a few songs, then I went up. I used my DX-7 and just ran it through the board. I did Big River, Time Waits for No One, Wild Horses, and perhaps a couple others. The audience appeared not to be paying attention but reacted when I started doing a schmaltzy version of Misty, to see if anyone was listening. The host got back up and I accompanied him on accordion on Ripple and one of his originals. By 10:15 or so I was loaded out and leaving in my car. I could have gone down to Bernie's, which is very close by, but didn't want to stay up that late. It occurred to me that had I gone to Bernie's, the house band would probably have just started, and I would have missed nothing. Would be easy to do both open mics in one night, given the time and energy.