News & Articles

Cry On Cue at Earth Rider Festival Grounds. Photos by Jill Fisher.

The Earth Rider Fest on Saturday, Aug. 16, might have been a total bust due to threatening weather and a torrential downpour in the morning.

As it happened, three of the seven acts slated for the afternoon (Father Hennepin, Mike Munson Trio and Jack Klatt Trio) were cut such that the music began at 6 rather than at 1 pm.

Molly Maher and Her Disbelievers were first up and unfortunately I missed seeing them due to a scheduling conflict. However, I saw that band at the Festival Rialto in Grand Rapids in 2024 and gave it a positive review in the June 13, 2024, issue of the Reader. I hope to see them again sometime in the future.
So, arriving at Earth Rider by 7:30 pm, two acts were yet to perform outside, the headliner being a favorite — Erik Koskinen.

Prior to Koskinen’s set I got my first look at Cry On Cue, a band whose name I’d heard just a couple of times. I was especially interested to see it, not only because it was new to me but because its music was classified as reggae, one of my favorite genres.

Cry On Cue’s leader is Bernie Larsen, who was born and raised in Los Angeles. He’s a singer-songwriter and, as he came of age, he became part of that city’s rich musical scene. He was also an original member of David Lindley’s legendary El Rayo-X band. This led to work with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Jackson Browne, Geoff Muldaur and Rickie Lee Jones in roles that included session musician, road sideman, producer and engineer.

At one point he accepted what was to be a three-month tour backing up Melissa Etheridge only to have it turn into a three-year world tour. He described a concert of hers in Sydney, Australia, as a sort of incredible feminist uprising. (Not so astounding, as the Curmudgeon pointed out, given Etheridge’s political bent.)

How this very accomplished man came to be playing a gig in the Twin Ports turns out to be quite a story.
The iteration of Cry On Cue I witnessed on this evening amazed me. Larsen’s backup band included not just Erik Koskinen but four other local musicians: Tim Nelson (electric guitar), Dicky Brooks (bass), Russ Sackett (keys), Jim Hagstrom (drums) and Ian Hopp (also on drums).

You can imagine how curious I was as to how and to what extent these musicians were connected. As it was related to me, it all began in Houghton, Michigan.

By 1994 Larsen was ready for a break after a decade of touring. When his father, a Wisconsin farmer, relocated to the U.P., Larsen moved there, too.

Of course, with his extensive background in music he launched a music venue, SubUrban Exchange, complete with a 24-track recording studio. It immediately attracted numerous bands and musicians from around this remote region interested in performing.

Among them was 15-year-old Erik Koskinen. That explains that connection!

After four years working with Larsen, quite a number of bands had cut their teeth and developed into a prime resource for regional music venues, including those beginning to sprout in the Duluth area.
Among these was Tim Nelson and Rod Raymond’s Brewhouse at Fitgers.

By 1995-96 a fellow by the name of Jordan Grunow was booking several of the “Houghton bands” for Tim at that establishment. During this same time Tim was playing in a band called Gild that recorded its first album at Larsen’s studio.

The history of Gild, which dates to the inception of the Homegrown Music Festival, reveals that its members included Brooks and Hagstrom along with Nelson; later on Russ Sackett joined that band as well.

Naturally, when in this area Larsen turned to them to flesh out his backup band. To amp up the connection, Larsen and Nelson had formed the record company Spinout Records. Together they’ve released seven albums by Cry On Cue: Truth To Rhyme, Wash of Light, Dub no Sympathy, Dub and Sympathy, Beauty of Emotion, Out of Reach and the heralded 2007 Love + Trust. This latter album was produced by Larsen’s friend Karl Pitterson, who has plenty of reggae credentials.

So then there’s Ian Hopp on a second set of drums to explain. It seems there was a potential conflict for Jim Hagstrom, which led to Ian being identified as a good alternate and being offered the gig. Because Hagstrom was available after all, we got to hear double the reggae rhythms at Saturday’s concert!

(When asked what he thought of Hopp on drums, Larsen was highly complimentary saying he was “great,” that Hopp had a natural feel for the music and he would happily work with him again.)

As for the name of the band, Cry On Cue (a Hollywood term if I ever heard one), Larsen explained he hadn’t heard the phrase up until that point and that it reflected the sad content of the songs he was writing at the time.

Larsen currently lives in Ojai, California, not too distant from his L.A. birthplace, but makes it up to the Northland every so often to reconnect with those musicians we know and love.

Spurring recent visits has been his work on a documentary film, How To Cause a Scene, which tells the story of his time in Houghton. I’ll keep an eye out for its release.

And so, back to the fabulous Cry On Cue concert at Earth Rider, which is even more impressive when I heard that this cadre of musicians had just one two-hour rehearsal.

While I didn’t recognize the original tunes that were played, they were all danceable and right up my alley. I was told there wasn’t a determined playlist; rather Larsen simply called out which songs he felt would keep the groove going. And groove they did.

Among the songs performed were “Light Turned Blue,” “Mountain Come Down,” “Heart is Heaven,” “Big Big” (a song deploring greed) and his 2025 release “Weight of Tears.”

Bernie Larsen and Cassidy Linder

An interesting extra at this concert was the tap-dancing of Larsen’s wife, Cassidy Linder, included on several numbers. She teaches that skill in Ojai and performs in L.A. Hers was a noteworthy addition to the percussion; very fun to watch.

Cry On Cue ended its set with a great cover of the Temptations’ 1972 Motown hit “Pappa Was a Rolling Stone.” So cool!

And speaking of cool, by the time Erik Koskinen began his set, much of the audience was bundled up against the chilly breeze that felt like 57 degrees. One had to keep dancing to stay warm!

Erik Koskinen Band

As usual, Erik Koskinen was outstanding with his usual backup players Paul Bergen (electric guitar), Josh Gravelin (bass) and Richard Medek (drums) plus Kora Melia (fiddle), who’s from Houghton. They played my favorite, “Pony To Ride,” along with “Pocket Full of Money,” “Big Plane” and a couple of newer tunes — ”Red Dress Girl” and “I Got You (To Get Me Through).”

I don’t think I’ll ever miss another Erik Koskinen concert if I can help it. Not surprising that his band will be playing at Larsen’s California venue, “Ojai Underground,” this coming fall.

A postscript to these Saturday performances is that both Koskinen and Cry On Cue played at the Black Cat Coffeehouse in Ashland, Wis., the next day, Sunday, Aug.17, for its 30-year anniversary of becoming a music venue — a place at which these musicians have played since its inception.

With this opportunity so close at hand the Curmudgeon and I hit the road arriving in time to see most of Koskinen’s set, which in this case preceded Cry On Cue’s. (A different band new to us, Floydian Slip, played between them. They were funky, including a saxophone.)

Koskinen played many, if not all, the songs he played at Earth Rider and had some background stories to share. One was of growing up watching the TV show Roy Rogers with his father, which led him to want to be a cowboy and to write a somewhat twisted song about Roy and Dale Evans: “Cruising Paradise the Long Way Round.”

He also recited a litany of service workers to whom he dedicated his song, “I’m Working on the Fourth of July.” Very memorable!

When Bernie Larson came on for the last show of the evening he began without his band. Instead, he played several songs solo on his electric guitar, with his wife Cassidy’s tap dancing providing percussion. Another woman, Mavis Henderson, added tambourine to the mix.

 Mavis Henderson, Bernie Larson and Cassidy Linder at Black Cat

When his backup band joined him, they played “Daddy Gone,” “Lost in a Life Turned Blue,” “Bottomless” (a collaboration with Alan Sparhawk from a couple years back), “Love’s Comin’” and “Beauty of Emotion,” among others.

A conversation with Larsen that Sunday afternoon revealed his philosophical bent and insight into his process of songwriting. The latter was explained as opening oneself up to the “nugget” of inspiration and then carefully crafting it into a singable, playable tune. It requires sensitivity to preserve the original “nugget.”

He asserted that “music is magic” with regards to what it can do in our lives, and at the same time he noted that if one “rubs the lamp often enough” that diligence can pay off.

He told of how just one phone call can change a musician’s life — in his case leading to more and more important connections, touring and higher remuneration. He said he was lucky to have received such a call and that he knows of other musicians better or equally skilled as himself who never got that call.

As for giving up big-time gigs and the standard record labels, he said by the mid-1990s he suddenly had the feeling he was done with all that, which prompted his move to Michigan. He maintained he was not even slightly tempted by the many, increasingly highfalutin’, offers that flooded in after he quit touring.

One of his reasons was that the major record labels were more about making money than making good music. Thus Larsen’s decision to transition into the indie music world; a decision he’s never regretted.
UPCOMING: Lots of alluring musical offering are in store for the weeks ahead. One I won’t miss is the free Sherwin Linton and The Cotton Kings concert at Silver Bay’s City Park. Another is the Woodblind Jubilee under the Blue Umbrellas at Rugged Spruce Golf Course in Mahtowa. See you there!