On Wisconsin, this spring and its sportswear and signs were for you.
— Kozy Korner stalwart Ryan and crew were weighing whether to make a Final Four road trip to Indianapolis the other Monday, co-workers said. Maybe that could yield even more Badger jersey-based memorabilia to put on the walls at Kozy. They noted that the late starting time for the NCAA title game featuring Wisconsin might make the local turnout a bit unpredictable, and in most places it was big, however not all. As it was, the place was full by 5 p.m., even earlier than the usual rule of thumb, just over two hours, for getting a seat for such an important game. It wasn’t until late Tuesday evening that some of the workers found time to let their hair down and trek over to Dick’s for a nightcap. Even around that time, the marquee in North Hudson still made reference to “believe” and “On Wisconsin.” By midweek, the message was changed to “At least we aren’t Gopher fans.”
— Many servers at Buffalo Wild Wings were wearing, prematurely it turns out, the No. 1 on their red Badger jerseys during the title game. Since March Madness occurs in the spring, one earlier was sporting what appeared to be pink, orange and blue toned lilies in her hair.
— On Easter eve, one of the open mic singers at Dick’s Bar and Grill wore a get-up that consisted of a colorful long-sleeve plaid shirt with vest and a tie sporting small diamond shapes. Befitting spring, there were dozens of similarly looking shirts on cardboard cutouts hanging from the ceiling. The other outfit of note from Dick’s on the holiday weekend was what appeared to be Playboy Bunny-type lingerie teamed with Easter Bunny-styled fluffy finery.
— On that Sunday night, it was referenced in a tribute song request that one of the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd had been killed in a car crash. Many of us no doubt had thought something else would be the downfall of these hard partiers. A middle-aged man who was singing karaoke at Riverside’s, before it was Pier 500, had told me he’d been a roadie for them for a number of years, and that a good number of their members had livers that had started to fail, as the booze usually flowed freely backstage. In a fitting way as far as tribute, the band Smokin’ Whiskey that played Willow River Saloon on Burkhardt earlier in the weekend has perhaps more Skynyrd songs than those from any other artist on their set list.
— A petite young woman tried her shot at the boxing-power-punch game at the Smilin’ Moose, but she only hit the bag with a glancing blow. The game flashes a range of scores from one to 999, and she only scored — you guessed it — a one right on the head. When I teased her about her score, her response was unprintable; lets just say it was a one again, in the form of a thrusted single digit. A short time later on a sports TV talk show, even though it’s the offseason, a pro football player who goes by the nickname Gronk showed his caveman prowess by registering an 826.
— Just the other evening, Dick’s used a big cloth backdrop next to the bar rail in their middle room when they held a photo shoot, once again, of some of their bottled liquor brands that would be part of a promotion. No word if their were any supermodels as part of the shoot, as that might have created a bottleneck nearer the back room.
— A Hudson U-12 hockey team has won the state tournament, and the Agave Kitchen had used their marquee to each day give every individual player on the squad their 15 minutes — or maybe as the case might be, their 15 hours — of fame with a daily listing of their name and position. Makes you think this practice is much more practical than if the youth team was a football squad, with upwards of 40 people on a roster.
— A 28-year-old woman with a red Wisconsin Badger shirt revealed her true and varied sports colors recently at Dick’s. She is a Vikings fan, too, even though most others in the family are die-hard Packer Backers, as they moved here from California, with its own plethora of sports teams, to Minnesota when she was 13, and then to Hudson several years later, explaining all those differentials.
— In search of a comeback, golfer Tiger Woods has been seen on local sports bar TV saying that despite recent sub-par performances (sorry about the pun; take that either way you feel), he is ready to again be one of the Big Cats on the tour. However, I think when Tiger says that, he actually is “Lion,” or at least putting on the dog. Or could it be an April Fool’s Day prank.

It’s all about the music, of course, at the fifth annual Roots and Bluegrass Music Festival in River Falls that swings into action on Thursday night, then really gets rockin’ on the weekend, but there are lots of other related activities as well.
The following is a blow by blow description of what you can find happening downtown now through Sunday.
This is the second year of a local craft beer and wine tasting event, running from 5-8 p.m. Friday at Juniors Bar and Restaurant. There have been many scheduled openings of new wineries and craft-style breweries in the immediate area, and this is your chance to see and taste in person what they have to offer. This is the only event of the entire festival where you have to pay to participate, but you get a lot of bang for your buck, as dozens of the drinks can be sampled for only a $20 fee (or $30 at the door). And there will be music, of course; Pushing Chain will provide it.
Craft beer makers at the tasting include those from the immediate area and locales just to the north, southeast and west, and they are 4 Brothers Beer, American Sky Brewing Co., Milwaukee Brewing Co., Rush River Brewing Company, Summit Brewing Company, Fulton Brewing Co., Gray’s Brewing and Lucette Brewing. Wines available, from both local and regional companies, are from 65 Wines, Door County Wine, M’Shiraz, Spurgeon Vineyards, River Bend Vineyard and Winery, Wollershein Winery and, for a bit of a different twist, Maiden Rock Winery and Cidery.
Specific brands include Hop Silo Double IPA, Saga IPA, Frost Line Rye, Farmers Daughter, Ride Again and Slow Hand, and also Honey Crisp Hard Cider, Crabby Cider and Apfelweiss Wine.
Advance tickets can be gained at the River Falls Area Chamber of Commerce office, DeVine Liquor, Dick’s Hometown Liquor and Juniors.
But back to the music, the festival committee carefully selects regional acts that are musically innovative, but capture the tradition of bluegrass and Americana at the same time, says one of the organizers, Chris Silver of the band Good Intentions, which plays Sunday.
“Some of the bluegrass bands play tunes that were written by iconic players like Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley while others play a more regional repetoire. All of the bands in our lineup have years of experience performing around the region,” he says.
Bluegrass has a strong hold on the Upper Midwest these days, in large part due to the success of bands like Trampled by Turtles and Pert Near Sandstone, he adds. “The energy that these bands and the bands that will perform at the festival have is infectious and our festival audience has shown huge amounts of enthusiasm at each show.
“One thing is for certain: people return (to our fest) year after year.”
Jeff Wesley of Juniors Bar chimed in with this, as why people keep coming back. “The common theme with all of the bands is that they fit into some aspect of roots and Americana music, although we tend to focus predominantly on bluegrass acts. Over the five years of the festival we have had dozens of bluegrass, folk, Cajun, jazz, blues, gospel and alt-country acts.” Each year the festival books a handful of returning acts, but tries hard to find new bands to generate a new buzz and new energy towards the endeavor.
“The biggest difference between acts would be variations in styles … and to the more trained ear, variations of style within a genre. For example, the Fish Heads play more of an Americana style while incorporating aspects of bluegrass, whereas Art Stevenson and Highwater are going to offer a much more traditional bluegrass style,” Wesley said. “As far as differences within a genre, both Sans Souci Quartet and the Good Intentions play bluegrass, but the bluegrass aficionado would be able to tell a major difference between the two groups, whereas a novice listener would feel that the two groups were pretty similar.” He said the Barley Jacks are a unique blend of bluegrass and traditional Celtic styles, creating their own sound and establishing themselves as one of the Midwest’s best live bands.”
“While you can see many of the festival acts playing throughout the area, and many have played at Juniors over the past few years, what makes our festival so unique is that you can see a dozen great regional and local bands within the course of one weekend,” he said, adding that the fest has stages all over town, not just one stage cycling bands through one at a time.”This gets the attendee up and moving and patronizing multiple businesses throughout downtown River Falls,” Wesley said. It creates a whole weekend of great vibes.
Getting back to the Barley Jacks, for example, they play a lot of originals, and also incorporate blues, classical and bebop styles into their songs, which can be heard on Friday night. Their 2010 devue recording, Either Side of Night, received critical acclaim and they garnered an Artist Initiative Award from the Minnesota Arts Board in 2011.
Another act that could be considered a headliner and that performs Saturday night, Art Stevenson and his band, have been playing since 1993, and the husband-and-wife-led group that includes a dobro player have put out seven albums and have gained praise from industry magazines.
Kind Country is noted for their cover of Friend of the Devil by the Grateful Dead, and concerning the Dead Horses, bandmate Sarah won the festival’s singer/songwriter competition in 2012. (For a complete list of bands playing, and times and venues, visit this web site’s Picks of the Week category).
— To see how all types of players stack up against the best in the business, eight to 12 contestants compete in a contest showcasing a bluegrass technique called, of course, flatpicking, which can be described as playing notes on the springs with an up and down motion, giving the melody of percussive feel, Chris Silver says. The prized Upper Midwest championship play-off for the flatpicking is at Juniors on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. “The tunes usually come form the fiddle tune and swing repertoires. It takes a tremendous amount of ability, dexterity, fine motor and music vocabulary to win a flatpicking contest.” Songs can range from fiddle tunes to more jazz influenced bluegrass instrumentals, he said. “The tunes that are typically chosen are labeled as flatpicking standards.”
— The Attic Treasures Appraisal, at Riverwalk Art and Antiques, will likely appeal to you if you can answer this question: “Do you have a treasured heirloom or awesome find you have been wondering about? Meet with our experienced antique dealers on Saturday to learn about it and it’s possible value,” say the store owners of the activity, from 2-4 p.m. “Walk-ins are welcome to bring an item or just enjoy watching.”
However, because this has been a popular event and seating is limited, to ensure your item is seen, the owners recommend contacting them in advance at riverwalkartandantiques@gmail.com. to send a description of the item and photos, if possible. Any markings, dates or patent numbers are helpful in determining value, and they will start doing research when hearing from you. “Stories associated with what you have are always interesting, too,” they say.
— “Paint the town” is a free family activity held in conjunction with Hudson’s Cheers Pablo painting experience shop, which will provide mini-canvasses and of course, the paint. It is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Funktion Junktion. There will also be contests to buy two paintings. These are “Guitar” at Juniors at 3 p.m. Saturday, and “Peaceful Trees” at Funktion Junktion at 2 p.m. Sunday. Each are $35 per person.
The festival is presented by the River Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in conjunction with Family Fresh Market, River Falls Journal, the Pioneer Press, Brickhouse Music and Rush River Brewing Co. Harmonica Sponsors are Ameripride, Sysco, Pairfection/Juniors and Upper Lakes Foods, and Friends of Bluegrass named are Ace Hardware, Belle Vinez Winery, Dynamic Bookkeeping, Edward Jones, Green Oasis, Hub 70 Design & Print, Jazz 88 PM – KBEM – FM, MN Bluegrass Association, Thunder Country Radio 95.7 and WESTconsin Credit Union.
For more information, contact the Chamber at (715) 425-2533 or www.riverfallsbluegrass.com.

What with all the music acts, beer and wine tasting, flatpicking and other contests, antiques appraisal and various workshops, the fifth annual Roots and Bluegrass Music Festival in River Falls is sure to be finger pickin’ good.
Bands playing at the prominent spring fest — at least 12 of them performing more than 50 total hours of free foot stompin’ music at 13 different venues — will take the various stages, all indoors, between April 9-12.
A key part of the festival is the second year of a local craft beer and wine tasting event, which can attract many visitors to River Falls, and also even more attendance among the locals, as it starts early, running from 5-8 p.m. Friday at Juniors Bar and Restaurant. There have been many scheduled openings of new wineries and craft-style breweries in the immediate area, and six of them each will display their liquid wares, with their creative names showing the diversity. The tasting event is a high-profile but still down-to-earth activity to accompany the music weekend. This is the only event of the entire festival where you have to pay to participate, but you get a lot of bang for your buck, as well over a dozen of the drinks can be sampled for only a $20 fee (or $30 at the door). Pushing Chain will provide music.
The Wisconsin State Flatpicking Championship for bluegrass-style instruments such as guitar is billed as among the only ones of its kind, where people who include accomplished musicians can compete and see how they measure up against the best. It will be held on Saturday at Juniors from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and the winner gets an authentic handcrafted guitar.
Another novel event that is special to the festival is at RiverWalk Art and Antiques on the north end of the downtown on Saturday from 2-4 p.m., where artists can have their musical instruments and other “treasures” appraised for value. You can see how much that antique instrument you’ve had around for years is worth, or just watch the fun. In the spirit of the festival, Riverwalk also will host a clogging demonstration.
There is also a new singer-songwriter competition on Saturday at Juniors from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and open mic and open jams at various times during the weekend, at the Dish ‘N the Spoon Cafe, Family Fresh Market and Funktion Junktion. At these, individual instrumentalists and singers mix and match with members of the house band. The first three places each in the flatpicking championship and singer-songwriter competition get prizes.
As part of the four days of music, the headliners on the weekend in the late night slots include the Barley Jacks from 8-11 p.m. on Friday at Juniors as well as Dead Horses, a Stillwater, Minn. band that gives a regional presence from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on that same night at Shooters, and Art Sevenson and High Water from 8-11 p.m. on Saturday at Juniors.
The main stage at Juniors opens an hour before each of the music acts get going. Sorry, there are no pets allowed at any of the events.
The festival’s bands incorporate at least seven different genres, but all have a tie-in with roots music, bluegrass and Americana, also showing variances of style within a genre, said Jeff Wesley of Juniors.
Chris Silver, another one of the organizers, and his band Good Intentions, will headline the festival on Sunday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the West Wind Supper Club, and Silver said the festival’s shows tend to be a mix of bluegrass diehards and younger people first becoming acquainted with the music.
The fact that they are playing at what is predominantly a supper club underscores what’s special about this festival. “You can see a dozen great regional and local bands within the course of one weekend. While most festivals have one stage that the bands cycle through, our festival has stages all around town,” said Wesley.
In recent editions of the festival, attendance has been up sharply. The fest has been billed as an event where patrons can make an entire day of it, going to breakfast as a start, and then continuing on into the afternoon and evening by taking in plenty of music and other activities. They are even invited to parttake in the various “Bluegrass brunches” put on by local eateries.
Patrons have said they like the experience of being at someplace like a local grocery store, as one of the venues with music is the Family Fresh Market, then rounding a corner and finding that hey, there’s a band playing there, said Judy Berg of the River Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. Other stores where you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find bands, but they’ll be playing there anyway, are local cafes and antique-based shops.
“With this, you’ll never know what is going to happen,” Berg said about the surprises that can unfold at the festival. But one thing is for certain; this is April and in Wisconsin that can still mean rough weather, but it doesn’t matter, since the bands are all indoors and the only time people have to be outside is the short walk from venue to venue. All of them are in a few block section of historic Main Street, with its tree lined median, and even this short jaunt allows people to enjoy its unique character, with specialty shops, restaurants and the historic Falls Theater. Along with this ambiance is the hustle and bustle of a vibrant college campus, Chamber officials note. They also point out the stay and play aspect of River Falls, as there are three extensive attractions, such as walking tours, within blocks of the downtown, as well as five motels and other hospitality-based businesses nearby.
The festival is presented by the River Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau. For more information, contact them at (715) 425-2533 or www.riverfallsbluegrass.com.

To my friend who is a bouncer at Dick’s Bar and Grill, what happened?
You thought that with St. Patrick’s Day being on a weekday, there would be “wee” little customer traffic. But the place was as hoppin’ as a green toad, while serving the green bunny Hopster brew by New Glarus, and the whole front room was full and aflutter. (I especially liked the green facial hair, as in a mustache that was being passed around to patrons at more than one table, and sideburns that were showing on some of these new Irish, in a flash of flair that continued to show until the weekend). And the pair of bartenders sported fully-solid green and a red shirts, respectively, as to the Irish, one was a Grinch. The same two colors were sported by an off-duty server in his shorts and top; did they coordinate before coming to work? And did they include the Mennonite I saw who was virtually part-Irish in a long, bright green coat?
There were St. Paddy’s people aplenty at the Village Inn in North Hudson, as well, in part to raise some green of their own for the well deserved Randi Deal medical benefit. The inn over the holiday welcomed village vagabonds on one of the first stops in what this year was a more informally organized pub crawl, although all the places were still hit. What is becoming basically the house band closed their final set with an Irish-themed ditty on Tuesday, which was followed with more Shamrock-style music played on the jukebox.
The busyness trend was not the same everywhere, but at the Smilin’ Moose, someone was part Irish with a plaid shirt that had green stripes, (or were they grayish)? Ditto with two people who had green shirt only and were celebrating one’s birthday with the infamous more-than-one-liquor oversize ladle drink, just perfect for an Irish B-Day. To which the bartender said, “birthday, Christmas, whatever, you’ve been good right?” Now that’s the luck of the Irish!
— A server at Dick’s who has blazing red, curly hair said that despite that, she is only one-eighth Irish. A close relative, who is similarly Irish but also part Mexican, has very dark complexion and hair, she said. Put that in the “everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day” file.
— If St. Patrick’s Day is a travel holiday, St. Paul is not the only likely destination. Server Brooke at the Green Mill said she would not be at the Saturday party her employer was throwing, because she was flying to Chicago to take in the Irish things there, such as a parade that will rival anything you’d find. One of her co-workers, Shavon, took the occasion to go into Minneapolis and go a “wee” bit crazy, or maybe more. And then there’s consummate downtown server Sofie, who a bit later was en route to the Windy City for her own birthday festivities.
— Although on the Saturday that was a pre-party for St. Patrick’s Day, there wasn’t a lot of green being worn, this says it all about the sheer number of people basically being Irish: There was a guy trying to negotiate the length of the Smilin’ Moose, which boasted the “pre-party” moniker, on crutches (you simply don’t do that).
— And the Saturday following the holiday saw a guy in a get-up as The Riddler, complete with green checks as part of his plaid shirt and pants. That fit at many levels, as TVs were showing a Batman marathon on TNT. And to complete the green theme, as part of March Madness, the college basketball team with that color uniforms, Oregon, was getting ready to play the Badger mens basketball team in the next step of the NCAA tournament, on Sunday at 6:45 p.m. You can view that contest at some of the aforementioned places, and another choice is Kozy Korner in North Hudson, which specializes in airing these kind of often-decided-by-last-shot telecasts on what is not a day of rest.

— Then on Sunday night, bartender Matt was (finally) wearing a green T-shirt, which he said is one of two such shirts he has available for work, (laundry nightmare)? The other — refer to earlier in the story — is bright red. He said the method to his madness is to wear the green shirt two days a week, so that on those peak nights there is no misunderstanding about his role as a bartender, not a bouncer, as they wear red tops.

The sign said they are “the greatest band ever,” and the team for whom they play isn’t bad either.
The No. 3-ranked women’s hockey team of the Wisconsin Badgers beat North Dakota 4-1 in Fargo to advance to the 1 p.m. Sunday title game in the WCHA Final Faceoff. The ease of the Saturday win may be seen as a pleasant surprise, as when asked earlier in the week about a favorite, owner Ryan of Kozy Korner, which put up that sign, said that it was 50-50, since North Dakota was at home and has become a pesky rival.
That means the team advances to the finals against either Bemidji State or the Minnesota Gophers — making for a border battle — and perhaps more importantly to local people that the Badger marching band will play again at Kozy in North Hudson, at around 8 p.m. Sunday. Bemidji won that semi-final game 1-0.
This is the second chance in three days to see the Badger band there, as they and their pumping horns swung through on the way up to the Fargo area on Friday.
And boy do those horns swing. They once again were the definition of demonstrative early Friday evening, swaying sideways or up and down with every passing second. Despite that speed, there was still time for them to flash a waving hand or thumbs up sign between notes. It was right around 5 p.m. that the two dozen or so members marched into Kozy, and quickly rounded a couple of corners in the establishment, with some of them flipping on through to the back area without missing a beat.
After a quick first number, instructions made their way to the end of the band’s line via both words and non-verbal cues. Soon they would be circling up and around past the kitchen area — or have one of their members with the biggest instrument stand up high inside a booth to toot his horn — taking time on occasion for chant lines such as “when you say Wisconsin …”
The patrons loved it, as a woman just an arm’s length away from one of the players led them in swaying with the band. A pair of young girls stood on their chairs to applaud, and closer-by, two young boys next to the tuba player covered their ears. Between the reactions of the four of them, it appeared the volume was at just the right level.
One of the patrons, a recent transplant from Ohio, said she was heartened by the family friendly atmosphere, and the politeness and attentiveness to the children’s needs even as the music poured out — something you wouldn’t necessarily find in her home state. When she had come in with a relative, they were asking the best place to see the soon-coming show, and the locals said, again politely, that any of the booths were fine, as the band by the nature of their performance would be cycling through the entire area.
The newfound fan from Ohio had even gone out to buy a black Badger sweater, with slightly edgy lettering that was partially in a neon green, for the occasion. She thought this more appropriate than her Buckeye shirt.
To wrap up your weekend, you might want to come early to Kozy and check out Badger men’s basketball against Ohio State, at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, then stay for hockey that night. You just might see someone in Buckeye garb.