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Shelter from the Storm aboard the Irvin. Photos by Jill Fisher.

Another outdoor concert, another outdoor venue. Who came up with the idea of rock ‘n’ roll concerts aboard the permanently docked historic freighter, the William A. Irvin? 

It is an altogether unique setting in which to enjoy music. One can only imagine that folks need not have climbed aboard a historic freighter to have heard what was happening there since the elevated “stage” surely projected sound throughout downtown and much of Canal Park. 

Thursday, Aug. 28, was the last of the four free concerts presented by the DECC at this location featuring the local group, Shelter From The Storm. 

Bob Dylan covers are the specialty of Shelter From The Storm, the name of which is a title to one of his well-known compositions. 

From all reports, drummer Todd James Larson is the organizing force behind this band, which includes several members of the Janie and the Spokes band — Janie Aas (Aas is pronounced Oase), vocals and acoustic guitar, Peter Aas on electric guitar plus vocals and Garth Anderson playing congas, percussion, harmonica, guitar and vocals. 

They were joined by Mike Bernier (electric guitar, vocals) and Gregg Carleo (electric bass) who filled in for Jordan Ash, the band’s regular bassist. Larson provided vocals as well.

One of the best things about this band is that lead vocals are shared by several of its members. I’ve always appreciated the musical variety such sharing produces, as well as the fine harmonies it begets. 

For instance, Bernier’s raucous rendition of “Don’t Think Twice” was balanced by Janie’s smoother take of “All Along the Watchtower.” Then there was Garth belting out “Maggie’s Farm” with the gusto it deserves. 

I didn’t note the song Peter sang, but there again it added another musical flavor to SFTS’s mix. They played one of my favorite Dylan numbers, “Mississippi,” from his Love and Theft album. 

Their take on “Like a Rolling Stone” displayed sweet harmonies and provided the audience the opportunity to sing along. 

Appropriately, the final song played on this evening was the band’s namesake.

As Janie expressed it, the late summer evening was magical, with a waxing crescent moon hovering in the clear blue southern sky. Though a bit breezy, folks bundled up and stuck it out atop the freighter. 

Presumably it was a physically challenging gig as well, what with getting all those speakers, instruments (a standup bass was out of the question) and other equipment up to the spar deck via narrow steep stairs (more like ladders) and back down again. Everyone involved deserves many thanks for the efforts to entertain us music lovers.

The following Friday evening, Aug. 29, I made it up to Silver Bay City Park to take in the Rocky Wall production of Tina & the B-Sides, another free concert. (We are so lucky to be offered these performances!) I hitched a ride with a long-time fan of this group, which was hot stuff in the Twin Cities back in the late 1980s to 1999. 

Tina & The B-Sides

According to its website, the band took a 15-year hiatus, then got back together in 2014. 

Led by Tina Schlieske (electric guitar, vocals), the B-Sides include her sister Laura (vocals and percussion), Brian Ziemniack (keyboard), Jeremy Plumb (bass), Ron Caron (drums) and Patrick Tanner (electric guitar) instead of band regular Troy Norton. 

I did not know exactly what to make of this group based on the sound of the first few songs, beginning with “Call My Name” from their 2014 album, Barricade, and another “Play That Fool.” 

Then they played “I Am Forsaken” and I got into their groove. Thinking back on it I realize that I hadn’t been into music at all during the 1980s when I was living in Minneapolis. It was a time of musical foment due to Prince and that ilk but my musical memory of that era is limited. 

In any case, the show continued to rock as the group performed “Deliver Me,” which Tina explained was composed on the 405 highway in Los Angeles, where she now resides. Next came “Paper Doll” from 1994 and another sung by Laura, who has a tremendous voice that certainly deserves to be highlighted, not just relegated to singing harmony. 

By this point in the concert it was evident that their repertoire melds jazz, funk and blues with overall rock ‘n’ roll genre.

Tina was quite punkish, with a radical hairstyle, cowboy shirt and white “dropped cropped” pants (I call ‘em clown pants). 

She claimed the pants were what kept her from climbing up the tent support towers. 

At about this point in the show Tina’s mic went dead, leading to a kerfuffle as folks scrambled to find batteries for it. 

But all was not lost as Ziemniack played a few introductory notes that Laura picked up on to sing Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 feminist hit “I Will Survive.” All of us women dancing up front took up the refrain for a rousing rendition that kept the show rockin’.

There was plenty more music to come, both their own originals (“Don’t Bring Me Down” from their 1994 Monster) and a cover of Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High.” These revealed influences by the likes of Janis Joplin, with high-pitched howling and similar vocal effects. 

Throughout, bassist Jeremy Plumb was wonderfully animated. 

Tina and crew wrapped up their performance with the bluesy “Let It Be Me.” 

Overall it was a very satisfying concert.  My driver pal declared it was “great”— right in line with what he had hoped for. 

For me it did turn out to be a show not to be missed for the musical education it provided me. Yep, I’d attend another concert by the group.

Due to family doings I missed all of the music and festivities around Twin Ports Pride. In particular, I wish I could’ve gotten down to Bayfront to take in the music of Gochujang. 

Alas, one can’t be everywhere at once!

The last evening of August, Sunday the 31st, saw the Curmudgeon and I driving down to the Rugged Spruce Golf Course in Mahtowa to see the Eau Claire-based Driftless Revelers on the Long Iron Stage there. 

We’ve seen this trio, consisting of Matt Sayles, Ben Nelson and Jerod Kaszynski, around these parts before and have come to appreciate their “freak folk” music. 

With the release of their latest album, In the Kitchen With The Driftless Revelers, this was their first stop on a western tour to promote it. 

An added treat was Erin Aldridge joining the boys for this gig. It was a surprising collaboration that, as the show went on, put me in mind of the Marx Brothers’ movie A Night At The Opera with the serious opera star Kitty Carlisle.

The Driftless Revelers with Erin Aldridge

These guys are both really goofy and really good musicians. From the pre-show sound check at 6 pm, they sang a crazy bantering ditty, “Sound Check,” with the claim they aren’t the Driftless Revelers but just three kitchen line cooks, or caddies, ball-washers and greens keepers. (“Sorry about the mess made by a mole on hole 17!”) 

As for instruments, Matt plays electric guitar, Ben plays both guitar and banjo, plus bass when spelling Jerod who usually plays the standup bass as well as guitar, clarinet and flute. Adding Erin’s versatile fiddling to the mix upped the musicality even further. For example, on “Mongolian Fry Cook” (reportedly about a real person), she added a Middle Eastern flair. On other songs she contributed a gypsy spirit. Whatever the mood, whatever the style, Erin provided an added nuance that both enhanced and counterbalanced the craziness of the guys.

Most all the songs on In the Kitchen had food-related lyrics. “Sweet Feet” was a take on the 1949 “Sugar-Foot Rag,” while Ben’s composition “Salty Creek,” based on the bluegrass standard “Salt Creek.” showcased his pickin’ and Erin’s fiddlin’. “My Grill” was Jerod’s lament about his “grill that won’t grill.” A lone non-food song from the album, “Puff Puff Pass Pass For Legal Grass” was their brief foray into Wisconsin politics (and maybe it was food-related if they were considering munchies!). 

They updated the old folk song ““Dinah” and covered T2’s “Pretty Ass Day,” complete with birdsong, clarinet accompaniment and a lovely fiddle interlude by Erin with  gypsy jazz inflections. Then it was on to a Dan Hicks-like tune, “Gonna Drink and Drive that Woman Off of My Mind.”

The guys and Erin were on a roll, so they played beyond their slated time with original stuff from earlier recordings: “Jesus Shaves,” “Meat Raffle Mambo” and “Hate Mail” (with the refrain “won’t you send me some hate mail?”). 

What a fun, humor-filled evening; I found myself laughing and snorting in response to their amusing lyrics, back stories and Matt’s spot-on impersonations. 

How lucky those folks are who will see them on their western tour in the coming months. Next stop is Finley, North Dakota, then it’ll be onto Montana, and multiple gigs in Oregon and California. 

It’ll be a while before we get to see them again, but of course you can check out their music on the various streaming platforms.

UPCOMING: There are two events high on my to-do list — the Vista Star cruise organized by Sacred Heart Music Center with Saltydog and Born Too Late this Thursday, Sept. 4. See sacredheartmusic.org/events for details and tickets. The second is on Friday, Sept. 5, at Silver Bay City Park, where Rocky Wall Productions is bringing Scarlet Rivera and the Chris Mulkey Band to perform for free. The music starts at 7:30 pm.

 See you there!