The Yellow Room Gang

continued

good," she went on. She's like that.

In fact, the Yellow Room Gang is a very good gang — a militant cadre of eight songwriters from the Ann Arbor and Detroit areas who have been getting together for a couple of years in the home of David Tamulevich, a local songwriter who also runs a booking agency for folk artists and conveniently has a yellow room. The point, it seems, is fellowship, encouragement, maybe even a little ruthless criticism — and every songwriter I've ever met needs that. That and dinner.

It was our first visit to the famous Ark. We expected mikes and instruments on the stage, but not a big old shabby couch covered with grinning, wisecracking, backslapping songwriters. They didn't all fit on the couch. There were also chairs. The Gang — David Barrett, Jim Bizer, Annie Capps, Kitty Donohoe, Michael Hough, Jan Krist, David Tamulevich, and Matt Watroba — stayed onstage all night as each singer took center stage, sang a song, and sat back down. Everyone seemed to know every song, and they backed each other up with harmonies, hot guitar licks, and egg shaker.