Refrain Magazine - Northern Plains Music » June 2009

Blues on the Red Is Back

Janie Franz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 20:08:01 +0000

Everett Smithson Band

Kicking off hot summer blues in the Town Square in Grand Forks ND will be the Everett Smithson Band and Stage Door Johnny. The event starts at 6 pm and goes to 10 pm. The city brings in top blues talent and great barbecue. Admission is FREE, with food and beverage on site.

The Everett Smithson Band from Buffalo MN handles a variety of styles, not your typical blues. From their photo, you can tell they aren’t Hot Tuna or Bo Diddley and his band. Everett Smithson, however, is said to channelHowlin’ Wolf. These guys dip into Zydeco, delta blues, roots rock, bluegrass, and even some gospel. They do plenty of covers but they sneak in a few originals, too.

Their debut CD Copperheads and Featherbeds was released in June 2005 and their latest one Mad Dog came out two summers ago.

Next month on July 24 catch Davina & the Vagabonds with The Blue Wailers. And on August 28, Blues on the Red will bring in Big Walter Smith & the Groovetones and the Lisa Wenger Band

Grand Forks Art and Wine Walk Returns

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:29:30 +0000

The North Valley Arts Council and the Greater Grand Forks Convention and Visitors Bureau are pleased to present the 2010 Art & Wine Walk, which begins on June 19th from 1-5pm in downtown Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. The Walk takes place on the third Saturday of the month, June through October.

Stroll through downtown and view artwork by local artists at galleries, restaurants, and other businesses that will serve wine or other non-alcoholic refreshment. Most artwork is available for sale, and artists will be on-hand to discuss their work. The Art & Wine Walk is a great way to experience downtown Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, view artwork by regional artists, and learn about the many and varied businesses downtown.

A diverse array of local musicians will also be on the streets and in the establishments for your entertainment at every Art and Wine Walk event.

The Art & Wine Walk begins at the Blue Moose Bar & Grill in East Grand Forks or the GuestHouse Town House in Grand Forks. Maps can be purchased for $10. At each participating business, the map will be stamped (wine consumption is not required to receive a stamp). Maps can be turned in at the closing reception at the Empire Arts Center to enter a drawing for a gift basket of prizes donated by participating businesses. The closing reception will also feature a champagne toast, sponsored by Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops.

Those over 21 will receive a wristband, allowing participation in wine tasting. Children under 12 accompanied by an adult receive free admission.

Dates:

June 19, 1-5pm

July 17, 1-5pm

August 21, 1-5pm

September 18, 1-5pm

October 16, 1-5pm

Pachyderm Studios Raises Awareness

Janie Franz — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:13:57 +0000

Pachyderm Studios

A most uncommon recording environment, Pachyderm Studios is located 35 miles south of Minneapolis in Cannon Falls, MN, on six acres of pristine, old growth forest with spring-fed trout streams and the tranquility of nature for creative stimulation. The studio is nestled amid nearly 50 acres of private forest, which is being threatened by land developers. On June 5-7, in partnership with High Grade Entertainment, Pachyderm Studios will launch a two-day festival with over 50 musical artists to raise awareness of this beautiful location and the encroachment of real estate development.

What has become known as the Pachyderm Preservation Project, the recording studio has joined forces with a collection of musical artists, creative people, and community members to help Pachyderm Studio purchase 28 acres of land immediately adjacent to its current property. That land will be cleared and subdivided into residential homes otherwise. Pachyderm Studios and the community that surrounds it want to preserve the land and use it, in its natural beauty, as a unique sanctuary of healing, art, and community in the Midwest. That also includes continuing its use as a premier recording facility.

Alicia Wiley

The project needs to raise $1 million to purchase the land. Along with festival proceeds and private donations, the studio is also offering a digital download of your choice of a song from Pachyderm’s latest compilation, So Large We Ran Out of Room, featuring such artists as Alicia Wiley, The New Congress, and Chris Koza. Each selection costs only a buck. Go to www.projectpachyderm.org to select your favorite tunes.

Pachyderm Studio has become the recording mecca for a number of well known artists. The studio offers both analog and digital technologies with a classic Neve 8068 recording console. The facility also has a 5,000 square foot, five-bedroom, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Guest House available for bands to use that includes an indoor pool and sauna.

Guest House Grounds

The studio has recorded Nirvana’s In Utero, Live’s Throwing Copper, P.J. Havey’s Rid of Me, Soul Asylum’s Grave Dancers’ Union, Mudvanye’s End of All Things To Come, and the Jayhawk’s Hollywood Town Hall. In addition, They Might Be Giants, Indigenous, Son Volt, and Alice Peacock have also recorded at Pacyderm Studio. These artists know the quality of the recordings here, and they also respect the natural beauty of the surroundings.

The Pachyderm Electronic Music Festival will feature a wide range of artists that most people wouldn’t necessarily associate with green issues. It is to Pachyderm Studio’s reputation and to their cause that these artists are coming to help bring the news to more than granola crunchers. There are 32 DJ’s, four MCs, including Peewee Dread, as well as six, live, hip hop artists, including Omaur Bliss. The live electronic bands and PA s include Shima Cluster, The Histronic, Thought Thieves, Officer Gentlemen, Pretty Ugly, SimplY Us, and Alicia Wiley. There will also be dance and visual art performances, including fire dancers.

The festival opens at noon Friday June 5th, with entertainment starting at 5pm. You can get advance tickets for $25 at http://www.highgradesystems.com/festival.html or at the gate the day of the event for $40. Both ticket prices include camping on site.

The complete artist line up:

DJ’s– DVS1, Centrific, Caustic, Jim K, Soulreal, Hydrophonics, Champe, Soul Control, Easyrider, Bumpyscrew, Lenka Paris, Rude Girl, Ghetto, Virgo, Fundamentalist, 3 Kings, Soundsystem, Aaron Bliss, So Supreme, Blaze One, Task Rock, Shiek, Jeff Wong, Arize, Nick Merchan, Verb X, Aaron Robinson, Misses McFeely, Sarasta, Hardkornate, Kulcha Human, Druski

MCs – Truthmaze, Brace, Hyde, Ishaich, Peewee Dread

Live Electronic Bands & PA’s — Shima Cluster, The Histronic, Thought Thieves, Officer Gentlemen, Pretty Ugly, SimplY Us, Alicia Wiley

Live Hip Hop Music — Ill Chemistry, Yoni with DJ Green Sky, Big Shiz, Omaur Bliss, Slow Spokes, Trees Amongst Garbage

The Derek Trucks Band: A Constant in Uncertain Times

Janie Franz — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:13:16 +0000

Live Music Alert: The Derek Trucks Band, Fargo Theatre, June 22

Derek Trucks

Through most of his life, Derek Trucks has been considered a guitar prodigy, and for a time I’m sure the musical world waited with held breath to see what would change this young player. Trucks, however, has demonstrated innovation, maturity, and immense staying power. And, through it all, he has remained an intensely likeable and humble musician.

His talent, like that of Joe Bonamasso and Jonny Lang, was recognized when he was quite young, getting his first paying gig at 11. Trucks’ uncle was in the Allman Brothers band so it was natural that young Trucks gravitated to Southern rock and blues. That grounding eventually led to him sitting in with nearly every blues great around and recorded on plenty of albums, even touring 26 countries one year with Eric Clapton. He joined the Allman Brothers when was twenty, but it was his own band where he felt the most at home and could experience the most creative growth.

The Derek Trucks Band

The Derek Trucks band formed when Trucks was a teenager, and soon became a place of grounding, surrounded by equally talented musicians, some of whom were also very young prodigies. Kofi “Punky” Burbridge started flute at six and later picked up keyboardss. “Punky was playing really young with jazz bands and sitting in with city orchestras. When he was at 10 years old, he was out there doing it,” says Trucks. “Yonrico Scott, our drummer, was playing in church quite young.” Scott, though twenty years older than Trucks when he joined the band, started playing drums at seven. Todd Smallie, the bass player, also had experiences similar to Trucks.

Having members of a band who shared the stares and the brouhaha of early performance put him on an equal footing with his band mates and also showed him that there was some staying power after the first flush of ability. But after being on the road with these players for over 15 years, Trucks says, “Somehow, we remain steady in an ever changing world.” He also realizes that being almost thirty, he’s not the young kid anymore. “At this stage in the game, you’re expected to have it all together by now,” he admits.

But part of that being so grounded must come from the stability of his family, especially his wife, roots performer Susan Tedeschi. Two years ago, they packed their children, his mother, and his younger brother into touring vehicles and went on the road, combining Tedeschi’s fiery guitar work with Trucks and adding her powerful voice and Trucks’ brother’s drum work. This allowed them both to create music together but also to do some writing together.

Trucks recently put the finishing touches on his seventh album, Already Free, a 12-song album full of great instrumental work but some very tasty lyrics and vocals by Mike Mattison with a couple of guests, including Doyle Bramhall II, Oteil Burbridge, and Susan Tedeschi. Count M’Butu returns on percussion but also sings. And, Trucks himself lends his voice to the track, “Get What You Deserve.”

Perhaps it is his own experience with singing or a deep appreciation and sensitivity to his wife’s ability that motivated Trucks to ask Susan Tedeschi to sing on one cut, “Back Where I Started.” “When we first wrote the tune, it was just instrumental,” he says. “I love the feel of it and the vibe. Warren Haynes was down to the studio, and I played him the track. He had some lyrical ideas, and he sang the track. It was great, but I just kept hearing Susan on it. I kept hearing a woman’s voice.”

Susan Tedeschi--photo by Dereck Trucks

So he asked her to lay down the vocals. But he made one request. “She usually records late in the day,” he says. “I asked her if she felt comfortable coming out early in the morning. Her voice first thing in the morning is entirely different.” Since the studio is in the Trucks’ backyard, it wasn’t much of a hardship. “We took kids to school and just the two of us went out to the studio at about 9 am,” he says. “It was just so great catching her really fresh. I really love her performance on that tune.”

The entire album was a collection of just such collective moments. “Most of the tunes on this record were collaborations with me and Mike Mattison on a lot of tunes and Doyle Bramhall II and me on a handful of tunes,” Trucks says. “We constantly had people coming and going in the studio, writing with whoever was there.”

Though that can be a very vulnerable undertaking, Trucks says that trust is at its core. “Everybody that played on this record is a really a close friend, an extended family almost. It’s a very comfortable feeling, having your wife out there singing and writing tunes, and band mates, and people you’ve lived with half of your life,” he says. “It’s easier to write with people you know and trust. You don’t have to worry about looking or feeling like an ass. You just throw ideas out….You surround yourself with people that are on the same page and looking in the same direction. We don’t have a lot of time for ego-driven music. There’s plenty of that out there.”

Already Free is a departure from his previous album, the more organic, world-based Songlines. The world influences are there and the experimentation is ever present. But the meat of this album is about people and finding a place in this world and with each other. Trucks also says that he wants people to get something from his music. “We realized a long time ago—a lot of times it’s just naturally your mindset—that music should be uplifting. Sometimes you want to play music that maybe takes you out of that comfort zone, that is slightly uncomfortable. But there should always be that release. It should be what church does on a good day, what it’s supposed to do. You put yourself, your ego, your troubles aside for a little while. It’s meditation when it’s peaking.”

With that in mind, Trucks decided to tackle a Dylan tune, “Down in the Flood,” on this album and will most likely close the show with that tune in flood-ravaged Fargo, knowing it will have an emotional impact. “When we first decided to do that tune, we were thinking about Katrina. I thought that song has a whole new meaning, post Katrina,” Trucks says. “Then there was a flood in Iowa and around you guys. It kept hitting me how with great writers like Bob Dylan a song could take on so many different lives, could really encompass so many things. That song takes on a different light when you are looking at it from that view.”

When The Derek Trucks Band plays in Fargo on June 22, fans should remember a quote that’s in the liner notes of Already Free. It says, “Music is like a river…that has come down to us through time, bringing nurture to man’s soul.” The Derek Trucks Band surely brings us life-giving water.

Grand Cities Art Fest Entertainment Spotlight: Ron Franz

Janie Franz — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:11:31 +0000

Ron Franz at Grand Cities Art Fest

Ron Franz will be one of several entertainers at this year’s Grand Cities Art Fest on June 13-14 in Town Square in Grand Forks. Last year, the event brought 35,000 people to downtown Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, making it one of biggest street fairs in the region. The Grand Cities Art Fest features 144 artist booths this year, displaying jewelry, paintings, photography, woodworking, glass items, ceramics, metalworks, textiles, and natural soaps and oils.

Entertainment is being shepherded by James Feist, the frontman for the North River Ramblers. Refrain Magazine will post a complete listing of live music acts for the Grand Cities Art Fest, with set times as soon as it has been finalized.

In the meantime, here’s a closer look at Ron Franz, a Grand Forks singer/songwriter, who will return this year for his second Art Fest… …….

Ron at Cash v Dylan

For forty years, Ron Franz has been writing and performing in clubs, coffeehouses, festivals, and benefits, all over the Upper Midwest. He’s opened for Nashville country singer/songwriter James Talley, and shared the stage with jazz great Duke Robillard. He was a regular at the Urban Stampede and appeared often at the Greater Grand Forks First Night, the Heritage Festival (East Grand Forks), Bluegrass Sundays, Winterthing, Summerthing, and KidsThing. Franz has performed at the Heart River Folk Festival near Mandan ND, the Sioux River Folk Festival in Canton. SD, and at the Sioux Expo in Sioux Falls, SD. He was also a finalist in the Minnesota Folk Festival Songwriters Contest two years in a row. Franz’ first first full-length CD, With My Eyes Closed, was released in 2004, and a new one will be out later this year.

Like many songwriters, Franz started out on the piano, beginning lessons when he was in fourth grade. “That lasted until about seventh grade,” he said in an interview. “I stopped liking the piano. I think it was because the piano wasn’t tuned. I didn’t recognize the problem and neither did my parents, though my mother played.”

His mother, however, was determined that he continue music, encouraging him to play French horn in high school, eventually buying him a guitar. He took acoustic guitar lessons for two years, mostly out of obligation, not realizing at the beginning just how important that instrument would be.

“I listened to folk musicians like the Limelighters, the Kingston Trio,” Franz said. “My brother Jerry and I watched ‘Hootenanny’ on TV. We lived in Chicago, and WMFT played roots music on The Midnight Special program. I also bought a few albums and practically wore them out. I had The Roots of Lightening Hopkins, and albums by Big Joe Williams, Pete Seeger, early Duke Ellington, the Beatles, and Donavan. I had a couple of Dave Von Ronk, Gambler’s Blues and Dave Von Ronk Sings the Blues.”

Franz also listened to Chicago performers like Bob Gibson, Hamilton Camp, and Steve Goodman, sometimes seeing them live at the Old Town School of Folk Music and clubs like the now defunct The Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else’s Troubles, and Holsteins. These stellar writers soon had young Franz writing his own verses.

“Over the years, there’s been a lot of bad writing. One of my first songs had an Up With People feel,” he admitted. It was heavily poetic and typical of much of the popular folk writing at the time that tried to emphasize the positive. A renewed interest in Woody Guthrie brought what Dale Ann Bradley calls story songs to the genre. Tom Paxton followed with sweetness mixed with social consciousness, and Dylan brought the political to the music scene. All of these components eventually found their way into Franz’s body of work. But for every keeper, there was a stack of starts and throw-aways.

Franz spent the 1970s playing traditional ballads and folk covers in small clubs in Chicago and Cincinnati. He sat in on folk jams in peoples’ homes, especially when he started playing at the local coffeehouse, The Station, in Loveland, Ohio. This community of people encouraged his songwriting and offered a forum for his new work. When he moved to North Dakota, it was much more difficult to find coffeehouses and other venues in which to perform. He accompanied singers and played in churches and at community functions.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, active songwriting took a backseat as Franz concentrated on playing lead electric guitar and singing with Crosswire, a locally touring country/rock dance band. They did covers with one or two of Franz’s originals thrown in.

Franz continued to write and work on developing an acoustic act that often included his young son Scott, who played blues harmonica and hand drums. By the time Scott was fourteen, he was in his own band, Zen Mothers, and chose not to play with his father any more. (Scott and his band eventually cut two CDs and mounted two national tours.)

Ron Franz continued to tour regionally with Crosswire for ten years. When one of the members of Crosswire died suddenly, the band dissolved. Franz then focused on his own work. With few distractions, he let the process unfold, and a wealth of songs came pouring out.

Over time, Franz’s songs evolved from lyrical poems meant for the head to song portraits that touched the heart. One of the first of these musical portraits was “Catherine,”a song about a woman whom society says had diminished capacity who used to care for babies at a state facility until someone in power felt that she should be paid, and the program was dismantled. Sitting in front of the television at a group home, watching children on the shows, she quickly told anyone, “I once had children.” Franz elevated her response to poetry, showing her unfathomable ability to nurture and to love the children in her care, displaying wisdom that many parents fail to see, the ability to let go and let a child grow even if it is away from her. Franz’s words rang out:
“I once had children, much like these,/Many, many children not my own./I fed them, clothed them, taught them all I could./I gave them up as they moved on.”

Franz wrote another song about a schizophrenic father taking his son to a noisy, busy arcade and how he desperately tries to keep it together so that his child can have a good time with him. And then there is “The Virgin Mary,” a song that calls into question the effects of modern mental health strategies.

And, “Denny and His Guitar” not only tells of the Crosswire band member’s positive nature but has a verse depicting all of his favorite songs. “He was ‘Crazy’ for ‘Georgia;’ it was ‘Always on (His) Mind,’/And we loved to hear his harmony to ‘Wonderful Tonight.’/Though ‘Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’ always had his sympathy,/Denny’s left us on his way to find that ‘Unchained Melody.’” Franz recorded that and gave it to Denny’s family and members of the band.

Franz has also written funny songs about couples not listening, people driving and multitasking, and the inability to plan ahead. Other songs are openly romantic like his bluesy “Mama, Put a Slow Record On,” and “The Light On the Bed Table” and “Now Evening Is Here.”

But it is Franz’s “This Kitchen Floor” that may be the song that he leaves for posterity. Written after hearing an NPR broadcast about grandparents raising their grandchildren, Franz wrote a ballad about just such a grandmother and her whole life history. It starts: “This kitchen floor, it’s felt the feet of children, come running home from school and out to play./My old man laid it; it’s made of good linoleum/It’s held up all these years, though it’s now begun to sway.” The song ends with: “The time I didn’t have for mine I’m giving to her daughter/For them both I wash and wax this kitchen floor.”

Though these songs and more came out of regular writing sessions, Franz said he’s always written even when they were nothing more than spontaneous little ditties about things that happened to his children, about making chili or how cold it was or playing in the sandbox. “It was good practice, keeping the skill of rhyming phrases sharp,” he said.

Today, his writing sessions are almost daily and require larger blocks of time. “Mozart claimed that the whole work, the whole symphony, would come all at once,” Franz said. “That’s not at all the case for me. There are certain flashes, then you fill it in. Sometimes, it comes very quickly. Sometimes I wake up with a tune in my head…. Once, I was dreaming about Dave Von Ronk, and I woke up with the tune and a phrase for a song called, ‘Bringing Johnny Home.’ I wrote the verses and finished it that night. I consider it a gift, sort of channeling Dave Von Ronk so I figured I’d better put it down.”

In the summer of 2004, Ron recorded and produced a 14-song full-length CD, With My Eyes Closed. It was a CD that was long overdue and one that his daughter had kept asking for, afraid that playing the two taped performances she had recorded years ago would break and those songs would be lost forever.

The CD was, of course, sent to family and friends and to some radio stations. “A lot of them were sent to my labor union and area Democrats,” Franz said. “And one even found its way to the Democratic National Convention as North Dakota’s gift to their silent auction.” Others went to Peter Rowan, JJ. Grey of Mofro, Cameron Tapp of Bourne, Jeep Rosenberg, and Bob Bovee & Gail Heil. “I know that Bob Bovee at least listened to it because he sent me a note about it and so did Jeep Rosenberg.” Dale Ann Bradley and Kelly Richey also have some compilations of material.

A union activist, Franz has kept in touch with other political songwriters. “I’ve shared songs with Paul McKinnon, who writes union songs, too. I think political songs are hard to write in a sense. You have to feel deeply about an issue to do it at all. You need to be accurate about an issue or it’s pointless to do,” he said. “Having done a couple, I’m just not sure where you’d sing them, except at rallies.”

Open heart surgery a year after With My Eyes Closed was released spurred Franz to write more and keep recording. “I expect to be doing this indefinitely. It feeds me,” he said. “The only trick is getting an audience for it….Maybe when I’m 85, some twenty-year-old will discover me like they did R. L.. Burnside and say, ‘This man has lived!’ Then I’ll have a year’s worth of fame and die from too many women.”

Live Music Review: Grand Cities Pride Day with MJ Kroll and Alicia Leafgreen

Janie Franz — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:54:36 +0000

Live Music Alert:

Alicia Leafgreen, 7 th St. Entry, Minneapolis, June 11; 400 Bar, Minneapolis, June 26.

MJ Kroll with The Believers, Twin Cities Pride Day, June 26, Loring Park, Minneapolis

MJ Kroll and Adena Brumer

Grand Forks showed its diverse Pride on Saturday, May 30, at the second annual Grand Cities Pride Event. Though the day was chilly but beautiful, it was a step up from last year’s much smaller event when Pride event coordinators and attendees woke up to a late spring snowfall. Snow was a condition event co-chair Chris Stoner mentioned when he made contact with MJ Kroll, one of the musical acts slated for the event. It took her a week to think about it, and then threw caution to the wind and agreed to drive down from Minneapolis, no matter the weather.

The afternoon event brought people from the community in support of GLBT diversity and offered several booths for networking, information, fun products, and food and beverages. Amazing Grains and Dakota Harvest had snacks and drinks for sale, and Grand Cities Pride sold hot pizza and sodas. Most importantly, the event dispensed information about HIV testing and the new push at UND and nationally to provide safe spaces for transgendered people, in particular single-stall, unisex bathrooms. Representatives from Christus Rex and Federated Church were also present, letting attendees know that their congregations were open and affirming churches that welcomed GLBT folks. There were even art activities for children.

In addition, two annual awards were given to people in Grand Forks whose work in support of lifestyle diversity made a significant impact on the GLBT community. The Mary Wiper Award, which is given to a straight-identified individual, was awarded to Jaryn Allen, a sexual health and wellness educator at UND. The Grand Cities Pride Award was given to Geoffrey Schaubhut, the president of UND’s 10% Society for his work with safe spaces.

The theme of the day was definitely celebration and community. MJ Kroll and Alicia Leafgreen, also from Minneapolis, were the highlights of Grand Cities Pride Day. Both performers appeared in the afternoon at Town Square in downtown Grand Forks and later that evening at Sensations, along with a full slate of Drag Kings and Drag Queens.

Alicia Leafgreen

Alicia Leafgreen, deemed Minneapolis’ premier lesbian hip-hop artist, was a petite dynamo on stage. Using the medium of old style hip-hop, Alicia charmed Pride attendees with her clever rhymes and gutsy delivery. Not one to mince words (or censor her lyrics even in a public space), she offered a fresh look at hip hop, coming not only from a woman (and there are still far too few female rappers and rhymers out there), but also from a point of view that most hip-hop artists know little about. She laid her rhymes down about relationships and social issues, against recorded drum tracks and some of her own looped raps, allowing her to play with the track, often in counterpoint as if there were two hip hoppers on stage. Her song “Little Brother,” which had little to do with lifestyle diversity, however, was a tender, but powerful, song about losing her father in Iraq and what that meant to her brother and to her own home life. If Alicia Leafgreen continues to deliver songs like that, she will make a big mark in the musical world.

MJ Kroll

Following Leafgreen was MJ Kroll, a strong singer/songwriter with a soaringly beautiful voice. For the first part of her set, she used a recording from her backup band, The Believers, and had Adena Brumer from that band doing vocal backup harmonies. The blend of both voices was arresting. Brumer’s vocal choices were unique and served to intensify Kroll’s lyrics, allowing Brumer’s voice to round out the musical thought. Kroll ultimately shut the CD player off and just let her guitar, her voice, and Brumer’s backup carry the songs, which they did with ease, adding just a little percussion from a shaker. The nakedness of guitar and voices allowed the lyrics to shine. Kroll sang selections from her first CD, Resonate, that was released in 2007, and some new material. She is busy working her second CD that should be out soon.

Though Grand Cities Pride Day was lightly attended in the afternoon, Sensations was packed and both Leafgreen and Kroll got the large crowds they deserved.

Festival Spotlight: Campout Roots Festival and Gathering

Janie Franz — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:54:04 +0000

Trampled By Turtles

Trampled By Turtles will be making a very rare appearance in the region, only one of two this summer, at the Campout Roots Festival and Gathering at the NCN Campgrounds in Black River Falls, WI, this weekend, June 4-7. These jamgrassers will headline this event and then take off for New York and will burn a path up and down the Atlantic Coast, only stopping at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in July, before heading west to Montana and Idaho and several stops in Canada this fall.

The Campout Roots Festival and Gathering offers three days of music and camping on over 75 acres of woods and meadow with showers and flush toilets. A swimming pond and beach has become a favorite for campers. There are also hiking trails, a frisbee golf course, and volleyball and basketball courts. A full service restaurant is on-site that has high speed internet.

The Campout Roots Festival and Gathering has been around since 2001 and is built on the philosophy of community and togetherness. This year’s festival has stayed true to this grassroots idea, creating a safe environment to enjoy music and friends. With that in mind, a few simple rules will help keep everyone safe. Wear shoes. Don’t bring glass in order to avoid accidents. Weapons and fireworks are prohibited. And don’t bring in firewood because the campground wants to avoid Gypsy Moth infestation.

Twenty-two bands will fill the air with sweet music. Some of the festival diehards who are making the rounds this summer are Pert Near Sandstone, Down Lo, Charlie Parr, Smokin Bandits, Javier Trejo, Ifdakar, Elf Lettuce, Soap, Useful Jenkins, Sean Shiel, and Gypsy Lumberjacks. Some new musical faces include The Dewayn Brothers, Banjer Dan, Vinny Weible and Soul Logic, Northern Drift, J.B Beverly and the Wayward Drifters, The Evergreen Grass Band, Downers Grove, Bill and Dan’s Excellent Adventure, Eau Claire Blues All-stars, and Favorite Station.

Tickets are $75.00 and include three days of music, camping, and on-site parking. Children 10 years or younger are free with the purchase of an adult ticket. For more information, go to http://www.campoutroots.com

Venue Spotlight: Crosstown Lounge

Janie Franz — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:52:11 +0000

When the Crosstown Lounge opened in June 2007, Grand Forks saw the spark of something special as live music was once again a regular happening downtown. There had been jazz at Sanders and some occasional local acts at The Hub, with a couple of street dances sponsored by Gillies. Sometimes, a bar/restaurant like Joe Blacks or The Toasted Frog pushed back some tables and made room for a local band. It really wasn’t until Brad and Amy Beauchamp, owners of the Crosstown Lounge, started booking touring bands that downtown Grand Forks looked like it would return to the era of live music when Grigg’s Landing was a hopping blues club back in the 70′s and 80s. A musical Renaissance began that is making downtown Grand Forks a destination location.

Renovating what was once Lucky’s Green Room, a pool hall on the second floor of the old Griffith’s Department Store on the corner of Third Street and Demers, the Beauchamps contracted for an unusual horseshoe-shaped bar, which was built on site by John Widdel over a two-month period. A local wood craftsman, Widdel is best known for his duck decoys and his canoe paddles made from strips of different types and colors of wood. “We’ve got two miles of wood strips in it,” says Brad Beauchamp. “That’s why we affectionately call it the Two-Mile Bar.” Widdel was able to bend the wood into the double curves of the horseshoe.

And it is the bar that you see when you exit the elevator into the Crosstown Lounge. There, the friendly staff will serve up cocktails, microbrews, and beer on tap. “We have a pretty impressive liquor selection overall,” says Beauchamp. “I’ve taken some pride in bringing in a wide variety of high-end and middle-end tequilas. We also have some high-end Scotches that run-of-the-mill bars don’t carry. I try to get as much variety as I can and try to bring it to the customer for a fair price,” he says. “I work with the staff pretty extensively on making a good drink, but not a burnt drink.”

The Crosstown also has specialty beers. “We have over 70 imports and microbrews,” Beauchamp says. “We put those on special quite a bit.” The Crosstown also has two beer glasses sizes for draft beer: the pint and the 35-ounce super mug. “We don’t have any standard domestic beer on draft,” Beauchamp adds. It’s all microbrews, with names like Amberbok, Blue Moon, Red Hook, and Boulevard. And, the bar doesn’t offer pitchers of beer. Clientele come to have a good drink and enjoy the music, not be carried out of the establishment.

Crosstown also offers a unique bar menu, one that Guy Fieri would say was “money.” They offer nachos, hot wings, wraps, burgers, wraps, paninis, croissants, tacos, and a couple of signature dishes: the Philthy Pig, a barbeque pork sandwich with a slice of provolone, and the Dirty Dog, a Chicago-style hot dog (third of a pound, 100 percent all beef) topped with chili, cheddar cheese, and onions.

Though patrons can get a brew and a burger almost anytime, it is the live music that is packing in the clientele. Though the first band they brought in was local band, Beauchamp could tell that he was definitely filling a musical niche. “Ever since the flood of ‘97 when the live venues downtown were washed away, I’ve always thought that it was something that was needed. There was a thirst for it,” Beauchamp adds.

Fat Maw Rooney

Working with a booking agent, Beauchamp has been able to add Grand Forks to the tours of a number of bands as they make a swing to Fargo. Many bands are glad to add another date to their tours and spread their music to a wider audience. Some just come to play at the Crosstown, even all the way from Minneapolis.

Beauchamp’s booking agent has brought in Wookiefoot, Gypsyfoot, Fat Maw Rooney, God Johnson, and many others that have played at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. These are bands that have a wide following in the region and ones that fans just don’t get to see very often.

The festival circuit has also helped expose music fans here to a wider variety of genres, allowing Beauchamp to bring in bands such as the reggae band Public Property, the jamgrass group Cornmeal, one-man vocal band Heatbox, and Down Lo with LA rapper Deploi.

Down Lo with Deploi

He also brought in the California rock band Dirty Sweet and showcased a lot of experimental bluegrass.

“Live music is something that I am going to keep doing it as long as I can afford to,” Beauchamp states. Though Beauchamp reluctantly charges a small cover (usually $5) to help pay for the bands, he eases the sting a little by offering a free beer with your admission.

Though live music is a great boon for Grand Forks music fans, folks are driving up from Fargo to catch a band for a second night or because the band isn’t playing down there.

Beauchamp also makes sure that bands are treated well, offering them, not only the hospitality of the Crosstown Lounge, but also making hotel arrangements and making sure their sound needs are met. He has invested in a great sound man with a terrific system to keep the music sweet all evening, every evening a band plays there.

“I tell my staff that we always treat these musicians well,” Beauchamp says. “It’s all based on karma. If you treat them well, they’ll put on a good show. And when they leave here, they’ll say the right things about us.”

Beauchamp has got that right. Musicians keep returning, and new ones are finding out about the great fans at the Crosstown. Music fans already know that the Crosstown Lounge is the best venue downtown to see a festival touring band.