Music in Port Townsend

When I'm not writing, hiking, or tending the back forty, I'm playing music.   Port Townsend is full of great musicians who have found their way here from all over the country.  Make that, from all over the world.  One of our local talents holds several European gold records. 

We have fewer than 10,000 people, but any night of the week there's live performances in multiple venues.  Later this year I'll write about the Acoustic Blues and Bluegrass Festivals at Fort Worden, where Officer and a Gentleman was filmed (one of the best screenplays ever).

The weekly scene is music in bars.  Country, blues, alt indie, American, folk, jazz, electric, African, Hawaiian, ukeles galore.  On and on.

I'm plugged into the open mic scene.  I bought my first good guitar a year ago, a beautiful Seagull, and it already has lots of playing time on its solid cedar frame.  There are no fewer than seven weekly open mics and one additional open mic monthly just outside town at the Snug Harbor Cafe at the bottom (or the head, depending on perspective) of Discovery Bay.

The most popular open mic convenes at the Tin Brick.  Strange name for a pizza, cheesesteak and beer joint.  It comes from a similarly-named Irish pub in Fishtown, a rough and tumble working class neighborhood on Philadelphia's northern waterfront.  The owner of the Port Townsend Tin Brick is the grandson of the Irishman who opened the original Tin Brick in the 19th Century.  Harry Doyle, the owner of our local establishment, has recreated a Philadelphia neighborhood bar in a building that housed sailors' bars and gosh knows what else when Port Townsend was known as Bloody Townsend, the roughest seaport on the west coast.  Shanghaiing was legal here as a way to attract ships.  Tunnels lead under the old Victorian buildings to the water.  They were used to carry unconscious sailors to rowboats.  The unfortunate sods would awake 20 miles at sea.  They'd be gone for years.

Our entertainment is much more friendly.  We get traveling musicians who have YouTube videos and successful music careers behind them.  We have a local guitar genius who sits in with anyone who asks.  Same for a terrific bass player.  And talented vocalists are ready to back anyone with multiple-part melodies.

My first time at the open mic I was terrified.  I did "Wasn't It a Mighty Storm" and found myself surrounded by people coming from the crowd to sing with me.  I relaxed instantly and have enjoyed myself ever since.

Some of the best performers show up late, when the pub empties out and serious music begins.  A local virtuoso on guitar and octave mandolin has been showing up with new arrangements that blow people away.  Last week a poet from the Carolinas sang some old gospel songs.  Turns out he's also a denizen of the blues scene in Chicago and D.C.  And a guy named Chicago Bob debuted, announcing he finally moved here after attending Blues fests for years.

The music is a great change of pace and brain patterns from writing and editing stories about murder and mayhem.  If you're ever on the Olympic Peninsula, please catch one of our open mics.  And don't just sit in the crowd.  Get up and sing something.  You'll be warmly welcomed, no matter your level of talent.