Thursday, May 31, 2012

Happy Everyday to all our dear Friends of ROM

Welcome to my latest version of my "very Infrequent Blogs" 


I will begin by dedicating this Blog to all we have just remembered this past Memorial Day for those serving our Country in all Past, Present and Future engagements of the United States of America.


 Closer to home, I dedicate this Blog in Honor and Memory of a dear friend of mine and to many within our Art's Community that we most recently lost. That being Rich Mungo. I  am going to insert a piece by our dear friend Ellen Schmidt who has been asked by the family to make this info available to anyone interested.
Hello Everyone,

            I’ve been asked to let people know that Rich’s graveside service will now be open to anyone who would like to come.
           It will be very low-key, and there will be a big Celebration of Life at a later date. It will be next Wed. June 6 at 1 in the Sacred Hearts Cemetery, 
80 Corbett St. in Andover.
Also – if you want to send a message of condolence, you can send it to Donna Talmage and the Family of Rich Mungo at 42 Paulson Drive, Burlington, MA 01803. Peace, Ellen


My personal thanks to Ellen for ALWAYS being there for all of us for ALL reasons. (NB)

I do have multiple additional as always wonderful venue info at the end of this Blog. 

For Those of you that may just get this early enough on this VERY EVENING
5-31-12, My dear friend Beth DeSombre will be joined by my other buddies Mike Delaney and Ken Porter at 7PM at The Harvest Cafe in Hudson Ma.

Now for some news of the ROMulin World.

Many Many thanks to are 2 most recent and wonderful features at ROM. Those being Cheryl Perreault on 5-14 and Roland Blair this past Monday on 5-28. We had great crowds at both Venues and to each & every one of you within our ROMulin Community that came to perform, watch or in whatever way you were there, that is why we are ROM and why we have been so very blessed with some of the most incredibly talented people in one room at any 1 time. Many thanks for your continued support of ROM from both Mike & myself.

Now, well into our 4th year of being ROM, Mike & I continue to keep an open and flexible ear and feel of our Community. OUR goals for ROM from the out-set to the present are unchanged & they are to offer & support a fair, equitable, consistent and nurturing environment for all that may walk through our doorway. Whether you are a novice to in a world of your own, you are Always welcome at ROM. WE have made some basic Rule changes to ROM that will be effective immediately at our next ROM, they are seamless and are simply adjustments made by suggestions by you our ROMulin Community. I do as always want to thank each and every one of you that do take the time to jot to Mike or myself when you feel you simply think another way of doing things may be a better way. WE are both honored by the fact that you have all been so willing to share with us so that our initial intent of a warm and welcoming ROM will always be able to be improved even if by minor changes. Again Please do take a look at the homepage of our website and also, if you ever have ANY Feelings of any kind positive, negative, neutral etc, please feel free and welcomed to make any contructive comments on our Guestbook at the top of our Website- Homepage. I am told by our Website watcher that the more our Guest-book is used the better our ratings are. I am thinking that is out of my league as I am just thrilled where we stand together as ROM, but I am very honored & blessed that Sam Schneiderman of The Greater Boston Home Team has been & is the one and ONLY donator of funds to ROM for all our years now by donating our website and my ROM email address. Thanks my dear friend SAM!!!! Sam and I have been friends since we were kids..we still are in our hearts!!!!


WE have a fabulous upcoming feature at ROM on 6-11-12 and that will be our dear friend,       RON ISRAEL!!!     www.ronisraelmusic.com


Please do make sure to mark your calendars to NOT Miss Ron's feature and please do tell all the kids (by then, likely out of school), & all in the family to come on down to ROM as we welcome performers of any levels as well as listeners.


WE have some real very wonderful friends with Venues as well as many ROMulins going out of Roslindale to play at the many fabulous Open Mikes and Cafe's and by whatever name they may use, we in the Northeast are so very blessed with some of the most gifted and magnificent performers and Venues!!!  


Please, regardless of the venue, GO out, spend time together with family & friends to a Venue that sponsors Live, Local, Talent regardless of Genre.


June 2, 2012
Coming up this Sat is our recent Feature Cheryl Perreault's Final "Wake up and Smell the Poetry" event  for the Season. I will insert that info here and it does include Bill Duncan of many other but of greater ROMulin Fame.

with Poet Martha Collins


Singer-songwriter Bill Duncan 
Singer-songwriter Lauren Passarelli HCAM Studios is located at 77 Main Street, Hopkinton, Ma.
To hold a seat and/or reserve an open mic spot send email reply.
For more information go to www.hcam.tv/wakeup

June 4, 2012 at Ellen Schmidt's Emerson Umbrella, OY, I am having a senior moment but please see Ellen's incredible website at www.ellenschmidt.com/openmike/html - for All of Ellens's incredible upcoming shows

June 5, 2012 at Ellen's Nourish Rest. Open Mike please see above for all info on directions times and sign ups but I do happen to remember that on this night performing the features will be John Ferullo, if you happen to join us at ROM this Past Monday, Margaret Sargent will be the other part of the feature both are wonderful performers and on this date doing the Mini set for Ellen will be dear friend Chris Lee!!! 

June 7, 2012- I have had the pleasure to be at Tom's 1st 2 Events at this wonderful new place and they have been simply, Nothing less than one would expect from Tom Smith!!!!
My First Thursdays in Dedham Square music series has been gaining steam. This will be our third month and I am excited to be joined by my good friend “Fancy Al” Cath and very special guests Gina Praino and Gary Richard. Al is a virtuoso guitarist with a voice to match. Gina is a new friend who has impressed me so much that I wanted to share her wonderful music with you. Gary will be lending a hand on bass.

Paradise Cafe,
565 Hight Street, Dedham, MA
Thursday, June 7th, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
No cover!
Bring your appetite. Great sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts!
Details at:

These final 2 events are albeit starring a most wonderful ROMulin Junko Ogawa with many friends I am told that both shows due to their close proximity time-wise, will be different in content. So here are 2 in a row not to miss Junko Ogawa Shows!

June 8, 2012 - Friday
7:30PM – 9:30PM (Door Opens at 7PM)
Catbird Cafe

A great Venue Hosted by Stephen Martin, Eric "The Snake" Gulliksen and Kathe Donlan- this is held is the most beautiful aesthetically surrounded venues in our area!!!
Junko is the feature artist of the evening!
Junko will perform 12 of her original songs with Rob Norberg(Percussion) and Chris Grant( E.Bass), 6 original songs with Eric Gulliksen (E.Bass) and will have a guests performers- Chief Noda, Licia Sky, and Christine Dyer-Ward.
New England Wildlife Center
500 Columbus Street
Waymouth, MA 02190
781 – 682 – 4878

June 10, 2012 - Sunday - This venue may be remembered better by many of you as the Old Java Jo's in JP!!!

3:00PM – 5:00 PM


Junko and friends (Rob Norberg, Chris Grant, Branson Bofat) will perform 2 sets



Fazenda Coffee Roaster
3710 Washington Street, Jamaica Palin Ma. 02130
I have likely exhausted your concentration will by trying to get in much info and knowing full well I forgot something important I wanted to tell you but if you know me, that is the me you know and I forget most except I never forget my dear friends. Thanks for allowing me, Mike and ROM into your lives as well as all the other great venues all around us.
In closing, my thoughts, hopes and prayers to Donna Talmage and all of Rich Mungo's family & our many Family of Friends members. 
 My hope will be that you treasure and remember all the wonderful years & great times we had with Rich. The healing will begin with the celebration of Rich's Life. We that knew Rich were very blessed he was a part of all our lives.
Love Neal.







Tuesday, May 1, 2012

HAPPY SPRING TO EVERYONE & HAPPY MAY DAY!!

Hello to all my dear friends of Roslindale Open Mike,


    I welcome one and all to my current version of my Most "Infrequent Blogs"


I would like to whole- heartedly thank our most recent ROM Feature Performers. This includes all the most Fabulous shows put on by, Trina Hamlin, Dan Cloutier and Tim Sullivan!!! Each show was a very different and special place to be. I do wish to thank each and every one of you reading this that was at any of these shows or those that may not have been there for any reason but always with us in spirit!!! For those of you who do indeed have friends that keep thinking of joining at ROM to listen, play or just be part of our Community in anyway, Please do let them know they are welcome to join us anytime!!! WE at ROM have been so very gifted with Non-stop incredible numbers of some of the most talented and caring givers to our very special venue.


It is really nice, that so many of our very talented ROMulins are playing at our incredible neighbor Open Mikes, Coffeehouses and many other types of Venues. I will note some of them at the end of this Blog and I of course urge you to take in and SUPPORT any and ALL Venues that SUPPORT, LIVE LOCAL MUSIC!


I truly hope that all of you took advantage of this past month which was a Tribute to Poetry Month. I was very honored attend several very special spoken word performances and that being said, we at ROM never let what a month is called, stop what we do just by our own pre-determined schedule. 


Our next feature at ROM will be the very multitalented Cheryl Perreault. Cheryl is a most gifted spoken word artist. Cheryl runs the very special Hopkinton Cable television monthly Open Mike called "Wake up and Smell the Poetry".  Cheryl will bring all her many talents to her ROM feature. Cheryl will have other guest's performers as part of her Feature which will include many of our ROMulin friends including our most talented & dear friend Steve Rapson. OUR upcoming show will be happening on 5-14-12. 


Please do not miss this very special show which NOT only include Cheryl Perreault and  her gifted friends but it will also include, The very gifted and most respected wonderful group of Open Mike Performers which are, each and every one of YOU!!!!! 
OUR  ROSLINDALE OPEN MIKE COMMUNITY OF PERFORMER'S ARE THE BASE OF WHO WE ARE AT ROM & everyone who walks through our doorway are very special to us and always will be.


My wish list:
I am looking for a couple volunteers to help with mainly the refreshments during the show as it is ongoing. Those of you familiar with our set up at ROM will know I keep a pot of water beside the electric Kettle at the back of the room. I am looking for someone to just volunteer to keep an eye on the water levels on the kettle and keep the water flowing. WE do a lot of tea and Hot Chocolate at ROM hence the water runs out quickly along with the average over 72 cups of coffee. I always have plenty of extra coffee made but at times when we have a huge crowd, it is difficult for me to get to fill the waters both hot & cold as well as take pix of each & every performer so I can send you my routine Neal pix!!!! I will be more than Happy show any one able to help how to use the kettle. I do want to thank all of you for the help before and after ROM in the help of setting up and breaking down of our chairs, the washing of our dishes and our thanks to so many of you that bring food both purchased and home made!! It is the sign of the Real Community that is, ROM! For all that and more, WE thank you all so very much!!!!


Special upcoming shows that are physically outside of ROM but have a ROMulin touch!!! I will do my best to try and put these in order by date with whatever I can remember!!!  


May 3rd - Live at the Paradise Cafe 569 High St, in Dedham Square this is a lovely new venue Hosted by Tom Smith and this month Tom's guest performer is Chris Pahud. I have been there and it is a really nice place and for more info please see Tom's website at www.tomsmithmusic.com


May 4th - Catbird Cafe Concert night 500 Columbian St, Weymouth, Ma. On this date our dear friends Susan Mahan & Dan Zampino split the feature for an evening called Word, Spoken and Sung. Sure to be a great show held within the New England Wildlife Ctr.


May 4th- our New friends Manny & Cathy Perry run a wonderful Open mic called The Acoustic Open Mic at the Coffee Depot, located at  501 Main Street, Warren, RI. Our dear friend Chief Noda is the feature for this night!!!


May 5 & 6  if you happen to be anywhere near Ginosar, Israel, Make sure you do not miss the Jacobs Ladder Folk Festival. Please be sure to look for our dear friend Janet Lerner and remind her we are waiting for her to come back home to ROM!!!!!


May 8th- Please be sure NOT to miss Junko Ogawa splitting the feature with Suzanne Owens at our dear friend Ellen Schmidt's Nourish Rest Open Mike in Lexington. Please see Ellen's website, www.ellenschmidt.com/html or Junko's website at www.junkosings.com for all further info on all their upcoming gigs!


May 20th- My Final show update is for a very special show that MF Daisy is Producing at the Riverside Theatre Works, 45 Fairmount Ave. Hyde Park, Ma. The event is called, "Radioshow, An MF Daisy Songbook Concert" The names and numbers of people are so amazing I can only jot the few that I can remember at this jotting but this is a show you will NOT want to miss, Some of our dearest ROMulins that are included in the show are Mike Delaney & Ken Porter, Junko Ogawa, Carolyn Waters, Oen Kennedy. For any further info please see MF's Facebook site, www.facebook.com/mfradioshow   


Folks, we are so very blessed to have so many dear friends that are so talented and all over the world!!! I know I can speak for both Mike & myself when I say we are most humbled by your continued dedication to ROM by each and every one of you that call ROM your home for music, spoken word and so many other yet to be seen talents! We always feel great when we share a Family Reunion the 2nd and the 4th Mondays of every month!! The year is simply flying by yet we have so many more ROM events through the end of this year!!!!!


Happy Spring Everyone!!! 


We look forward to seeing you at ROM for Cheryl Perreault's Feature on
5-14-12.


All my Love and Peace through the Art's     Always, Neal :))))