This song was originally written for a collaboration project with Red Bull Amaphiko festival and a Baltimore entrepreneur, Alanah Nichole, a local kindred community engagement specialist like myself, has/had an event called “Much More Than an Open Mic”, and I was tasked with writing a song about all of it. That day, several years ago, we had a beautiful conversation about how open mics bring us all together, what makes a good open mic, how to cultivate our pain and joy into something concrete in a room.

As a host and event producer myself, it was cool to be tasked with capturing this concept. I stepped outside of myself to draft this story 4 years ago, and I dove in to deliver this first ever studio interpretation of a time that seems so distant, yet transformed by the circumstances of this pandemic. I long for live music and fellowship. If I were at my favorite open mic, we might create a house band that sounds like this.

Enjoy “Open Mic” Available soon on all digital platforms. Always on Bandcamp. 

Written and Composed by QueenEarth
Beatbox, Guitar, Bass, and Keys by QueenEarth
Recorded and Engineered on Mixcraft
Mixed and mastered by QueenEarth in Baltimore, MD
Video made on Flexclip

https://msqueenearth.bandcamp.com/​
https://soundcloud.com/msqueenearth/​
https://www.facebook.com/TheMsQueenEarth​
https://instagram.com/msqueenearth​

www.queenearth.com

——- LYRICS ——–

She sings
She writes
Got a room
A business mind
Been having dreams of chairs and tables
big loud speakers Mic and cables
What if we
add a little light
the world is dark sometimes
So we sing
We write
We came tonight
Much more
than an open mic

We pay a cover for our thoughts
Here we wear no mask
We sing
We dance
We fall in love
We meet our fans
More than followers
This is fam
And we came tonight
Much more
Than an open mic

They don’t say our names When we die
But name us in the fight
And we came
to sign our name
And to get Called into the light
She hears poetry
She cries
She smiles
Almost stayed in Tonight
Where I’m from
We say 5 or 5000
Maybe save a life
We came tonight much more than an open mic
We came tonight much more than an open mic
we came tonight