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St. Croix County Fair captures the key concerts, and gives you five good reasons to take in the mostly quintets

(A local Irish pub went well beyond St. Patrick’s Day, and even the Fourth of July, to be a Corn Beef and Cabbage Savior for a bunch of nursing home residents who kept all that revelry going, with the approach of Labor Day and the fact that Paddy Ryan’s will be laboring for all of us then too. Read the lengthy account, filled with superlatives, in the Notes From The Beat department).

The fairest of the fair, music-favorite-wise are fairly local, does that sound like a fair assessment?
Sound Exchange, an a capella group out of Minneapolis, is the exception, but they bring a very fresh sound to the St. Croix County Fair this weekend. Blue Moon Drive is quite country and they play a lot locally, and that makes sense because by and large they are local people. That is also true of rockers Fourth Degree, as each of these two bands have at least one musician, or more, hailing from St. Croix County. And of course there are The Memories, longtime stalwarts of the fair and coming from just down the road in Boyceville and the immediate area, and we definitely cannot forget The Whitesidewalls and their signature doo-wop sound, as both these groups just keep on rollin’ and rockin’ and rollin’ as they have for decades, with the annual Glenwood City event, right in town, being a top spot.
— Sound Exchange is a mixed contemporary quintet that features soulful ballads, blistering rock anthems, jazz standards and chart-topping singles. They bring sure-to-dazzle harmonies and wisecracking audience interaction to every show and do it with joy and humor. Saturday at 2 p.m.
— Another five-some with its foundation being this area’s own RJ Feyereisen behind a great big drum kit, and backed by a bountiful bass as the second part of the rhythm section, Blue Moon Drive gives what you would expect them to offer and mixes in some traditional country that in total spans part of two millenniums.
— Known for Vegas-style performance and vocals, Fourth Degree of Hammond provides a variety of more than 300 songs from Sinatra to Santana, along with ’60s to current pop hits. Singing and playing to the crowds, “Lawrence” honors requests over and over so everyone has fun and dances the night away via, again, hundreds of dance tune favorites. Thursday at 8 p.m.
— Since the Whitesidewalls had their genesis more than 45 years ago, their Rock ‘n’ Roll Revue has been the Midwest’s top 1950s and 1960s doo-wop and show band of light to moderate rock and roll, with a loyal fan base that continues to grow and show support for their fave five-member group. And they even still have most of their hair. Friday at 7 p.m.
— The Memories have a similar tenure of experience in the region, although not a quintet like the others, but 44-plus years later are still going strong with their light and tight harmonies. This of course goes back to the days when most rockers had not even started finding their sound yet, and all that time the melodies were being honed and not becoming just the stuff of memories. And at the fair? They’ve performed 32 years and counting. Saturday at 8:15 p.m.

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