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Andy Bailey & Joe Juliano
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Labor Day usually spells the end of the outdoor music festival season and Mill City, after a very scaled down version last year, undertook a huge event with more that 130 bands. The theme of this year's Mill City was a tribute to Minnesota music, so most of the performances were by Minnesota groups. There was a paucity of blues however-with just a few legitimate blues acts each day. There was a great variety of music though, from Latin jazz, to heavy metal, from alternative rock to bluegrass, from gospel and soul to pop rock, and a little bit more.
Because there was so much to see (with more than 7 stages of music, indoor and out, going on at one time), I am just gong to summarize the event and talk about some of the highlights from the weekend. There may have been some other very good performances but this represent the ones I did get to see.
First, the setting: The event was held in the parking lots and on the pavement along 1st Ave. in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis. Hard on the feet and except for a few exceptions, hard on the ears (with the sound bouncing off the buildings). Some of the stages were set up either facing the side of a building or with the buildings closing in on both sides of the sage (forming a tunnel effect). I liked the atmosphere but with the sound bouncing all around, the acoustics were not the best. Some of the acts were even competing against each other with the sound from one snaking around the corner interfering with the music on another stage. A few of the spectator areas were also just too small to accommodate the large crowds wanting to see the acts (The Time, for example, who should have performed on the main stage--I couldn't get anywhere near their show). Which was just as well as I went back and listened to the fine and often irreverent performance from Kevin Bowe. In spite of some of these drawbacks there still was some excellent music. One of the reasons I like this event is it gives music fans the opportunity to see many diverse acts they just normally wouldn't get out to listen too.
The first blues act early in the day on Saturday was the Joe Juliano band on a stage backed up to the relocated Shubert Theatre. Even though there was a light crowd this early in the afternoon, Joe and band really rocked it, playing a very loose and relaxed set and having a good time joking with the audience.
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Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
One of the most anticipated shows of the weekend was the reunion of Willie and the Bumblebees. Held in the parking lot next to the Fine Line, the audience had swelled to quite a large number by the time their set started. They ended up starting about a half hour late do to the logistical nightmare of trying to set up sound and equipment for that many musicians. I counted as many as 17 musicians on stage at one time. The former band members wore T-shirts commemorating their reunion 1971-1999. The Bees were one of the musical mainstays on the West Bank in the early '70s playing at the Cabooze, the Old Triangle Bar, The New Riverside Café and many other clubs along Cedar and Riverside.
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part of the band
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Here is a list of the players (I think all but one of the former members was able to make this reunion show. I counted 17 players on stage a one time so I think we missed one name. Let me know if I missed anyone or had the original members wrong. Thanks to Michael Christensen for tracking down these names.):
Willie Murphy -- guitar, bass, vocals (original member)
Maurice Jacox -- saxophone, vocals (original member in his bright yellow shirt with a bumblebee on his shoulder)
Steven Bradley -- drums (original member)
Boyle Harris -- trumpet (original member, traveled from New York for the show)
Gene Hoffman -- saxophone (original member)
Jerome Broghten -- guitar (original member)
John Beach -- keyboards
Joe Demko -- guitar, vocals
Ollie Foran -- keyboards
Mark Brynn -- keyboards
David Sletten -- saxophone
Bronco -- saxophone
Jeff Garetz -- percussion, congas
Jose' James -- percussion, saxophone
Howard Merriwether -- drums (came from Kansas City)
Doug James (DJ) -- drums
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Willie and Maurice
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Here is the song list:
Luv Buz
Alan Toussaint's Shu Rah
Spill Gravy (song by John Beach)
Hard On
Closer
Mellow Way
Supermarket
Willie and the Bees
With an encore of the Meters song, Out In The Country
You can imagine the confusion with that many musicians on stage at one time. Well, they were able to pull it off without too many mix-ups and the sound, though a little loose and muddy at times, was not too bad. In fact it was fun watching and listening to a band that had a 7 piece horn section, 2 keyboards, 4 drummers/percussionists and guitars, and bass.
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John Beach
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Some amusing asides: At one point Willie said, "how the hell does the song go," as he flipped through his song book. And another time he said, "I went to bed in the future and I woke up in the past."
There were a lot of smiles on the faces on both the band members and the audience. This was definitely a reunion worth the wait.
I caught local country group Trailer Trash, who sang a nice version of Gram Parson's "Devil In Disguise" before heading over the Minnesota rock reunion stage featuring The Del Counts, Hot Half Dozen, High Spirits, The Castaways, The Accents, The Underbeats, Danny's Reasons, The Trashmen and Badfinger.
The Underbeats pounded out their trademark drum beat as they played "Foot Stompin'," "Rocket 88" and "Book of Love." I remember first seeing them in the middle '60s at a gym in Virginia, Minnesota (up on the Iron Range). The C.A. Quintet was played "Mickey's Monkey," again after 31 years, inside the Fine Line. Danny's Reasons brought back a lot of late '60s Twin Cities' memories and ended their set with Sly and the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music." The lead singer of the group even had his hair done up in an "afro." The highlight of this part of the day was The Trashmen with their 1963 hit "Surfin' Bird." They also played their usual variety of classic surf songs including the Venture's "Walk Don't Run." For those of you who were around in the early '60s you will remember the "sock hops" and how excited the dancers became whenever "Surfin' Bird" was spun.
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Tom & Tony
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Sunday saw Tony Sims (with Tom "have keyboards will travel" Hunter sitting in) delivering his rocking brand of blues, rock, rockabilly and classic soul (with personal favorites like, Sam Cooke's, "You Send Me" and Eddie Floyd's, "Knock On Wood"). On a different stage, at the same time, The Steele Family were belting out some terrific soul, R&B and gospel. They said they like to sing in the "old style" done with a little twist and are one of the finest examples of local soul talent. The Steels are: vocalists Jearlyn, JD, Jevetta, Fred, and Billy (keyboards). Joining them were Andy Cox (guitar), Sonny Thompson (bass), Ron Heyne (drums), and Darrel Boudreaux (percussion). The Steels and Tony Sims were the two best bands playing this day and as luck would have it they were scheduled at the same time.
I also saw one of my favorite bluegrass bands, The Middle Spunk Creek Boys who have been playing for over 32 years. I remember watching them perform at the old New Riverside Café back in the late '60s. In fact an old college fraternity brother of mine, Steve Block, played upright bass with them at one time in the early '70s. If you ever are driving on Hwy. 94 up toward St. Cloud you just might see a highway sign that reads, Middle Spunk Creek (could this be the origins of their name)?.
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Seth
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Another good act on Sunday was Tangletown. A local group playing in the folk/rock style with lead singer (and Dylan nephew) Seth Zimmerman on lead vocals and guitar. He even has that a distinctive, throaty/nasal sounding voice that sounds a little like his uncle. The rest of the band include: Johnny Bitens (guitar), Dan Arden (bass), Pete Sands (keys) and Craig Grossman (drums). They were just heading out to the west coast to record their second album. They performed a good version of the Band's, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
Monday we got to see the Hillbilly Voodoo Dolls who put together an entertaining set of blues, rockabilly, soul and all-around, good-time, toe-tapping music. Other blues/R&B acts this day were Soul Tight Committee, The Butanes, Big George Jackson (with great traditional blues harp), Deb Brown, Mick Sterling, TC Jammers (with Ronnie Baker Brooks joining in on guitar), Lamont Cranston (30 years strong), Wallace Hartley and the Titanics and Koerner, Ray and Glover.
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John, Tony, Dave
Photo © 1999 Ray Stiles All rights reserved |
Koerner, Ray and Glover, local folk/blues icons, are always fun to watch perform and never disappoint.
Monday also featured an excellent jazz showcase on one of the stages featuring: Bernie Edstrom, Motion Poets, Debbie Duncan, The Peterson Family, Happy Apple, Nichola Miller, Bill Carrothers and the outstanding Larry Goldings Trio. Larry Goldings, a young organ player, who has been playing with his current trio (Peter Bernstein, guitar and Bill Stewart, drums) for over a decade. Their tasteful jazz featured many new songs from their current release, Moonbird.
The main stage headliner for Saturday was the Jayhawks. Sunday saw Semisonic and Monday's final act was Prince (or the symbol). I didn't see Semisonic and didn't get close enough to really see much of Prince (fans started staking out spots in front of the main stage as early as 11 AM on Monday morning for his 9 PM show). The crowed swelled to thousands as they completely filled up the entire block and spilled out into all the surrounding side streets.
As a postscript, the promoter ended up stiffing many of the local performers by not paying them which added a sour note to an otherwise eclectic and entertaining musical event.
This review is copyright © 1999 by Ray Stiles, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved.