Great music coming up at the Bothy

There is some dynamite music coming up at the Bothy Folk Club in the next few weeks. If you've never been there, it's a great venue for live music:

1. You can get a front row seat if you get there early.
2. You can buy a beer and a box of popcorn in the Eagle's Club bar and carry it back to your seat.
3. You can go early and buy a burger basket and carry it back to your seat.
4. Tickets are about 15 bucks each. When was the last time you went to a concert for that kind of money?
5. You can buy a raffle ticket and win a free ticket to the next concert.
6. You can win a box of chocolates. The tradition is that you open it and pass it around.
7. You don't have to drive to Minneapolis or park in a ramp.
8. The concerts start at 7:30 and you're always home before 11:00.
   

We've seen some great music here over the last few years. The Carrie Hassler concert is sponsored by the Minnesota Blue Grass and Old Time Association. They co-sponsor a concert every year and we've always been thrilled with it. We've never see Robin and Linda Williams but they're on Prairie Home Companion all the time. Becky Thompson is one of our favorites. They're one of the most requested bands at the Bothy. I'm not kidding...when they do a Patsy Cline song, it almost makes you cry.

Friday, March 28th Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain
Carrie Hassler has serious game as a bluegrass/country vocalist. Hard Rain has serious chops - joining the Infamous Stringdusters as a band with so many instrumental options that you just can't WAIT to hear the next hot break from the next hot player. Check out the instrumental "Sensabaugh Tunnel", opening like a wonderful cross between an Irish Fiddle tune and a syncopated Jazz riff, then evolving into a full speed bluegrass breakdown.

Wednesday, April 2nd Robin & Linda Williams
Their chops don't stop at singing. They are first-class instrumentalists and superb songwriters, able to, as The Washington Post put it, "sum up a life in a few details with moving completeness." It's why their compositions have been recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tom T. Hall, Kathy Mattea, Tim and Mollie O'Brien, George Hamilton IV and The Seldom Scene. Irish singer Mary Black included their haunting "Don't Let Me Come Home a Stranger" on her CD Full Tide.

Saturday, April 12th Becky Thompson & Old School
Becky Thompson and Dan Lund deserve a Lifetime Achievement Award for pleasing Twin Cities crowds for nearly 30 years, dating back to when they were in the Sky Blue Water Boys. And Joe Savage deserves a fire extinguisher for the way he burns up his steel guitar. This is a 6 piece group of veteran musicians playing classic country, swing, and rockabilly so good it will make you weep. (I added the last part.)

Regis and I went to Whiskey River tonight for dinner which is where we like to go when we need to relax. There were a thousand cars there but not many people in the bar. We had a few Manhattans and a big plate of beef commercial. Just what the doctor ordered. Larry came over and visited for a while and we saw a few other people we knew. The stimulation is less than other places we might go on a Friday night so we really had a relaxing time. You can get a beef commercial there for $7.95. The pot roast dinner is pretty much the same thing but costs twice as much. I'm not saying we're being cheap about it, but we're being cheap about it. We used to pay 50 bucks for a cheese burger, a cup of soup, and a couple beers. This is a much better deal and we're happier when we leave.

Have a nice end-of-February weekend.