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Note:  Please contact us if you have specific venues/bands you want listed.

July 3/4/5

• Tony Negron every Thursday 7-11pm @ 4th Street Station, Grand Rapids, MN.

•  Backwater @ The Eagles Club, Grand Rapids, MN Saturday only

• Trashville @ Pour Willies, Tenstrike, MN. Friday

• Legal Outlaw @ The Hill City Street Dance, Hill City, MN. Saturday

• Bittersweet @ Aurora, MN mainstreet July 2 (Wednesday)

• Big Walter Smith @ Char-Mar's Bar, Alborn, MN July 3rd

• Sweet Freedom @ 4th of July Street Dance, Virginia, MN Friday and @ Miners Memorial Arena, Virginia, MN. Saturday

• Whiskey Johnson @ The Nashwauk Street Dance Friday and 'Somewhere in Nashwauk' Saturday

• The Incredible Ides @ The Marble City Hall Centennial, Saturday.

• Sofa King Chubby @ Riverfest, Tower, MN Thursday

• Gypsy Road @ Port Wing Bar, Port Wing, WI. Friday

• Gypsy Road @ Street dance with Prisoner, Spooner, WI. Saturday

SummerJam (continued from previous column)

Chucky D & Greg Kaczor on "Heart of Gold"

As the banter and meetings continued we eagerly awaited Chucky 'D' & Company...well actually ...other than the addition of Greg Kaczor on flawless harmonica, It's really Chuck Domagall...and well..Chuck.. and his other brother Chuck.. well folks, actually what he has done is play ALL the parts, but recorded them (including backing vocals) in his studio, and he put them on a re-playable medium (read CD.. HD or some other storage system) , and plays live guitar and sings to his "Chuckaroke" if you will (chuckle).   Anyway, other than a problem with the guitar interface that held things up a bit, it was NOT your usual "play along with Band in a box" type deal. It was extremely well done and executed flawlessly...this from a drummer .. folks! Pretty phenomenal actually!

Next up after a short break (and to pat myself on the back without breaking my arm) a quick repair to the speaker on stage left. (Editors Note: The vast knowledge that's inside Gary's head about music, anything musical, or related to it showed that warm summer day when it took him less than 2 minutes to fix an ongoing problem we've been having with a P.A. speaker for at least a year! Gary, you are the man!!!)  Norm

Then came Bittersweet, Jay Hoiland and Mary Menke, a duo that combine guitar and keys, with some sweet vocals. I was particularly impressed when they started out with an old Jethro Tull standard, Locomotive Breath! I would never had suspected as they set up that they would even play anything like that (you know. Captain and Tennille come to mind here). They have a great broad range of musical styles and are a talented duo.

Ahhhh...you know for someone who doesn't like beer...on a warm summers day when wind, sand, smell.. and THIRST come together (and as long as it's COLD) a beer tastes really good! Again I'm riding so temperance here is the word of day for me, so plenty of water is also consumed to keep a balance on system function.

We're also going to take a break here and get this to press for your perusal and I'll pick it up later. Stay tuned folks...there's lots more to come!

Gary Perrett
contributing writer

All right, so where were we, Oh ya...It had just poured buckets on one side of the tent which sent the volley ball crowd scurrying for cover. Up till this point  there had been non stop action on the two courts just west of the tent. The crowd continued to grow as the music kept coming. All the action had been on the south stage, but Bottomline was setting up on the north stage. This would facilitate a sort of dueling bands rapid fire ..one band takes a break .. the other starts up... no break in the action for the evenings bill of fare.. and a great lineup it was! 

While we waited for the change over from Bittersweet to Dirty Boogie, a number of those wonderful bizarre things that happen whenever we get together to celebrate music and freedom unfolded. All around (being a people watcher) stories unfolded. I actually got caught up in some, and narrowly escaped others. One that unfolded courtesy of a thoroughly inebriated, obnoxious, yet harmless concert go-er, involved the moon...or it's premature unveiling in broad daylight... Now we've all seen the moon in the light of day, but NO ONE wants to see it THIS up close and impersonal...UGH! Well, it seems that our innocuous drunk was creating quite a stir as he attempted to negotiate the grounds with "staggering" difficulty. Security was "concerned" about this individual but was soon assuaged that he wasn't REALLY a danger to anyone but himself..well sort of, anyway, the aforementioned besotted individual was impeded by his pants...A strategically placed belt, or perhaps some patriotic suspenders would have sufficed to prevent these dastardly jeans from falling and periodically befouling his attempts to negotiate the grounds... well.. sometimes he barely moved and they fell to sickening low levels of coverage. Carrol, who had come in to escape the deluge, had perched herself on my lap since the seemingly plentiful chairs "under the tent" were quickly grabbed up by the  scurrying attendants as the deluge began. She was immediately confronted with the aforementioned almost completely UN-adorned derriere of our soon to be christened "non-comic relief". Meanwhile, Howie, one of my 'posse', had also seen the 'perp' and, being a smoker.. and a thoroughly creative comic in his own right... pulled a cigarette from his stash, and lit it and was about to UNCEREMONIOUSLY stick it where the SUN DON'T SHINE..when our miscreant folded up and almost ended up under the north stage. Well, as he collected himself, and his thoroughly unblemished pride he also found time to pull up his pants and find some other quadrant of the grounds to terrorize with his equipment failures...But I digress..I know, I know...

(continued next column)

Those of you that listened to the KAXE interview, or that stopped by the 4th Street Station Thursday evening for Tony's Acoustic Show,  already know about Jay Hoiland and Mary Jo Grizzard's newest CD from their duo Bittersweet.  This group of Dylan songs is a great addition to anyone's collection, and is done well with a fresh approach to a lot of old favorites. Jay has been recording around here for years, and the quality he gets on this cd through his Mac G5 is pretty incredible, not to mention the fact that this is a great group of songs done in an innovative style by a couple of very talented and accomplished musicians.  I have a new favorite version of Positively 4th Street now.  You can get more info from Jay by emailing him, or/and stop by the Blueberry Bowl Summer Jam, where you can hear them in person and pick up a cd at the same time.    We've just been informed that you can hear the CD on The Dylan Hour on Sirius Satellite Radio as well.  Also, check out this link and click on blog in plain D.

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So a rejuvenated Dirty Boogie was next up and I must say, this is the best I have ever seen them play! I thought they were done as the rumors of   Tony's impending departure had been floating around for...well lets just say for "quite some time" Oh don't get me wrong..he DID leave..but perhaps it's best left said that he soon got homesick and..well he's back and the first thing he did was put the "Boogie" back together, and they are  better than ever!    Pat was right on rhythmically, Tony was smoking the strings, my good friend  Craig has come a LONG way on bass (he's a drummer too, you know..) and was doling out huge swaths of low and rhythm, and Tenille   continues to progress, and impress on vocals. I look for continued good things from them in the future.. IF there is anywhere left for live band to play in this new "socially conscious" society..that is. By now you must have heard that the Rendezvous II has fallen for good...RIP...It truly looks like it won't be the last to go....

 The Idea here was to have Bottomline play a set as Moneyshot set up and then for them to trade "blow" (if you will) till the night faded or the bands did..one hour sets ensued. 

It had been a long day, and it was a great time! Folks you need to check out this event, whether it be the Winter Jam..Summer Jam.. or whatever.. it's for a good cause (TA DA) and it's well put together, and a whole lot of fun! Thanks to Norm, and Hollywood and all those behind the scenes that work to make this such a great success! See you all at the next JAM! (ed note: which is October 25th at the 4th street Station)

Editors Note