Open Mic at Cognizant Coffee

John W. Rockwell sings about his Open Mic Night Tragedy, but last Friday at Cognizant Coffee was no tragedy. It was, in fact, a delightful evening of music.

Jason Hathaway, formerly of the Tecumseh Flyers, began hosting a new open stage at Cognizant Coffee last month. After a somewhat slow start in October, last night several musicians came out to lend their talent to the lineup.

Cognizant is a great place for an open mic. The room has the ambience of its Fountain Square location. Being on Prospect, near Deano's Vino and Radio Radio, it picks up some walk-in traffic. Performers sit in the window area by the front door, so folks walking by see that live music is happening.

In addition to Jason and myself, Chris Wolf was in the house with a new song. Greg O'Haver and his trusty Guild entertained with songs from the sacred and secular, the humorous and thoughtful. Neighborhood songwriter A.J. played a set of his tunes, closing with a bit of Tom Petty.

A highlight of the evening was when another member of the Tecumseh Flyers, Steve Guichelaar, unpacked his mandolin and joined Jason on stage for some old Flyers tunes and gospel standards. Greg had his dojo, and we couldn't resist joining in.

Open stages are a lot like Forrest Gump's famous box of chocolates. You really don't know what you're going to get. Friday night at Cognizant Coffee, we enjoyed a sweet musical sampler. The box gets opened again on Friday, December 14 at 7:00.