There’s something that has become obvious in my observation of the human race over the years and that’s the common ground of music. Whether you are a player or just a listener, one thing for certain is that it is an important part of everyone’s life. To some it is pure obsession.
    Even the simplest of daily choices have proven its significance. Take for example your first choice of every day, how you choose to greet the morning.  Annoying buzzing sound or radio station? I’m gonna throw out a made up statistic and say at least half of us choose the latter.
    Now observe the rest of our day: the car, the office, the grocery store and even my own worst nightmare, being stuck in an elevator with The Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight” on repeat. My point is that music is ever-present and deep down everyone wishes that they could create it.
    Never have I heard anyone say, “I wish my parents wouldn’t have made me learn to play (insert instrument)”. On the contrary, it goes more like, “I wish I would have paid more attention or continued playing”. For those of us who voluntarily learned to play an instrument it became an introduction to a community of people who communicate in a manner beyond words.
    In this second article about Mr. Skip Dixxon I wanted to write about the significance of his hand in all things music in Ocean City. Nobody really knows how long he has been hosting open mics around town but in a semi-transient community it has become a local musicians favorite of off-season things to do. A concept as simple as game night, pool league or any other excuse to leave the house and cure some cabin fever. Gather some friends and go have some fun.
    If you ask Skip, he’ll credit the success of the open mic to the players. He is only there to offer equipment, encouragement and have fun playing some drums with his second band “Livin’ the Dream” as well.
    In case you aren’t versed on the operation of an open mic it goes a little like this: The “host band” offers up equipment and services.  By services I mean that Scott Bloodsworth (guitar/vox), Joe Daddy (bass/vox) and Skip himself (drums/vox) are all well-seasoned musicians with a long list of songs in the library. If you only know a couple songs but have nobody to play them with, now you do.  Even if all you do is sing, if “Livin’ the Dream” knows the songs they’ll play’em up for ya.  The only hurdle you have to overcome is your own shyness.
    Should you find yourself with a band and nowhere to play, then now you do as well. Six years ago I ended up playing in a surf rock band hell bent on only playing originals. A concept that was considered blasphemy at the time in Ocean City. When we had our first few songs put together and what we considered “tight,” we decided to take it out of the garage and go public.
    Since the concept of playing your own music was frowned upon in a tourist town there was definitely no option of paying gigs so we started at a place that was embraced by musicians. After our first set at Skip’s open mic we were greeted by the open minds we were in search of and received a tremendous amount of praise from our fellow musicians. Our biggest boost came from the encouragement and support we received from Skip as well. Later we were invited to play “Live Lixx” and to our surprise there actually were people out there that wanted to hear something new.
    Locally, “Phantom Limbs” is a working band that is currently on its fourth CD and working hard to cross more borders; but we started at Skip’s open mic and we still enjoy dropping in on one just for the pure fun of it in addition to hearing what else is new to town.  More than that is the night out to hang and talk with some like-minded folks at a good venue who share our common ground.  As players and as listeners.
    I always wish for this article to reach new eyes but this week in particular because every year there’s some new faces that are sticking out an OC winter for their first time. Chances are good that they are musicians looking for an outlet and I’d be happy to know that I was the medium from which they received the information.
    The night is Wednesdays. The time is 9 p.m til 1 a.m. The place is the Pour House at Wicomico and Baltimore ave. It’s a first come, first served type of thing and its popularity has grown over the years, so coming early to sign up is encouraged as are full bands. “Break a leg,” as they say, and we’ll see ya on stage.