It isn’t often that a foursome of this caliber, individually, hits the musical stage along the St. Croix River. Led by a true trooper who is no stranger to the water; at one point, her most popular song was viewed tens of millions of times per month, the world over, including overseas.
FIT Real Estate invites all comers to the 3rd annual Memorial Day Music in the Park in downtown Hudson. On May 27, there will be live music including longtime local and regional successes Josh Lassi, Hailey James, Chris Kroeze and of course, Sailor Jerri. There are lots of country-leaning licks to be found. The show is family-friendly and also features kids games, food trucks and more. It’s hosted and organized by FIT Real Estate and Workhorse Land Development, to raise money for the VFW Post 2115 in Hudson, and many tens of thousands have been raised, as the company shows the value of having respect for veterans and also just having a good time and holiday. The free event on Monday is from noon to 6 p.m. in the band shell at Lakefront Park, which generally is completely filled for the event.
It is fitting that a Navy sailor would return to the waters for this local gig, singing songs from near the dock of the bay. And as far as one of the introductory acts, and one of his songs, you want to listen and don’t want to leave this long-haired country boy alone. Or someone I know, also from Minnesota, a singer of similar styles going by the name of Geri.
— Sailor Jerry, spelled the earlier common way, also is an actual brand of booze, and they have their own summer festival, several states away. But you can get a bottle, showing a curvy sailorette decked out in colorful dress, at local liquor stores.
For more drinks this early summer, the downtown Dunn Brothers coffee shop now features a just-unveiled orangesickle (not slice) Red Bull infused drink. Try it out over their Memorial Day hours, as they are open, though shortened.
Other are other, more bad food additions being hawked, even though it might not eat them. For ice cream, you can now get it flavored with things like mac and cheese or ranch or even bacon — and I think for that last one, the annual Bacon Bash in River Falls had them beat to the punch (of the self-serve button?)
Upright flags on poles late in May, were accompanied by a now unpotted plant, namely dirt. Other newly-placed potted ones could be seen planted around the downtown, such as at the Smilin’ Moose doorstep, where two of them filled a space, one closer to the street than the other.
Earlier in the week, you might have run into the grand opening of the local rideshare taxi service run by Running Inc. So they hit the ground running. Much cheaper than Nike shoes, or to run your own auto. They were planning on running into some big numbers of attendees at the City Hall event, so they kept a running tally. (The meet-and-greet could have become a marathon.) With few if any run-on puns told. My main cabbie said that he was working all this three-day-weekend, but has plans to take off on the Fourth of July holiday. But with The Fourth on a Thursday, it will be — at the least — the same number of days off, and there again is the Friday fudge factor, that means all of the three main summer holidays have the potential of a four-day weekend. But the phone number for the ride service, with across-town-fares for as little as $2.50, is (715) 961-4707. —
All four musicians in the park both sing and play the guitar, and write a lot of their own songs, occasionally breaking off into solo acoustic interludes. Lassi has a rich and soulfully deep voice, James is popular in the farther reaches of St. Croix County that are part of the project’s overall scope, and Kroeze is just coming off another much-sought-after area gig.
The overall concert’s featured logo shows an eagle clutching a RWB patriotic object, with both feathers and claws prominent on the bottom of the image.
It was not a long time for the headliner to rise from the flight deck to a stage — and onto the CMAs. Sailor Jerri is a Navy veteran and country music artist from the plains of central Minnesota, moreso than the Minnesota River, as the water would wait. She worked as an aviation mechanic on F/A 18s with the VFA 83 Rampagers; good fodder for lyrics.
Jerri started playing guitar and singing for those in longterm care at the VA, and in veteran support groups. She is a quick study. Then less than a year later, in April 2017, she wrote and posted “Hallelujah Veterans Version.” In just a year it was viewed over 150 million times, and downloaded in 22 countries. We do still have many allies.
She has been busy writing and recording in the studio ever since. “Screen Doors and Steel Guitars” as her sophomore album, was released two years later, and has been shared and played all over the world. It is widely available.
​Jerri started 2020 when she took off for Florida to begin that year’s tour, which would entail many dozens of shows in most of the states in the US. Including were performances with George Strait, Randy Hauser, Jamey Johnson and many others. She joined one lumenary, Reba McIntyre, on the stage at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, to introduce two others, Dierks Bentley and Sheryl Crow. She was featured on the CMAs and they aired a clip of Jerri and her band performing her song “Won’t Be For Nothing.” More songwriting has followed in her short career that was temporarily made even more brief by the pandemic. You gotta love a song that has much mushroomed by being named Morals and Sorrels.
Jerri is playing her tunes to not only entertain, but to inspire and help her fellow veterans. She recently partnered with Crown Royal and Thomas Rhett to announce the Purple Bag Project, where they pledge to pack and ship 1 million Crown Royal bags filled with essential supplies to the military serving overseas. However, there won’t be a dropoff by Navy “Seal” R&B. Simply Cold Country.
Music like humor can be therapy, and Jerri said there was pressure to replicate her writing, until she realized that so many people from all walks of life, and all types of members of military families, benefit from her songs. So it’s not swimming upstream. Although she’s always loved to sing, Jerri didn’t start learning the guitar until August 2016, although she does post those early and “messy,” raw and unedited videos for her fans and followers.