Welcome to the "Full Moon Open Mic" link...
In 2005, my wife Tricia and I had been frequenting a cool general store in South Orleans called the Eldia Market and Coffee House. One morning that fall I looked around and said "this would be a cool place for some live music"! I approached the owners and suggested that if they were willing to stay open late one night, we could put the word out on a very grass roots level (translation: no advertising, simply word of mouth) to invite anyone interested to come play a song, read a poem, tell a story, or simply watch and listen. We had no idea what kind of turnout to expect. When 7 PM rolled around, the place was packed to overflowing, 15 artists each did a slot, and my little "free will donation bucket" for Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod had a couple hundred bucks in it! We were off and running. That was Thursday, December 15th, 2005, the same month I saw my last Peter, Paul, & Mary concert (12/9/05 at Carnegie Hall in NYC) and had my thyroid removed (12/21/05).
Steve and Jon sold Eldia (it's now the Zia Pizzaria), and when that happened, we were graciously invited to make a home at the Cape Cup in downtown Orleans. We will always be grateful to our hosts Bill and Elise for taking us in as we grew, and grow we did. We moved over on occasion to the Chatham Coffee Company on Route 28, another great (but temporary) home, and nowadays mostly build our “nest” in the Brewster Ladies Library on Route 6A, regularly welcoming a hundred people or more to our burgeoning community gatherings. They have a great multipurpose room complete with grand piano and kitchen, so we've incorporated pot luck snacks into our invitations as well, and each time we accept (but by no means require) donations for different Cape Cod nonprofits. To date we’ve amassed over five thousand dollars for our neighbors in need.
When you come, you'll hear a few introductory remarks AND our “mission statement”:
“Welcome to the Full Moon Open Mic, home of high aspirations, low production values, and freedom of speech.” It's casual, friendly, supportive, respectful, and ART-FULL. They are held on or near the Full Moon on any given month that I'm not on tour AND as long as that full moon doesn't fall on a Friday or Saturday night…I don't want to have a free event that might take audience away from other Cape musicians who stand to make their best $$ on those prime-time nights. On occasion, we convene when a musical family member or friend from far away is on the Cape, so I've stretched our "parameters" to include "any night in a month that HAS a full moon 
That’s our story. We have more than 400 names on our FMOM e-mail list and word continues to spread. Please help us do that, and come out for a night of stirring, beautiful, courageous, and stimulating performances. Sign up for a slot at 6:30 PM, or just come to listen.
It’s the best deal going, in a land where an affordable night out is rare, if not nonexistent.
We welcome you!
david
*our next "howl" is Thursday April 5th, 2012 ~ 7-9 PM (sharp!)
at the
Brewster Ladies Library
1822 Main Street ~ Brewster, MA
we'll also raffle off a home made pie or two! You get a raffle ticket for ANY donation at all...
check back to find out the next beneficiary of our free-will donation jar...