With summer now here, there is the Man of the Year, and bands to also hear.
— The North Hudson Man of the Year did not quite end up being a woman. The new guy on the NH block to be given that annual honor is Dan Klatt, besting a lass named Amy Beth. As the sign said at Kozy Korner, the North Hudson pizza restaurant and bar that spearheads the contest, Klatt as Man of the Year is definitely not sheepish. It had said last Saturday in announcing the upcoming finals, that people could attend and “see history being made.” That history almost had them rethinking whether the contest would have to be renamed “person” of the year, as although Dan got over 900 votes from patrons, Amy Beth received only 130 less, which would have made her a winner in four of the past five years. And although that end of it is all in good fun, what is more important is that the whole effort raised $3,000 for a vital local charitable cause, victims of a house fire in North Hudson.
— It’s now officially summertime, and the livin’ is easy, and the bands are playing and often free! Leading off is Practical Goods, the duo of local couple Eric and Sarah VanValkenburg, at Dick’s Bar and Grill from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, May 29. These days it is especially hard to pigeonhole bands, although people keep trying, and the VanValkenburgs apparently have heard it. They say online that they play various styles, are heavy on folk, “and I guess Americana?”
— The flyer for Practical Goods on display at Dick’s shows two publicity photos on different ends of the spectrum. One appears to be at the aviation-themed Hangar Taproom at American Sky Brewery, and the other at a regional bistro. There are many other photos online, and that’s the case also for a band that begins playing on Friday about the time Practical Goods stops, that being the aptly named Almost Famous at Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt. To give an idea of what can be heard, there are three of their full video clips to be seen on YouTube, again at opposite ends of the spectrum — Gimme Three steps, Purple Rain and Machine Gun Kelly.

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