Side Street Sounds: Sharing the Music

By Steve West –

I have attended and hosted open-mic nights at various locations for the better part of the last twenty years. I’ve met some wonderful musicians and made some great friends along the way. Like many musicians, open mics are how I got my start as a professional musician.

As a host for open mics, it is always my goal to encourage and nurture the people who show up to play so that they can develop as performers. That’s been the tradition of musicians for generations. Help the ones coming up. It keeps the music alive, and challenges the older generation to stay fresh.

When I was getting my start on the local music scene, I met a man named Bill Brown. He would ride to Rochester every Tuesday with Lisa Bigwood to attend the open mic that she was hosting at Daily Perks Coffee Shop. Bill was twenty-five to thirty years older than most of the other performers. He looked like he had lived life, and paid his dues. God, I wanted to impress him.

At the time, I was singing with sort of a growl in my voice. It was an affectation I thought made me sound bluesy. Most times when it was my turn to play, Bill would listen for a moment to my first song, then get up to go outside to have a cigarette. One night he said to me, “You know, when you stop tryinging to sound like somebody else and decide what Steve West sounds like, you might have something.” It was like someone turned on the light for me. The first time I decided to sing in my own voice, I was a little nervous about it. The growl affectation was my security blanket. I felt a little exposed without it. When it was my turn to take the stage, I saw Bill get up and move toward the door for his smoke. I started to sing and I saw Bill stop and turn around. He listened to the whole song. For my second song, he went back to his seat and sat down. At the end of my last song, he gave me a slight nod and said, “So that’s what Steve West sounds like.” I was over the moon. It was the start of a friendship I have valued ever since. Although I don’t recall Bill ever teaching me any music, he taught me more than I can recount here about how to be a professional musician. Bill passed on Easter Sunday in 2014, but his lessons have stayed with me. If it weren’t for him spotting something in me and taking an interest in helping me to develop it, I wouldn’t be able to say that I play music for a living today.

The nurturing and encouragement offered me I’ve tried to remember and pass along to the next generation of musicians. Some of the people that have been to open mics I have hosted have gone on to achieve a fair amount of national or regional success as musicians. Others will never play on stages bigger than those of the coffee houses, breweries, and bars that host open mics. It’s all about the music. Everyone who shows up to play is sharing a part of themselves. A kind word to someone can change their life.