It kicked off later than expected, but the world premiere of musical journalism -- a groundbreaking new genre in which newspaper articles are set to music -- was a resounding success.

Okay, maybe not resounding. But some people clapped.

As a slightly less than capacity crowd at Charlotte's regular Tuesday open mic night looked on, I took the stage last night with Casey, my musical accompaniest, and read a two-year-old newspaper story, complete with guitar background and harmonica interludes.

Musical journalism -- a combination of beat poetry, music and newspaper articles -- was invented by Casey and me a couple of weeks ago, while enjoying Charlotte's Wednesday night wine tasting.

It is a mostly tongue-in-cheek invention, intended to breathe new life into the printed word at a time when the industry is going to new extremes ("do you have b?") in an attempt to reverse falling readership.

The late start was due to a book club that meets every Tuesday evening at Charlotte's, at Light and Randall Streets. On this night, almost fittingly, the book club was watching a movie and it ran long.

But eventually, the microphone was set up and our turn came. The work performed was a story I had written for The Sun, entirely in rhyme, about feral cats. You kind of had to be there. But if you weren't, you can read it here.

For our encore performance, if we have one, Casey and I are considering either "Obama Gains the Nomination," or "Panel OKs Crab Limits."