David Roth

where song, spirit, and speaking meet

Full Moon Open Mic

Year #20 of the “Full Moon Open Mic” will commence on

Wednesday, January 15th, 2025

We’re getting together again in Chatham!  This will mark our 58th gathering since we started, and we’ll assemble once more to sing, speak, regale, and reaffirm the beauty of organic and authentic community talent.

the Cape Cod Center for the Spiritual Journey ~ 7-9 PM
880 Main St, Munson Meeting Way, Chatham, MA

…a beautiful and breathtaking place to continue our tradition.

The most recent recipient ($420) of our voluntary donation bucket in October was
the World Central Kitchen based in Washington DC who works tirelessly around the globe to get food to hungry people with as little red tape as humanly possible.  This amazing org currently has teams in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mexico, Gaza, Lebanon, Israel and Ukraine.

With your generosity we’ll add to our cumulative total of more than $17,000 collected in our bucket for non-profits over the years.  This has averaged out (over 19 trips arouind the sun) to more than $300 per event, no small thing when it comes to non-profits doing their best to serve the underserved.  The event is utterly free, but if you have a few bucks to spare, there’s never a shortage of neighbors in need.

Write me @ davidrothmusic@gmail.com for a PDF copy of a flyer you can print, post, Facebook, foist!  Thanks in advance for helping the causes!

Background/history:

In 2005 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 fine 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, 16 artists each did a slot, and my little “free will donation bucket” (created on the spot when I saw so many people pouring in) for Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod had $208 in it!  I decided this was something worth continuing..  Each of our 56 subsequent events has had a donation bucket for a different non-profit org on the Cape, in New England, or just about anywhere we can help with a dop in the bucket, and our cumulative collection is now more than $17,000 … all started on 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 surgically removed on the Winter Solstice (12/21/05) for papillary thyroid carcinoma.
THAT was a month.

Steve and Jon sold Eldia (it’s now the Whisk Breakfast and Lunch Cafe), and when that happened, we were graciously invited to make a home at the Cape Cup (now home to the Corner Store) 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 a wonderful place called the Chatham Coffee Company on Route 28, another great and gracious (but temporary) home, and then mostly built our “nest” in the Brewster Ladies Library on Route 6A, regularly welcoming 50-75 people to our burgeoning community gatherings.  They had a great multipurpose room complete with grand piano and kitchen, so we incorporated occasional pot luck snacks into our invitations as well, and each time we’ve accepted (but by no means require) donations for different Cape Cod nonprofits.  And now, Chatham!

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 weeknights in any given month that I’m not on tour AND never on 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’ve gathered to witness stirring, beautiful, and stimulating performances AND helped folks out.  It’s been a great ride!  Thanks for your attendance and support over the years!  Join us, bring friends.

with gratitude from your friendly occasional community organizer

david