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It’s just about any genre for about two hours, the length of a Twin Cities concert or more, but this is over the other direction in Roberts for Monday evening open mic. They fill the big, main room, at Bobtown, with plenty of instruments, say Billy Bob and beyond, in the house band to choose from for backup. So bringing guitar optional.

While most open mic nights these days have to hope and pray, with their gospel brothers and sisters, they’ll get enough musicians to double the number in the house band, in Roberts at Bobtown Bar and Grill on Mondays of all evenings they almost always pack the place.

With a small crew of apt, basically non-amateur musicians serving as lead, this event passing karaoke and far beyond draws players and singers from most every genre of music, and things like poetry readers, too, take every seat in the house.

— Chompin at the Bit luncheon, followed by live rock and roll music from a popular area band, will be featured as the latest event at The Gaslite Bar and Grill near Ellsworth, taking place this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This is a new event being promoted on this web site, an expo for horse and camping enthusiasts, with spring right around the corner.
For questions, or if an interested vendor, contact LA Cook at 651-347-5017 or lacook0929@gmail.com.
In a return engagement, live music by the Heartbreaker Band follows shortly afterward, starting at 7 p.m. Their website shows a trio of guitars and their players, getting cooler as you go down the line. Heartbreaker can also be seen playing frequent gigs at the Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt.

Saturday also marks the appearance, to close out the month, by The Dukes of Hudson, (hazard a guess at what they might play), at Big Guys Roadhouse BBQ. Is it any coincidence that with March right around the corner, the Duke men’s basketball team recently was promoted to No. 1 in the country? —

You might not think quite small Roberts as the most likely village for this kind of action, but being less than ten minutes up the freeway from Hudson, it offers one of the hottest scenes in the area, at least on this night. On it, only one or two tables set around the rather big main room had an empty chair, and what room there is has disappeared as the night goes on for the past year and more. There were seats for players along the full length of one wall, and a second row too.

A few of those stepping up to the mic might be rough around the edges, but there are also many varied instrumentalists, and not just in the house band, who have tenure in actual giggings around the St. Croix Valley. People like Dave Greenwood, who lives in Roberts, can step in and perform both guitar and vocals to cover bands such as The Foo Fighters, and other groups both much like and much unlike that grunge/alt genre.

Other acts you are likely to see amongst the dozens of musicians who fill the main room on most Mondays up until about 9:30 or 10 p.m. are a man who was on the keys for the Commodores in area shows for many a year, and someone performing, “Leaving on a jet plane,” to cite early performances. This can be followed up on some nights by Tequila Sunrise, and several mixing and matching in a Gospel-like outfit that always draws lots of applause with favorites like, Old Rugged Cross. A Johnnie Cash soundalike or two at times often comes early, as does a Nat King Cole and an ode to the Interstate 94 that brought you here, Route 66.

A bass soloist, twice, drew lots of clapping when I was last there, strumming and sitting by the window. Haystack Jackson was in the house, and polkas also rocked it. Lots of grunge followed.

Then there was a real treat, as a woman who was new to the scene, from just across the river in Minnesota, bonged away while using a capo-like-thing on her foot, to make full use of a hole on an obscure percussion instrument, being an original at an original while seated in a chair.

Rocky mountain music followed with a jangle, and I’d never had for them “a meal last so long.” Maybe you can while you are Playing With The Queen of Hearts, on the Seven Bridges Road, Eagles style.

A total of six guitars teamed for a lengthy ending note, and after that there was plenty of conversing about what had been heard, for the better part of an hour. The chief discussion to which people listened in was about the finer points of playing fast enough, Highway Star by Deep Purple, when you hadn’t tried it for a while.

If you want to give it your own shot, singing or playing or reading, it’s best to come early, although if you’re not on the spot of 7 p.m. they’ll try to squeeze you in. For my part, with a little luck I was able to find a couple of guitarists capable of teaming for lead on the key-changing Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd, long ago my introduction to open mic. My voice was just the right shade of yellow.

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