Local Bistro Welcomes Singer-Songwriters

Every Thursday evening is Open Mic Night at the Huntington Street Café, when musicians, singer-songwriters and other local performers drop in to provide the entertainment.

John Hoyt, an amiable banjo player from Indiana, is the host and organizer, which means he supervises the signup sheet.

It also gives Hoyt the opportunity to perform solo and with other local artists.

On May 5, performers included John Ciambriello of West Haven and Alec Ciambriello of Shelton, who are not related, Nicole Thompson and Leean Maldouby, both from Trumbull, and Johnny Schuler, a standup comic visiting from Virginia.

Some of the performers are also in bands. Open Mic Night gives them a chance to play their own songs. They also covered well known popular and folk songs.

There is no cover charge for Open Mic Night at the Huntington Street Café. Local residents and friends of the performers made up the appreciative audience.

Maldouby went the furthest afield musically, starting with modern folk songs, then a rousing Spanish Civil War song (sung in Spanish) about the courageous Republican fighters struggling against the fascists, and "The Rising of the Moon," a ballad about a battle in the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Alex Ciambriello played "September" by Daughtry and "Yesterday" by the Beatles.

Schuler did comic impressions of President George W. Bush and Jack Nicholson playing Christopher Columbus discovering America.

Thompson played covers, including U2’s "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For," and "Intertwine," one of her own songs.

Hoyt started the evening accompanied by John Ciambriello on guitar performing a few songs that included Buffalo Springfield’s classic protest song "For What It’s Worth," giving it a twangy, bluegrass feel.

Then John Ciambriello went solo to perform his own song, "All For The Good," inspired by the cancer death of a musician friend’s mother. His band, After Autumn, is booked at the Huntington Street Café for July 9.

Hoyt, who moved to Shelton last year to work at Sikorsky Aircraft as a technician, said he is pleased and surprised to discover how good the local performers are in Connecticut. "I’ve never seen so many good musicians," he said.

He has been playing banjo since the 1970s, and even played with his string band, The Great Divide, in the 1997 Talent From Towns Under 2,000 Contest on Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keiller’s public radio variety show. He said his band also once opened for the Smothers Brothers.

When he moved to Connecticut, he was looking for a place to play music and one Wednesday evening he stopped by the Huntington Street Café and found it hosting a bluegrass jam on Wednesday nights. (An open jazz jam starts on Wednesday nights on May 11.)

Hoyt also performed at the Open Mic Night, which went on hiatus over the winter. When it resumed in April, owner Peter Vouras asked Hoyt to act as host.

"People can come in at 7:30 and sign up on the sheet," he said. The music runs from 8-11 p.m., unless everybody gets tired and goes home early.

Although most performers are soloist singer-guitar players, Hoyt said he’s open to anything for a family audience.

"Anybody and everybody," he said. "We’ll try anything. Jugglers, even yo-yos."