Garrick Davis | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

I am running out again to an open mic, and again will keep words to a minimum. Again, it is my new Q3HD that is causing me to lose a lot of time in uploading, as the high quality files are much, much bigger than with the old Q3. That’s not a complaint – the Internet should move faster!

But last night it was a real pleasure to attend Ollie Fury’s open mic at Au Ptit Bonheur la Chance with my new Q3HD because it meant that for the first time you will really have a glimpse of the open mic’s performers, which in the past due to the darkness of the bar were only disembodied voices.

And it turned out that we had a return of two of the stars of the previous night, Garrick Davis and Janet Labelle. Garrick, however, decided to sing without a mic and he advanced his chair to be closer to the listeners. His voice had no problem carrying, but by doing this he cast himself even more deeply into the dark. And the Q3HD has SOME limits.

Ollie too has some limits, so check out the video of him closing the night to see why and how….

I am rushing out the door to get to another open mic tonight, and it has taken me hours to upload my new videos from last night since the new Q3HD is heavier in data weight. But last night was an exceptional evening at the Tennessee Bar and the Galway Pub. But all three of the exceptional performers played at the Tennessee, then two moved on to the Galway.

I have to write a minimum here, but I have to write something:

This is so rare in an open mic night to find three completely different but exceptional acts, that I have to get it down here, and the videos too. So in order of their appearance, but not their style or level, was Garrick Davis from Redwood, California. On a visit to Paris, this guy Garrick Davis just milked the audience with his hard hitting guitar and great vocals.

Second was Paula Y Francisco and her band from South America. Paula is from Chile, the others, one was from Colombia and the other I forget! But this took me right back to Sao Paulo with the bossa nova beat on the first one, and then the Lullabye of Birdland took me I don’t know where.

But how am I expected to survive the third one? Janet Labelle was just out of this world with her music. And she is also literary, with an interest in writing stories for children, and in Henry Miller and the Paris of the 20s and 30s and in Anais Nin. Not to mention Shakespeare studies…. Janet lives in New York City – originally from New Jersey – and plays and writes this original music that sounds like a cross between pop, country, folk, rock and I don’t know what all else. She has a thunderingly beautiful singing voice and shines most while playing piano and singing. Her album, Moon Songs, is a gem. And it is deceptive; you think at moments that it sounds familiar, then you say, “No, this is new and different.”

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