It all started during the sound check with a piano chugging along to a 12-bar blues progression. Then a student on electric guitar joined in to echo the piano chords, although the sound still needed something else. When a few tinny notes from another student’s guitar began to swell into a melodious solo, we finally had ourselves a leisurely blues tune.
Against the graffiti-covered backdrop of the Westco Café, this wasn’t such an unusual sight – or sound – to behold. But when you consider that it was President Michael Roth who was tickling the ivories, you can’t help but do a double take.
Yes, you read that correctly. The weekly WestCo Open Mic Night – a special blues edition on Wednesday night – played host to Roth and several students with whom he jammed on the keyboard. The WestCo RAs had approached Roth about playing at the Café, and it’s clear from the audience’s reaction to the music that Roth was a very welcomed guest.
“Should we play now?” asked Roth, after the musicians’ song from the sound check came to its natural end. The dozens of students lounging around the room broke into a round of applause, and the band responded by launching into a student-composed song, “The Foss Hill Blues.”
Roth and a student shared the vocals, both channeling the low rumbles of Stevie Ray Vaughan and singing, “Well, I was raised in Clark Hall/But the Nics seem really nice.” And this was only the beginning; next, the group played Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” and later in the evening, Roth returned with another crop of students to play (and partly sing) the Billy Myles blues standard, “Have You Ever Loved A Woman.”
Although this wasn’t the first time Roth played in front of a Wesleyan audience, it was his first live performance in a while. “I usually play in front of my dog,” he joked. “And usually she leaves.”
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