Voted best open mic in the city by City Beat readers 4 years running. All performances must be ORIGINAL.
MOTR Writer's Night is an open mic geared specifically toward the cultivation of original work, and to further enrich our ever-growing music and arts scene.
Come sign up to win cash*, hone your craft and perhaps become a feature on a future Writer's Night!
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TONIGHT'S FEATURE: EVAN BARTELS (Lincoln, Nebraska)
Evan Bartels is a lot of things, but above all else he is a story teller. He has dedicated his life to living in a way that encompasses all facets of the human experience and capturing those feelings and emotions in his songwriting. The words that you can't find when you wish only to know someone has felt what you are feeling... that's what is put into his songs and they grab you and resonate in your bones.
"Bartels’ songwriting voice boasts a consistency of perspective and personality able to wrangle it all. His lyrics talk to lovers, bartenders, prophets and city populaces with a fatal-feeling honesty — poetic and sometimes funny in its unhurried, matter-of-factness."
- Chance Solem-Pfeifer
Hear Nebraska
"Bartels delivered the best show I saw during the four nights of the [Lincoln Exposed] festival-- a performance that, appropriately, was given to a packed Zoo Bar.
The closest comparison I can come up with for Bartels is Jason Isbell, a superb songwriter whose compositions are lyrically evocative and packed full of detail...Suffice it to say, Bartels writes knowingly about heartache and about traveling on Interstate 80."
-L. Kent Wolgamott
Lincoln Journal Star
"Evan Bartels at Celebrate Lincoln - While the national acts are the big draws, if you’re planning to go, I’d highly recommend getting there early to catch Evan Bartels & the Stoney Lonesomes. The Lincoln outfit led by Bartels, who’s a great young songwriter is just getting better and better. Bartels' music...is a package of well-written, literate songs..."
- On The Beat / Lincoln Ground Zero
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*In order to further incentivize full participation and support, we offer cash prizes for those who perform and remain present while others are performing. We have two drawings throughout the evening: the first at 10:30/11ish for those who have performed up to that point, and another one at the end for everyone who has performed throughout the night. Stick around for your chance to win both!
