Duluth Homegrown 2012 - Trampled By Turtles & Saturday Shenannigans...TOMTEN TOO!

Holy Shit.. been a long, long time since the Wrenshack Blog fired up its engine...

She's back on the street and ready to rumble.

So in early May it was the big Duluth Homegrown Festival...

A week long event of well in excess of 100+ bands playing live and some always-crazy

full-on shenanigans.

Carrie Ann, DellMarie and I hit it hard on Wednesday, May 2nd for the big

Trampled By Turtles

show at Clyde Iron.

Now Clyde Iron absolutely SUCKS for live music... concrete and glass...

you don't need to be a veteran sound tech for Winger to know that loud sound and the above mentioned is a mixture like OJ and milk in one glass. 

Anyway, there was enough bodies to soak up lots of sound and it's wasn't as horrible as it could have been. 

With the sound issues aside, TBT was OUTSTANDING... played a nice mix of old and new... and

did it up D-town style for  the big hometown show.

Carrie has a major banjo-boner for the TBT banjo player... so after he was interviewed by the local news hack I asked the nice man to pose for a picture with my sister that loves you and would like to move off to Banjoville, MN and live happily ever after. Obviously he agreed... to the picture at least.

BEARDWATCH 2012...

Wayne and the TBT Fiddle player... I kinda felt like a pee-wee up against a pro here... but something to shoot for.

Something of note... watched TBT at  Bonnaroo and I see that the dude shaved and cut his hair... so I'm suddenly in the lead!?!

 

Father Hennipen - a Duluth band of the recent past with a cult following... played straight up old skool country ala Dwight Yokum and such... and hey Sid that is indeed the legendary

Bob Olson on bass there...

Either Duluth is living up to their name as the armpit of the world or TBT is still humble as hell - even with their increased success... why?

Because they basically set up all their shit by themselves... not suckin' roadies or nuthin'

Some hot chicks... who took the picture?

A crazy picture of the action.

Second Homegrown in a row that we managed a picture with Duluth Mayor Donny Ness!

I failed to pay for a few drinks and had to haul pizza flour to pay for them... it was a late night.

We also hit the Homegrown festivities on Saturday - checked out some crazy Rawk at RT Quinlins and then off to Roscoe's to see Dirty Horse and finally to Pizza Luce to catch the big Two Many Banjos set... Carrie's Banjo Boyfriend plays with those cats so she was walking around with a boner all night.

DellMarie claims she was bored out of her skull since we left RT's.

Above is the trolly that shuffled the drunks and stoners from bar to bar... wonder if the driver had to clean any puke up at the end of his or her shift... crazy.

I managed to capture a few vids... check them out.

Did you notice the guy with the middle finger the entire song? Hilarious.

Lastly... the big Tomten 2012 bash is set... going to be a full night of good folks, food, drink and music... lookin' forward to it!

THANKS FOR CHECKIN' IN....

Ed Fitz, Plants and Hunger Games Beard Watch

If you're reading this you are one dedicated Wrenshack Rambler... to be checking in still after months of inactivity... 10,000 bonus points for you!! ta

So what's been up?
Well...

In February I became the 7th winner of the Ed Fitz Trivia Challenge... a pic of my Norwegian Captained Laker full of taconite and a pic of the rowdy goings on... it was a wild ride this year... some big comebacks and some big falls... but a great time....THANKS CARRIE ANN!!

The other big thing that is taking up my free time is plants... lots and lots of plants... starting lots of stuff from seed this year rather than buying it from some high-priced greenhouse... I'm all about self-sufficency!

Check it...



Lastly... BeardWATCH 2012..,

So we went to see the Hunger Games this weekend.... good movie.... worth checking out.

Since I'm starting my "Beards of Signifigance" series... I'm going with Donald Sutherland as President Coriolanus Snow.

Music for the week:

The one and only Jim Savre covering Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic... subscribe to this guy's channel would ya!

I'm Back with A Beard Attack!

Hey dudes... been a while.
Dealing with DellMarie's health issues...which are improving thankfully! S-L-O-W-L-Y but they are!

So on to the issues of the day... Superbowl was a bit boring... glad the G's won.
We had the big Diane Retirement Party this weekend... Props to Nick for making the trip with the Aunts and Robert... appreciate it. No pics... Carrie has them... Diane was pissed and getting more pissed the more she thinks about why anyone would have a party for her?!?!??! DAMN KIDS!

So.... a kid a school comes up to me and says... "why don't you grow out your beard?" and I say, "Hey there little one, I am... I swear I am!" and they say, "It's been that length, like, forever."

So in an attempt to debunk that theory... here we go with BEARD WATCH 2012....

This is last years beard peak:

So this year started off in September... the first pic I have is from late December... with my sweet-ass silvery dog sled hat... going on about 2 months growth I would say.... (cuz I was trimming for about a month or so!!)

o

And a super-bowl-special beard-o-rama pic...just taken tonight... at about 3 & 1/4 months

Had a vid ready to go... won't load...next time AMERICA!

We're not going anywhere!

Yo!
We're still alive.
Just wanted you to know that.
Check back for a post soon!

Helping with a White Winter?

Hey folks -
It's a short one but that doesn't mean there isn't a handful to explore...






Please check the new music selections to your right----------->

And one of my favorites... a beautiful song that hopefully, if you all play it at the same time, will bring northern Minnesota some SNOW in the new year of 2012!



Hope you all have a new year filled with peace and happiness.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for BEARDwatch2012.... it's going to be FunTastic!

3 Finds of the Week - Boner Dollar, Sled Dog Trucker Hat & a 1974 Alvarez 12 String Acoustic Guitar!

Hey folks -
Last week was one of those special string of days where you can't help but get lucky... mine went a bit like this....
A student at work comes to me and says "hey, do you have change for a five?" I say, "Why yes, I think I do." And so he proceeds to count out five dollar bills, and says, "Hey, look at THIS!", the dollar had been defaced - from reading "ONE" on the back to this....

Needless to say, I kept this dollar and still have it today... careful not to spend it... I have to pick a good place to pass this baby along... certainly not at WalMart or in a soda machine...

Second nice find was a new sweet trucker hat that came to me at Goodwill... yeah, I frequent Goodwill... they have some nice stuff - like dogsled trucker hats... and cheap-ass stuffed animals that work great for dog toys among other things... need a can opener - go to Goodwill... it'll cost you 50 cents rather than 8.99.
Anyway this is the kind of hat you just don't find ANYWHERE else...

It's all silvery too.

And the BIG FIND OF THE WEEK goes to the vintage 1974 Alvarez 12 string guitar I scored off of Craigslist from Jim in Superior for a ROCK BOTTOM price of just  $100... that's right $100. She plays like a dream, has a straight-as-an-arrow neck, beautiful finish with nearly 40 years of patina and even came with a case! I'll try to get some audio/video up here soon so you can hear the chorus of angels that come out of the thing when you pluck a string!
Check it out...

Hope all is well with everyone reading this... Keep DellMarie in your thoughts - she's going through yet some more crappy medical stuff... as if the gall bladder and hysterectomy within a few months last year wasn't enough... she's a tropper though - battling through.

Alright... hope you all get a few good finds come your way soon!

Meanwhile you can rock out to some Wild Flag from a recent Letterman broadcast... some interesting rock n roll...

~peace~

Dave Van Ronk & Drive By Truckers

Music Post # 113
Two tunes I've listened to about 47 times in the last week.
Thought they were worthy of a blog post.
Hope you enjoy.
Dave Van Ronk - you MUST check this one out... some great growls in here.... and when you're done dial up Charlie Parr's version on the 12 string resonator guitar live from Terrapin Station on YouTube... dare I say it's better???


And Drive By Truckers doing their tune "Used to be a Cop"... the vid is nothing to look at so if you're at work hit play and go about your bidness... and let it rock... it's a 7+ minute jam... love the bass line...


It's mid December in Minnesota and we don't have any snow on the ground... all you folks out there reading... run outside tonight at midnight in your underwear and do a snow dance under the full moon! You ROCK!

COMING SOON!
MONTHLY BEARD-A-THON...Stay tuned!