Traveling troubadours

When Jerry Swan moved back to Cape Girardeau with acoustic guitar in hand in the spring of 2004, he saw that something was missing from the local music scene.

Swan, a funeral director by trade, an acoustic musician by hobby, had lived in Illinois, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., and had seen a thriving open mic scene in those areas.

"I had been to some open mics in Cape Girardeau, and they just didn't seem to have the same intimacy," Swan said. "It didn't seem like an open mic. It just seemed like an audition to come up and play."

So Swan decided to take matters into his own hands and start up an open mic night for acoustic musicians. In April 2004, he set up a date for acoustic musicians to play at Buckner Brewing Co. A group that would later become the core of the Traveling Acoustic Open Mic played, and Buckner owner Phil Brinson asked Swan if a weekly date was possible.

Swan couldn't manage a weekly date due to his full-time job, so the acoustic open mic went on the road, hence the "traveling" part of the name.

Since that time, Swan has built a group of acoustic talent that includes names like Stephanie Fridley, Mike Meyer and Dan Fieser, Doc Bertram, Dr. Dale Haskell, Chris Gunter, The JJMC Folkgrass Project (of which Swan is a member) and others. They make up what has become a club of sorts for acoustic musicians, playing not for money but for exposure and the love of playing.

The musicians of the open mic play folk, acoustic rock, bluegrass and anything else that doesn't require big amps and mic'd up drumkits. They come from all ages, from 15 to 70, and all backgrounds, from dock workers to doctors, said Swan.

One act is usually featured, with times for others to sign up and play.

"Probably 80 percent to 90 percent of them are great," Swan said. "I'm probably the only one who sucks out of all of them. There are just very talented individuals come in, and you just think, here they are playing for nothing.

"When you watch TV, you see people raking in the big bucks, and there's people just as talented as that here in Southeast Missouri."

For Fridley, the open mic has given her chances to display her talent she didn't have before.

"When I first got interested in performing this kind of music in public, I found out around here there just weren't a lot of venues open to that," said Fridley, an Americana singer/songwriter and music teacher at Jackson schools. "People were expecting drums and electric bass and rock 'n' roll, and people weren't interested in hearing the coffeehouse music kind of thing."

Fridley said since the open mic started, more interest seems to have been generated in acoustic music. She's gotten more gigs, she said, such as being a part of the all-acoustic stage at this year's City of Roses Music Festival.

Swan recruited musicians like Fridley the old-fashioned way, through word of mouth, networking in the community (he met Fridley at a PTA event) and just a touch of advertising.

Since its inception the open mic has served as more than just a performance opportunity -- it's now a chance for acoustic musicians to get to know each other. Swan's own group was formed through the open mics, and this summer he started a songwriting group called the SEMO Acoustic Musicians Guild.

The guild meets at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, where members talk about songwriting from picking out words and chords to the copyrighting process.

Like the open mics, the guild meetings are free and open to anyone interested in writing or playing acoustic music.

And Swan has extended his dabbling in enhancing the local acoustic music scene beyond the open mic and guild. He was in charge of booking the talent for the gazebo stage at this year's City of Roses festival, with a roster of acoustic musicians resembling the core membership of the Traveling Acoustic Open Mic.

The open mic currently has shows booked through May 2006. In the past the performances have truly been traveling, playing at various placed like the Grace Cafe, Buckner Bewing Co., the Yellowmoon Cafe in Cobden, Ill., and a campground in Glenallen, Mo. But now the show has found a more permanent home at the Sidewalk Sandwich Co.

While the open mic is no longer so much a traveling open mic, the original mission stays the same -- to promote acoustic music in Southeast Missouri by opening up to everyone.

"It's all about sharing music," Swan said. "Everybody's got a song, whether they choose to express that or share that song."

For more information on the Traveling Acoustic Open Mic call Swan at 270-5114 or e-mail him at kgsmortician@yahoo.com.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182