Steel yourself for music on the patio, leading the way of music offerings during the Memorial Day entry-of-summer holiday:

— The Country Outlaws will play the Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt on Friday evening, May 27, showcasing songs going back as far as the ’60s. They have a female singer, so they can cover tunes sung by both genders. The band even has some of the stuff from back a time, such as the old Merle Haggard, and are heavy on steel guitar, which band member and Hudsonite Paul Gavic took the patience to make a mission of and learn starting about six years ago.
— There is also a new offering at the Smilin’ Moose, music on the patio that was added late last year, going all three days of the holiday. There’s Todd Douglas on May 27, Brian Dickenson (no Iron Maiden singer relation) on May 28 and (Hudson’s own) Chris Lawrence on May 29. The first two shows are from 5-8 p.m. and the final one from 2-5 p.m.
— It’s much the same at Mallard’s in Bayport over the holiday weekend, just going a bit longer: Tim Butler on May 27 and Tommy Bentz on May 28 from 6:30-9:30 p.m., and Marcus Lere on May 29 from 2-6 p.m. The latter two also have a strong Hudson-River Falls presence and also will perform on the deck.

— They may be local, but the married couple and musical duo of Sarah and Eric VanValkenburg sometimes trek a distance to play in the St. Croix Valley, such as their Thursday evening gig at Season’s Tavern in North Hudson that can help you get an early start to your Memorial Day weekend. The acoustic duo goes under the band name Practical Goods, and features original music written by Sarah. The Americana/country duo plays not only around the St. Croix River Valley, but also Minneapolis and St. Paul — and as far away as Austin, Texas. They play at a whole variety of wine bars, pubs, restaurants, fairs and festivals around the community. Their wide range of rock, country and songwriter genres makes for a fun evening, they say. They most enjoy playing old country, and ‘red dirt’ Texas, Americana style music. You might hear some Rolling Stones, (much like the house band Thirsty Camel), Elvis or Ray Wylie Hubbard and originals at their shows.

— You can spin a wheel as a countdown to Country Jam in Eau Claire at — wait a minute — Dick’s Bar and Grill on May 27 from 6-7:30 p.m. There will be prizes, and tickets to the concert on July 21-23.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

This about all that soft jazz, and a whole lotta related offerings, taking a renewed seat at the table, like a not-seen-for-a-while relative at Thanksgiving dinner, as they have plenty of quick eats or full meal to go with the music too, at a venue that adds another element to the local song scene. It’s an intimate setting, where you can be not much more than an arm’s length or two from one of the players as the regele you with their sung stories — and still stay out of reach and vocal range of that odd uncle, but close...
Business writing, and even life, is like penning a song. It moves through the various seasons, like The Rain Song. (Snow coming soon.) But the very season at which we choose to begin is telling. And it may vary. For each client’s, or band’s needs. Or the second side of an album. They say keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your bandmates closest, because they are the ones you hole up with for long periods and churn out the creative process. One of those for me, is the pen during the day, and voice at times at night when...
When I first heard that star actor Nicolas Cage was in town for an extended stay to film one of his new movies, it didn’t take too much of a deep dive to discover that the film and its protagonist takes the name of Parish, which made me think it had something to do with things post-apocalyptic and churches, like some of his past flicks. (Spoiler alert: It actually is not a parish in the sense of the name of a church, but has that end of the world and eternity vibe, as it’s about a man who decides to hole up in his adapted...
Mr. Hat, meet Mr. Reality, meet Mr. Mandate. Via Mr. Crowley. If you don’t get that post-election humor, then there’s no hope … When it concerns the latter, check out the Ozzy song and it’s message, “won’t you ride my white horse” and “did you think you were pure,” see if you then get the gag, as a U.S. dictator’s realm falls in a landslide rarely seen. “Your lifestyle to me seems so tragic.” As the last midterm election tallies are being, well, tallied, South Park (and later SNL too) roared on with its satire on Wednesday night, getting going at it...
The divide in politics these days is not still as much left vs. right, with granted little center, it’s become the informed vs. the uniformed or downright ignorant, and by the flyers politicians put out, you can see they are catering to this predilection. So I propose a solution, though radical, as long as these days we’re throwing that word around all over the place even when it’s not merited, and it’s mentioned literally hundreds of times in Republican flyers across the state: If you are not going to educate yourself, don’t vote. If you think about it, this is very Darwin-ish. Another...
Hark Halloween has been buried, as the big inflatables are now being sacked and stored — they were slowly being replaced anyway by some bigger creatures of all, very tall types and rounds lengths of plastic, currently used as the centerpieces, not the ones that often end up laying flat on the ground, strung out. As far as the bigger than gourds, such pumpkins were seen around town at the bars and antique shops, such as three of carefully chosen shades set in a triangle, of all different colors were the shapes painted on — they being squares and circles of...
Scroll to Top