The Open Mic Night Crew took to a new venue on July 20, performing and hosting at the Martin Library Concert Stage. With the bleachers before them and in the distance, families playing on the splash pad, a night with an assortment of performers from the quixotic to the urbane trotted onto the stage to liven the Martin public for an evening. Of particular focus was one group of friends: spanning decades, coasts, and careers.
Lane Last is a professor of Graphic Design at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Last speaks in a laid back and thoughtful way with a live wire of dry humor as an alternating current. Dave Kim of Orange County, Calif., and one of Last’s friends who played bass for the performance, has a similar spark of humor pulsating while he mixes in his conversation subjects various to music and business. That is to some effect the power of music and performance, as summarized by Mr. Kim himself, “as soon as we started playing together – it’s a language so when you are playing with four people you are communicating in a different kind of way.”