A youthful Stillwater-based trio is attracting lots of regional attention, to the point where they are playing the prestigious First Avenue venue in Minneapolis not once but twice in a month-long period.
They come roaring into the avenue on the heels of high praise from a Grammy Award-winning guitarist who also has played the St. Croix Valley area, that being Scott Holt who has performed in concert at Big Guys BBQ Roadhouse between Hudson and Houlton.
Colin Campbell and the Shackletons held an EP release concert for The Horizon Lines on Dec. 27 at the venue’s 7th Street Entry, and they will go back on Jan. 18 for a concert in its mainroom, of the best new bands of 2016, which is sponsored by The Current and Radio K. And they hope to be back in Stillwater in a week or two.
The band of brothers — who often fit the blues style by playing in like-minded, colorful suit jackets — consists of Colin Campbell, age 20, on guitar and vocals, Cameron Campbell, 21, on bass, and Evan Campbell, 16, on drums and “screaming” background vocals, Colin said.
But getting back to guitarist Holt, who performed in the band of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, he said this about Colin and his kin: “Colin is one of those young guys that just has that fire in his eye.”
That fire did not come about in a flurry. “I can’t say we have ever had an official start. We have always lived together and always had instruments, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that we put an official name on it and started gigging under it,” Colin said.
The band is writing and playing songs rooted in the rich influence of the iconic “Minnesota Sound,” influences of which are readily apparent in their music, Colin said.
He added the group is also “living a double life” as both a knee-buckling, indie rock band as well as a stomp-your-foot-through-the-floor blues band, adding they have been generating buzz throughout the Twin Cities area and beyond.
Despite their young ages, the band has shared the stage with Jimmie Vaughan, Melissa Etheridge and the Wallflowers. Early in 2017 the band will travel to Beale Street in Memphis to again represent Minnesota at the International Blues Challenge. Known for his hot blues guitar licks, Colin opened on the main stage at the 2013 Chicago Blues Festival as part of a national all-star band of emerging talent.
“The 7th Street Entry to us feels like a home field advantage at this point, so we always look forward to playing there. We are so dumbfounded in the most joyous way about them asking us to play as part of the best bands of 2016 in the mainroom,” Colin said. Their band is listed first among the six that will play as part of the best-band show. “If I’m not mistaken the poster has it in alphabetical order. So we (currently) have no clue what the (order of the) lineup is,” Colin said.
“I know Nick Elstad from Sleeping Jesus, who is also playing. He’s a great dude,” Colin said. “And I’ve never met the members of Tony Peachka but they are a super rad all-girl punk band and I’m excited to finally see them. The band ‘tabah’ is playing as well and they were included in First Avenue’s ‘Replacement’ tribute, as were we, and we loved them from what we saw.” Colin is referring to his group’s recent invitation to play the annual tribute show for the stalwart Minnesota-based band The Replacements.
“I adore Stillwater, but sometimes it’s very hard to bust into their scene,” Colin said, adding that there are so many longtime bands that play the clubs there almost weekly. “We have played a handful of shows and fests downtown though, and the outreach has always been very supportive. But we find more places to play and places to play louder in the Cities.” The group does have another downtown Stillwater gig tentatively being arranged for late January.
Tickets for the 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18 concert in First Avenue’s mainroom are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. To order, visit www.firstavenue.com.

The long spell of severe cold is on the way out the door — although sometimes it seems it hasn’t ever actually left — and as Metallica so famously sung, “the memory remains.”
– The doorman at Dick’s Bar and Grill said that because of the cold he needed another sweatshirt to stave off drafts from the other side of the door three feet away, and had to scour the store racks to find one to match his bright-red Dick’s “staff” T-shirt. I suggested that, like that old McDonald’s commercial where you’d only fork over for your Big Mac the rate of the current temperature, perhaps he should charge me the equivalent of the wind chill. But wait a minute, then he’d be giving me money! We both laughed, even though our jaws were nearly frozen in place.
– The radio was playing — ugh, although they’ve gotten better — Kool 108, to which the deejay recently read the call letters “kkoo-oo-l” to mock the frosty conditions outside his cubicle. OK, that was cool (conventional spelling). Earlier, however, another deejay (if you can call her that) gave her rockin’ out apologies to one-upting the much more-up-tempo companion stations in the same building. Then she played of all songs, one by Toni Basil. Huh?
– Minnesota recently was announced over the airwaves as being ranked the worst state in the country, as far as its difficult winters. Wisconsin was a few states behind. So wear exactly does that leave those of us here in the Hudson area of Minnesconin? Hey, we’re No. 2?
– Another applicable number is 60, as in degrees below zero. Some emailed a Twin Cities TV news station, which was reporting on the coldest weather ever seen in Minnesota, and said he had lived through that record cold up in the hinterlands of the state. The response from the weatherman: “If you have experienced 60 below, you’d hold it over everyone else at the bar.” As a sign at Dick’s about their beer has said, “No great story every started with a salad.”
– That number 60 is almost the difference in degrees between what we have here and what is typically felt in Vegas, which caused a recent transplant a couple of months ago at the Village Inn to say that she was having trouble adjusting, even though it was nowhere near the freezing mark. Just wait, she was told. Now, she probably knows it does get worse.
– With the much mourned passing of Randy St. Ores, there was the Agave Kitchen sign: RIP RSO HPD. There were other such references, all using versions of those three letters grouped together, at The Village Inn, Kozy Korner and Seasons Tavern, all in North Hudson.
– When I was in Dick’s very late one recent week-night, which has become more unusual for me since I “got old” and was pointed out by the bartender, that same staffer jokingly complemented one of the patrons for hanging around the entire night. He said to do this was his new year’s resolution. Maybe that should be mine as well. Or not. When I had walked in close to bar time, a women slipped on the ice and would have fallen except for giving a stiff-arm to the concrete, like might have been seen earlier on Thursday night football. Maybe, if a bit tipsy, she should forego any such resolution.
– What would Coach K say about the lack of a given letter? There was a sports bar sign recently revealed that said to favor the “Vicings” and the “Pacers.” — Things are mostly Green Bay based right now, although only a couple of weeks ago sports bar signs referenced Skol! as much as Go Pack.
– A sports TV broadcast right before the new year cited a scoring stat, then added the effective period of time was “this calendar year.” Might he just have said “2016?” For another calendar-related bit, the new Next Stop bar in Houlton promised to serve Happy Hour prices all day from Sunday through Thursday to wrap up the old year. But wait a minute, that would only take you through the 29th!
– With Trump now firmly in place as president, word has it that there will be a constitutional amendment, in conjunction with a certain Redneck Woman, that all Americans be required to “leave the Christmas lights on, on our front porch all year long.” Just kidding.

See a tried and true band for some dancing, or some football for quarterly prize-winning, as is (briefly) outlined in this web site’s Picks of the Week department.