Hayley Benton

hbenton@citizen-times.com

Musicians shuffle in from the street, guitar cases in hand, and are greeted with a drawn-out "Heeeey, maaaan! How's it going?" Hunching over a table and grabbing a pen, they add their names — or their stage names — to a growing list, then catch up on the news since their last appearance.

The excited banter shifts and flows as each new face walks in — partially drowned out by the sound of multiple guitars being tuned. E—E—E—E. A—A. "I think Logan's coming out tonight." "Do I know him?" "You should." D—D—D—D.

"Hey, Ryan! I hadn't seen you in a hot minute!" G—G—G.

"What's that new song you wrote?" "I'm writing one now." "What's that — 20 songs since you started here?" "I've got a fever," he said, shrugging. "I can't stop." B—B—B—B.

Some show up every week like clockwork, and others are new — or haven't been for a while. But these hobbyist performers are drawn in week after week — month after month — to perform two to three songs, tops, in front of an audience that may or may not pay attention, depending on the venue and the night. No pressure. Show up, sign up, stand up, play, sit down and start again with someone new.

"This makes Monday all better," said Kyley Byrd, who arrived at Catawba's South Slope brewery with a flute and ukulele in tow. "It's my Monday medicine. It really is. This is where I got over my fear of getting in front of a mic. Well, I still have that fear; I haven’t gotten over it entirely. But it’s given me a chance to develop the performance side of my music — because, you know, I’m a porch-picking girl. I pick with several groups at their homes, and it was hard for me to get up there and be in front of a mic."

Being in a "real" band, dealing with booking agents, selling out shows — those are "all the things that make (music) become a chore," she continued. "This is something that I can count on regularly without really having to put any legwork in. That’s why I chose it. And I like coming in here and hearing what everybody else enjoys playing. It’s not like a band that’s got, you know, their standards that they roll through. It’s a big mixture here."

Setting his beer down at the table, Jon Edwards, host of that evening's session at Catawba, explained, "Monday is here and The Bywater. Tuesday is the Altamont Brewery. Thursday is Creekside Taphouse."

"They do a lot of blues there," Byrd interjected. "Each one tends to have sort of a different focus. The folks that show up at some places may be sometimes influenced by the same genre. But here it’s really more just a big mixture of singer-songwriter-type stuff, which I love."

Motioning to the sun streaming in through the windows, Edwards continued, "This is early. I've broke down here and headed over to The Bywater after to play another set. Here, we’ve got a lot of regulars that come in. People tell us that this one is fantastic because of how welcoming it is. But the sound at The Bywater is just fantastic. Most of the folks that are sitting there listening to you are musicians — so they're really listening."

It was nearing 5:30 p.m., and Edwards walked onto the stage, speaking into the microphone and adjusting its height.

"All right, we're going to get started with Musicians in the Round in just a sec," he said. "Just want to do a little check first to make sure everything's sounding all right — and then we'll get to the list."

Edwards balanced his guitar on his knee as he plugged a cable into his electric-acoustic. Then he started to play. After song No. 1, he motioned to the cowboy-hatted Richard Gibson (real name Tommy Yon) and banjo player Ryan Stockham, and the three began an unrehearsed bluegrass jam on the makeshift stage.

Next up? Scooter Haywood — or that's his stage name, at least — with some Johnny Cash-style one-man storyteller-country. "I'm doing all originals tonight. Consider yourself not lucky," Haywood joked.

After his performance, he sat back down with a glass of water. "Sometimes there’s like 10 of us up there playing at once, and there’s other times where it’s like two of us up there for three hours straight, just playing tunes, and that’s all the people that show up."

You never know what to expect, he said. But that seems to be the beauty of it, for musicians and audiences alike.

Catawba Brewing's South Slope location hosts Musicians in the Round at 5:30 p.m. each Monday, and every first Monday of the month, the event takes on a theme — a decade, a genre, a holiday. The theme for the April 4 event is "Lost in the '50s," so be prepared to get your sock-hop on.

Here is a partial list of open mic nights around town, but we're sure there are plenty more to find: