There’s something special happening in Benton on Thursday evenings: Open Mic night at the Newspaper Book Shop/Polk County News office.

(In the interest of full disclosure – yes, Open Mic is the brainstorm of my daughter Cheryl, but this isn’t a shameless promotion for her effort.)

Cheryl has always been an advocate of local music but there’s never been much opportunity to make anything happen here. After she remodeled the office with a coffee shop/wifi area in front and hired Silvia Holiday to man the front desk, things began to change. Unbeknownst to Cheryl at the time, Silvia is a singer-songwriter. It didn’t take long for them to begin talking music and, then, the idea of opening the shop for local folk to pick‘n grin. Open Mic was born with Silvia as host and Cheryl taking pictures and keeping the coffee coming.

Every Thursday is a surprise – sometimes a disappointment, but not often. It seems there are always a few local musicians who want to come out, share their talent, and join others. And there are always some folks who want to just come and listen. Sometimes there are just one or two musicians and a few audience members, but more often the small room is full. The musicians range from old-timers like Emmitt Adams to youngsters, like Karissa Rogers on the ukelele. They often don’t know each other when the evening begins, but that changes in a few hours.

What never fails is the spirit of camaraderie that quickly develops. Sometimes a few members of a group attend, and there are a few regulars, but it’s often just random folks who like to play an instrument and/or sing. By the end of the evening, though, they’re playing together and exchanging quips.

It’s a joy to watch. For a non-musician like me, it’s enough to make you wish you could be part of that inner circle – yet the audience in that small room really is a part of it. It’s sort of like theater in the round, as the performers move from table to “stage” (actually, the wall where the microphones are).

I don’t often get to be part of the audience, as meetings tend to be on Thursdays, but I sometimes get a taste before I head off to the world of local government coverage. I’ve enjoyed seeing long-time friends and their children take center stage, I had fun watching members of Steel String Sessions bring a contingent from Ducktown to share their banjo, fiddler, mandolin, bass and more, and I saw the owner of Joe Rodgers Office Supply in a different mode.

Last week, I was lucky that the county commission meeting was in Benton so I could enjoy parts of an especially good evening that was filled with firsts –  hammered dulcimer, autoharp, marimbula and violin. Before I went across the street to the Courthouse, I enjoyed hearing Kile Swafford (who I barely recognized as the youngster I first met at Pappaw Goat’s fish fry) play and sing, admitting that he was a little nervous. Agene Parsons stayed back at first but then brought out her hammered dulcimer, along with Marilyn Reppond on a marimbula, and wowed the group – not only with her ability but her comments that she’s 75 years old and decided to learn music after she got old.

It was a typical beginning – Silvia starting it off with her songs and guitar, then encouraging others to come up to the mikes. Most of the performers – some seasoned, some rookies – are shy as they get started, despite the casual setting.

When I got back after covering the commission meeting, the atmosphere had changed, as it always does. Sometime after the first hour or so, the musicians begin to join each other, pitching in on the songs they know and quickly learning the ones they didn’t. As I left to cover the meeting, there were individual musicians performing. When I got back, there were eight of them in front -- Diana Brake, cello; Stormy Fisher, violin; Don Miller, guitar and bass; Kile Swafford, guitar; Agene Parsons, hammered dulcimer and autoharp; Charles Morris, guitar; Marilyn Reppond, marimbula; and Silvia Holiday, guitar. They’d pick a song and a key and go at it, making do as they went along.

It was magic.

Maybe this is not unusual. My limited experience has been big-audience performances like festivals and concerts, where such collaboration doesn’t happen. To see musicians of all levels of experience performing, then teaming up, sharing, and caring is a special experience. If somebody misses a note, he just shrugs and goes on. Nobody cares. The audience isn’t there to see a polished performance; it’s there to enjoy local music in a casual setting.

The result, regardless of who shows up, is magic.