The sign at Casanova Historic Liquors says, “Let’s never speak of 2014 again.”
Well, maybe this one time, because that makes it ten years since the first occurrence of one of the most significant concert series in Hudson history.
The other day I was rummaging through my collection of T-shirts — you get a lot of them when you are the newspaper photographer at a lot of charity events — when I came across this old gem: River Rock 2004, to benefit Kevin Smith. He is the longtime owner of the Sports Club steakhouse and bar, which has since become the Smilin’ Moose lodge, and had suffered a stroke and could no longer work. The series of summer rock shows became an annual event for a few years running, and would later aid the fight against Cystic Fibrosis, specifically the family of Tracy Frye and her daughter Nicole.
The concerts were sponsored by the late Jeff Johnson, a local musician who had hits that played on MTV and that made the top 20 adult contemporary charts, and later became a stage manager for some of his contemporaries. Through these touring affiliations, he was able to bring acts such as The Knack, The Smithereens, The Romantics, and most notably his friend Tommy Tutone, to play at the Lakefront Park bandshell. He was also in the process of having The Fixx appear, but that was cut short by some legal problems.
But along the way, there were plenty of interesting happenings.
– Johnson’s friend, Tutone, whose “Jenny” song went viral before going viral was all in vogue, had ailing parents in the Twin Cities and wanted to move to Hudson to be closer to them. Johnson aided his search, while at the same time founding the Twisted Grille, which later became the Agave Kitchen. I remember several things from those days, including one night around 2 a.m. when Johnson was closing down the place as I interviewed him for an entertainment story, and Tutone called and my interview was cut short. The two buds spent ten minutes in the wee hours talking about a property that appeared promising. In those days, there was a night or two a week when Twisted offered a musician’s open stage, and I vaguely recall doing a duet with Tutone. He became known to show up late at places like the former Dibbo’s, guitar slung to his back, and have the rock act of young guns on for the night gladly cede the stage to “Mr. Tutone.” I wrote all about these things back in the day, and even got a friend of mine named Jenny to pose for a photo with a shirt patterned after that song — which she owned from before the time Tutone became a Hudson fixture — and it became an occasional topic of conversation between us for a couple of years.
– A performance by the Smithereens was cut short by heavy rain, but word got to Dibbo’s manager Chuck McGee, and he agreed to have they and their crew carry their equipment quickly through the downpour for two blocks and do an entire performance on the Dibbo’s stage. With apologies to the heavy metal band Slayer, was that wet summer trek Seasons in the Abyss? The band that night, although not Slayer, again ceded the stage, this time for a couple of hours. An aside is that some of the regional papers for which I write did not consider this worthy of a news article, citing budget constraints, so you heard it hear first.
– It became clear that The Knack, and other of the acts too, had much more musicianship than just the hit song My Sharona. A highlight was whipping through a tune by the Doors without missing a beat. Just wish the lead singer of The Knack would have ventured out of his trailer prior to hitting the bandshell, for a scheduled meet and greet.
– A lowlight was a Hudson City Council member, who lives a few blocks away, throwing his weight around during one of the concerts and calling the police with orders to shut the show down because of alleged noise. (Having parked near Second Street, I can attest that the volume wasn’t any greater than at many other such concerts). That and the fact that the clock had not reached the time on the permit that was given.
– All this became possible when Johnson followed up his success with a couple of songs on MTV during the 1980s, and scored a national hit with his new outfit Super Cell. The CD release party was at the Fine Line Cafe in Minneapolis, and I took photos, one of which ended up in the in-flight magazine of Northwest Airlines. I also remember an interview with Johnson, who considered himself a barroom brawler type, in downtown Hudson, during which I had my arm “twisted” and questions were asked over a drink at every bar along the way to his studio just east of what’s now the local library and police station.
– But a lot of good came from those concerts, especially for charity. Nicole’s situation took a more pronounced course a few years after River Rock, when the local woman, who has the Cystic Fibrosis disorder that often becomes worse with age, became pregnant. That’s a circumstance that can be very difficult for people with CF, although that aspect of what hampers its victims hasn’t gotten a lot of press. Because of things such as potential difficulty with the birth process and lack-of-mobility issues when the child arrives, houses must be specially equipped, which can be expensive, and rules for what little aid does exist regulate questions such as remodeling vs. adding on, the family says. Nicole has lived for a quite a while with her mother, Tracey, who does day care that makes housing issues such as space for people even more difficult. And the fact that CF often requires medical treatment that is costly, even with things such as repairing teeth, means that obtaining another residence really isn’t an option. Officials at a foundation that deals with CF have not returned calls to contribute to stories on the plight of mothers who have the disorder, apparently not wanting to make them appear unlike other people who have children. If you wish to help, call the Fryes at (715) 381-5965.