Contact us
Back to All Posts

It doesn’t get much more country than Maiden Dixie, a rural chick and three instrumentalists, and the four players in the Nathan Hansen Band. They raise the country in its midst at Hammond’s Heartland Days this weekend.

Hammond Heartland Days brings the best of country music in the region to their festival this weekend, triumphing over the scores of rank and file bar bands.
Maiden Dixie begins the musical mastery on Friday night, Aug. 8, and then Nathan Hansen caps it off on Saturday night.
It winds down when they bring country tunes for the second straight night. You can tell a band by their videos. The Nathan Hansen promos feature slickly made videos with close cropped editing, especially of the crowd shots. And the numbers out there cheering are large. The audio plays lots of instrumental breaks of whirring guitars, and well-placed drum fills, backing up vocals that have just the right amount of twang and groove.
The night before it’s Maiden Dixie. The band has more than 100 songs on its set list, and their multiple cover song renditions by bands number 18, and at least five bands chime in at three or more. They also have several originals, and a couple from AC/DC.
You can even message ahead and request a song. One couple went to see a number of bands during their wedding planning process and Maiden Dixie was an easy choice. The duo ended up taking them in three times, and listened to detailed responses to their many questions — at the height of their busy season. The request list was lengthy, and a few surprise numbers even were added.
A bar owner or two copied on being able to meet those requests.
Maiden Dixie is said to be able to accommodate any venue with its diverse set list, which is very helpful at Heartland Days.
That goes double for both a listener during Hudson’s Booster Days, who was working the Drink Ticket booth, and from another band in the stage behind.
Lastly about song selection, a man not a frequent country music listener said he knew the majority of the tunes — even though he usually doesn’t stay out late anymore.
Prior to the country acts, the dance floor under the pavilion is ruled by those spinning records. Friday from 5-8 p.m., go gig to Dr. Groove. Then all day on Saturday, noon to 8 p.m., its the Kar Jackers as the deejay.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Blonde and Brunette and redheaded group The Divas, decked out divinely in red and white and blue, take the stage in tribute to the troops at the St. Croix County Fair from July 15-19. In advance of the anthems provided by these and five other bands, enter or take in a contest of the most patriotic of flora, in all those colors and more! Poppies are only the start.
I have a plethora of times paraphrased her and made preposterous puns pointing at her pronouncements, about bands that give brand new meaning to long running and return engagement, and all the other activity, old and even new, that just keeps bubbling up at The Fair … I have worked with Gail Maier, an organizer of the St. Croix County Fair that now mid-July resurfaces to its forefront flair this weekend, for several years running now, so here is her on it, verbatim: “Yes, by all means go for it. We especially want to promote The Tribute to the Troops...
Read More
  • XBox workers get the axe, as there are again calls to overhaul a controversial visa program that brings workers here who are called highly skilled in specialties. Does that include roadies from England? Or do they hit the road, too? Could be, as this program was reformed and renamed under the rule of various presidents, since before the dawn of rock.
The news that Microsoft will fire thousands of workers in both the immediate and long term, related mostly to its once-industry leading XBox gaming system, has raised scrutiny over an old immigration loophole, largely, that allows workers dubbed as highly skilled from other countries, who would otherwise not be let in, to be brought here to solve the labor needs including shortages of mostly large employers. That’s this business news breakdown, in a nutshell, fighting through the gobbledygook. Or so it goes. This company that in a recent year just got done firing many thousands, has now announced it is...
Read More
  • Did these regular bar fly guys really connect all their dots? Can a simple pill cure the tapeworm Tourette’s that connects most of your organs? Look deeper and take a deep dive into their take on the facts. It’s conservative to say there are huge holes the size of the Strait of Hormuz. Wide part, like the St. Croix …
A few of these local conservative guys actually made some sense — sorta, or at first.(I refer to Trump’s slamming connected to his recent posting of photos of Minnesotan kindergartners allegedly wearing hijabs at a graduation, and a few regular guys chugging down at the local booze hall in a (possibly) less discriminatory way (beer goggled brain?) and thinking out loud (with low vocabulary) that they are what, just another name for khakis? (OK, that last part is fake news.) Spelled with the same number of letters and consonants, and using the same vowels, and I’ll give them that they...
Read More
  • Did these regular bar fly guys connect all their dots? Can a simple pill cure the tapeworm Tourette’s that connects most of your organs? Look deeper and take a deep dive into their take on the facts. It’s conservative to say they have holes the size of the Strait of Hormuz. Wide part, like that in the St. Croix.
A few of these local conservative guys actually made some sense — sorta, or at first. (I refer to Trump’s slamming connected to his recent posting of photos of Minnesotan kindergartners allegedly wearing hijabs at a graduation, and a few regular guys chugging down at the local booze hall in a (possibly) less discriminatory way (beer goggled brain?) and thinking out loud (with low vocabulary) that they are what, just another name for khakis? (OK, that last part is fake news.) Spelled with the same number of letters and consonants, and using the same vowels, and I’ll give them that...
Read More
  • See elsewhere on this page a new post. —– On Our No. 250, can we at least unite on a ditty? And hush more about the speech at Rushmore. While Congress carries on with their own, has it become a telethon? (We’d much rather broadcast The Eras, as Swift and her sweetie unite by tying the knot, with Sheeran and Sandler and Stevie.) So not even fall and elections, still our house is divided —– Newly added, more on music fest and heat note observations.
On this holiday weekend, I want to note that with an exception or two, our Union has never been universal, as in unified or united, much less totally uniform in its common and professional and congressional and judicial and presidential opinion, throughout as I will put it, about 244 of its 250 years. Roughly. (Roughrider at the presidential rodeo?) So not to rain on their parade, but it is apt that we have removed the right to piss in the great big reflective presidential pool, which might even help by killing some of the presidentially proliferating algae, or loosening the...
Read More
  • I’ll be (relatively) brief and punchy with this headline notation, as we transition to giving you more and sometimes shorter choices. And you may notice some of that as you beckon forward. It’s circular. Like a flush. Be careful what you mix, heads vs. text, drinks vs. food, and all kinds of potions — that may go bump in the night. —– Punchy, potentially, but I digress or progress with a new patriotic addition. And a second edition, an old Obsession, as in a concert.
My mom has told me not to be a potty mouth when I write, as she certainly would not appreciate hardly any of the standup humor on say, Comedy Central Radio. SNL maybe. But after 11:30 p.m. … But there comes a time where a man must make a stand. And for this jokester, it was now when he had to choose whether to pass on the opportunity that would otherwise bite him in the butt, for in front of and behind him is the Mother Lode. Or should I say load. Or “Mothers” of Invention. — On another stage, I dissed...
Read More
Scroll to Top