r
 

  
George Scherer
www.georgescherer.com, www.facebook.com/gscherer,
www.myspace.com/georgeschererwww.reverbnation.com/georgeschererhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/George-
Scherers-Music-Page/438912070103
Questions and comments to Gscherer@bellsouth.net

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For the last couple of years, I¶ve been trying to host an Open Mic in the western section of town. It began
at the Hangar, located at the Airport, and for the first few months it was usually me up there playing for
three hours like I would on any other night. Every now and then someone would come in and take over
the mic and sing 1 or 2 songs, sometimes more and it eventually began to take shape. Soon, I had three or
four pickers I could count on every week and two or three others that would show up occasionally. As
more people joined in, the better it got and for the last few months that the Hangar was in business it got
to be something that both the pickers and the audience seemed to really be enjoying.

Then,suddenly, the Hanger closed.

The very next week I learned that a club a little further down Morgan Road in Shelby County was doing
music. I went down and soon had the manger talked into letting us move the Open Mic to the Cabana
Grill. We kept it on Wednesday night and I knew how to get in touch with most of the pickers who had
been playing, but not all of the customers, so when we moved it, we almost had to start over with the
crowd, introducing them to what we were doing and begin the building process again.. After three or
four weeks, I began to think it was going to work, then the management changed hands at the Cabana, it
went back to being McDivits, as it had been before, and we were back out on the street with the Open
Mic.

Unwilling to let the thing die, I began looking for yet another home for the Wednesday night function. It
wasn¶t much over a week before I read that the new seafood restaurant that had taken the place of the San
Antonio Grill on Morgan Rd, was going to be doing music Wed-Fri, so I went down to check it out. To
make a long story short, I picked up a gig there on a Friday night, the people liked me and decided to give
the Wed Open Mic a try.

The new location is at Captn Morgan¶s Seafood and Chop Shop, located in the Morgan Village Shopping
Center just south of the intersection of Morgan Road and I-459 (turn in just past the Texaco and Taco
Bell), and it¶s being held every Wednesday night from 7pm to 10pm. It is a semi-outside venue, which
will soon be enclosed with outdoor curtains on nights that are too chilly. The bar is also running a special
on Wednesday night of ½ price bottles of wine

It works like this: I get up and get things rolling with a short set, then starting inviting others up to play.
You can play solo or with other people, but you have to be able to both sing and play (this is not karaoke),
and you get up to 20 minutes to perform if you¶d like. Most people choose to do shorter sets (3 or 4
songs), but like I said, we keep it loose. Some do cover songs, and some do originals. The night usually
ends with a free-for-all jam session featuring myself and a few of the regulars. Regardless, the fun is
always free and we look forward to seeing both pickers and grinners every Wednesday night.