For the February 19 show, the last shall be (mentioned) first.

The last act of the evening, The Newbees, offered something I personally have never seen before the Leo:  a cello. And not only that, the cellist had a solo piece that was pretty cool. The band’s sound is Beatle influenced pop-folk, which makes sense since the Newbees have performed as a Beatles Tribute Band.

For the Leo, the tunes were all originals except for their finale, a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed.

Bob Kotz, the second act performer, did a set of all originals. Bob explained he does a lot of open mics and does a lot of covers at those open mics, so he took this opportunity to perform songs he doesn’t usually get to do for an audience. Topics included:

• Monkeys, such as cigarettes, coffee, gasoline, television, and government.
• His 1933 Martin guitar and its supernatural connection to the wood used to fashion it
• Carefree days when he was young and his heroes include “ Sheppard, Grissom, Glenn.”

We had four open mic performers. In keeping with this report’s presentation, from last to first, they were:

• Lenny Hall, covering Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind.”
• “Bones” Barret, covering Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” and an original about the Queen City Blues.
• Jake Kolesar, also covering a Dylan tune (“Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright)” and performing an original. BTW, Jake is 15 years old, so is another bit of evidence that the audience for folk/acoustic music is expanding, not contacting. 
• Bill Fisher, accompanied by Spencer Funk, in one of those Leo Coffeehouse spur-of-the-moment formations. (I was at the instrument maintenance workshop, and so I missed the first open mic set.)