Contact us
Back to All Posts

When it comes to Willie and the boys, minus Waylon but adding Robert Plant, there’s a look that runs in my family, throughout decades, so on Friday head to the Somerset amphitheater — its fully natural — to steal the show with YOUR hairdo. Its a classic.

They had gone different routes with their hair, facial and on the head, but these two performers still can rock the look, bringing it to Somerset on Friday evening.

This might, also, be role reversal, but country crooner Willie Nelson is the headliner and singer Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame is the opening act, playing with Alison Krauss across the big stage. Trampled by Turtles is also on the bill.

These days, Plant has his curly locks kept as long as ever, and he can be a bit scruffy with the facial hair. Nelson by contrast, now has in most cases his beard fit and trimmed and carefully coiffed, even looking respectable. That’s a tall order for a festival calling itself the outlaw variety. My mom of all people, was told by one of her nieces that RE: The Relatively Older Willie, he could be a lookalike for her, or is it the other way around? The other older and maybe wiser niece has not chimed in. (I must say that the new look Willie’s beard is just like mine, as it is today, rather than MY outlaw days, so to speak, of a few years back.)

— For another event of this and many former seasons, with origins of almost three decades ago, see Picks of the Week. And also, marking the end to fighting another ending that too often crops up, there in a motorcycle rally on Saturday that raises funds for suicide awareness. This is announced as the last installment of this annual event. Kickstands up starting an noon, and ride the rally through 5 p.m. It starts and ends at Mel’s Downtowner in River Falls, and all vehicles are welcome to ride. Even that old Pinto. OK, this is not a joking matter, so I should not make it so. Bad (joke) Joe. Even though the ride ends its run today, donations will continue to be accepted. This series of events was spurred by a lovely young local woman who took her life a few years ago. —

The show gets underway at 3:30 p.m. and is at the “natural” amphitheater, which seems fitting. Also that way is the fact that a madcap drummer friend and fiend of mine, who had gone on world tours back in the day, saw a pop-up performance by Plant when he also went country at an intimate show up near St. Croix Falls.

Other shows were hawked, even moreso, on the local bulletin boards at various nightspots and the like. They also are a dichotomy, as they range far east and west from the St. Croix Valley. But we have you covered with our coverage as per this review. Weather remained seasonable, not much more than in the 70s and a light breeze, and the rain held off, so these mega-bills with scores of bands playing all day were well attended when the events were held last Saturday. (I deemed this too far afield for a preview, just that if you looked hard enough at places like Ziggy’s that have their own bands, there was the old 8.5-by-11 page on the bulletin board.

First up, all the way over in Marion on the other side of Wisconsin, where I used to live, there was a bill with really cool band names, Polar Alchemy, Lo-Fi Killers who just have a have a creative approach to their sound, Shovel Head, Fallen … This was dubbed the Fett Fest, and that surname is kinda big down that way, and it was BYOB, apologies to System of a Down. Hey this played well in the heart of Badger Beer Country, for obvious reasons.

Take you back the other way to St. Paul and the Payne Avenue Fest, with a full 25-band lineup, too many to list. Again the cool name, as in a main sponsor, that being Caydence Records. You could see this late-breaker announced on the door of one of the newest shops in downtown Hudson, just in the nick of time after their opening.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • I’ll be 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.
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. Heh heh, heh heh, Butthead, look...
Read More
  • This coulda been Vanna White’s next Big gig In The Sky, if the scaffolding was not so high. So this is how the project went, by the letters and numbers, of get Trump’s name erased from the Kennedy Center. The $250 bill might be tougher. Sad but true. So, What are there more of going on right now, wars or Trump pet construction projects?
So the wall is down. Of letters, that is. Not down by Mexico. Cemented into the concrete. Of the Kennedy Center. Where music has sat. (Near where a now defunct wrestling arena rusts in peace. Or a bloodied White House lawn. With leftover paper cups and plates, more likely bowls and small utensils, anyone?) Or more ornate than inside? A tarp the size of Pennsylvania, the predominant battle state, covers workers as they chip. So geez, how big are the letters? Four times 50 living workers high? But now none remain, or so we are told by flunkies. Or is...
Read More
  • Stressed out as a caregiver? She’s back at yah. This is a rare case of a husband and wife being joint caregivers — for each other — aided and abbetted by the fact that they have a lot of the same disabling conditions. So she shovels snow using a walker/scooter, while he cooks gingerly using a microwave and offers her a plate when she sits down, in an easy chair, in a reversal and new take on traditional roles. Whatever it takes. Necessity is the mother of invention. —– In a new add, Towns and the champion Knicks got kicked around but still got their kicks in the long run … As do Norwegian dancers.
A few years back, I wrote an article about Hudson Deacon Tom Kroll and how he did so many extra dutiful tasks, his living out the Gospels tirelessly, when his wife was ill, in addition to his regular job. I was inspired at the time to pen this, about my own lovely, disabled wife — we were separated briefly but now back together with our 40th anniversary this month, as wholehearted caregiving has many strains — and how an atypical view of standard roles, out of necessity, made things work, as far as our approach to work and home that’s...
Read More
  • He says, and goes fishing with the boys. She says, then goes to the middle of Texas, inviting her mates to a ranch/villa built for the ages. The bachelor and bachelorette parties were on the same night, but though very different, they had some things in common … like the snakes, at least three kinds, to avoid. (None with exotic dancer.) But while away, they did not avoid each other, completely. He made a phone call. —– Just added, last call included a Carolina cowpoke.
What do fishing, maybe in the dark, thus a Texas ranch, snakes of various types and do they come or stay out after dusk, eating either and only fine food or snacks, and a game of cards — likely just one each — have in common. And no strippers or Chippendales. And an only half or quarter, not full Monty. (Who is Monty anyway?) Or cowboy or cowgirl hats. Although there was some dress-up. More Barbie than boots on, I think. It’s an easy answer, connected and conflicting, but not in all or dirty ways, bachelor and bachelorette parties. One of each...
Read More
  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, a when jumping inside, inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
Scroll to Top