If you‘ve got  an “Achin’ in Yer Bones” for some beautifully rendered roots and country music with a touch of the blues and a rock and roll edge for your Easter Monday, you won’t want to miss Romi Mayes at Henotic, April 5.
Her latest CD “Achin’ In Yer Bones” has  been nominated for a Juno award this year.
“It was really unexpected. You never know until you release it,” Mayes said, en route to a gig in Saskatoon.
“It’s juried by random people in the music industry. So it is really subjective. I had no expectations whatsoever, but it is great to see the CD has a lifespan longer than a year,” she said.
“It’s my first Juno nomination, so it’s pretty exciting,” she said adding she is even more excited about having her own band including Perpetrators’ guitarist/vocalist Jason Nowicki, drummer Ryan Voth and bassist David Landreth.
“I’m enjoying this band so much, I don’t think I’d ever want to play solo again especially when you get lucky and have these great guys. It’s a lot more exciting,” said Mayes.
“I really like to see the audience rocking, and it’s really frustrating as a duo or solo. But  it’s a lot more exciting playing with a band. It’s exhilarating to be able to watch the audience and watch their faces light up,” she said.
“ These guys free me up from stresses and they help with the driving,” Mayes enthused, adding she feels lucky to have Jason Nowicki on board.
“He’s been my best friend for 20 years. I’m a huge Perps fan. I was fortunate he had some time off from the Perpetrators, when he joined the band in September (Landreth also joined in September while Voth joined in December), that he was able to juggle between both. He still plans to dominate with maximum ‘perp’etration,” she enthused, adding the band works well together.

What with  downloading and  numerous ways to access music for free online, playing live is a musician’s bread and butter. But when you have horrible stage fright not to mention a notoriously bad memory  for my own lyrics and guitar licks, facing an audience is a challenge. So I made it my goal this year to play more in public.
So, being an up and coming performing musician trying to overcome stage fright, I thought I’d try to hit every single open mic in a week. Pretty much every day of the week open mics provide an opportunity for up and coming musicians to test their live chops and get over stage fright and experienced musicians looking to play with and meet other musicians. They come out in force and there is a completely different crowd out to each open mic.

 Sunday: My adventure started at the Sandman Inn with the very first open mic there at the lounge next to the Denny’s,  Feb. 9.
Jon Vornbrock, who plays guitar with the Void and the Phantom Creeps started this up.
“It’s something to do on a Sunday. They were looking for someone to host the open mic and approached me,” Vornbrock said, who knew management through his day job.
He has also played at Henotic’s Wednesday open mic a few times as well as the Slice’s Tuesday open mic.
“(Open mics) are a little more relaxed. And you’re a little more free to play what you want,” he continued adding playing with a band is a little more structured.  I played a pretty classical piece I wrote which I dug up for Henotic’s open mic the week before and try singing a couple others.

Monday: The 1010 Pub’s open mic this week is hosted by Taylor Ackerman and Ryan Dyck of Treeline. I played a couple of my own blues songs because Taylor offered to add some sweet pedal steel guitar to them. They went over well  as well as a complicated folk song and another which which I try to play at this open mic, every time I play it. Paul Kype and Greg Gomola, who often host this open mic were there , though don’t play this time, along with Jenn Pellerin and some other talented performers.  Performers usually get to play longer at the 1010 open mic  partially because there aren’t as many performers as some of the other ones.
Ackerman likes the fact that open mics give musicians a chance to play other musicians.
“The appeal of them is if you’re an up and coming musician, it gives you a chance to  play with other musicians. Plus you only need to know three or four songs. And the audiences are more forgiving,”  said Ackerman, who also hosts open stages at the Slice periodically.
This is something I’m starting to notice. So far nobody seems to mind if you forget your song and start again and they applaud  afterward.

A unique gig featured local punk/psychobilly trip the Phantom Creeps playing an ‘unplugged’ gig at Bar One in the Sandman Inn, March 19. Several guests came up to play and surprisingly ‘unplugged’ Phantom Creeps sounded pretty good.

Guitarist Jon Vornbrock plugged his acoustic guitar into a distorted Fender amp, so the gig was unplugged, but not really. Their music translates well into an unplugged setting.

They are going to be hosting these Friday night open mics every Friday.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat editor

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