It’s Bluegrass Master’s Weekend & A Spoof on Little Red Riding Hood Opens

Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie will be at Lusten Resort this weekend.

This is Bluegrass Master’s Weekend at Lutsen Resort and musicians and bluegrass lovers from all over the region are beginning to converge on the shores of Lake Superior for three days of jamming, workshops and a concert.

The banjo is the featured instrument this year and the North Shore Music Association, which sponsors the event, is bringing in one of the top banjo players of all time for the event.

Bill Emerson, who is bringing his band, Sweet Dixie, with him, is one of the five most influential string banjo players of all time and has recorded and performed with more bands than any other banjo player. Check out his web page here.

Emerson will be on WTIP’s “The Roadhouse” on Friday night. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. (Also, of note, Amy & Dave Freeman, who are completing a 25,000-mile cross-continent saga by foot, dogsled, canoe and kayak, found themselves in New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy. They will talk about their experience on the Roadhouse as well. Michael Schumacher, author of ”Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which has just been reprinted by the University of Minnesota Press, will also be interviewed on the show. WTIP is at 90.7 FM or it can be streamed here.)

The Bluegass Master’s Weekend starts with check-in on Friday night and jamming throughout the resort.

On Saturday, a number of workshops will be offered. The cost is $7 each or $30 for the full day. Here’s the schedule:

9 a.m. to noon: The Basics

9:00 – Tone, Timing, Taste, Technique (Especially Techniques for Right and Left Hands)
10:00 – Keys, Tempos, Syncopation
11:00 – Your Questions Answered

1:30-5 p.m. : Applying the Techniques

1:30 – Banjo Mechanics Construction and Set-up; Exploring Different Tunings
2:30 – Backup Techniques for Lead Instruments and Vocalists
3:15 – Break
3:30 – Jamming and Improvising; Creating Solos & Finding the Melody
4:30 – Performing with a Band

There’s a concert in the Lutsen Resort ballroom at 8 p.m. on Saturday night with Emerson and his band. Tickets, which are available at the resort, are $18 adults, $8 for children 12 and under, followed by more jamming.

On Sunday, more music and checkout. The public is invited to participate in this music-filled weekend.

On the stage in Grand Marais, a cast of more than 62, music, dancing and a great script by Charlie Lovett is on tap for “Dooo-Wop Wed Widing Hood,” which opens at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on Saturday night.

The mix of characters, including Wise Prince Jason, Strong Prince Justin, Loud Prince Frank, the Evil Queen, the Fairy Grandmother, Little Red Riding Hood and her two sisters, Big Green Riding Hood and Medium Purple Riding Hood and, of course, The Big Bad Wolf, play out an adventure with a sock-hopping ’50s score. The Grand Marais Playhouse production will be staged on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 3-4 and Nov.10-11.

Show times are at 7 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Alyce’s will cater a special intermission on opening night. Sunday, Nov. 4, is Donation Day — pay any amount for your ticket. Tickets are available on-line here at or at the door.

And

There are some great art shows on exhibit this weekend, too.

“Weddings & Funerals,” a lithograph print by Matt Kania is on exhibit at the Art Colony.

The Grand Marais Art Colony’s Members Show is up in the Founders Hall at the Art Colony with more than 70 artists represented in every media. Paintings, prints, black & white drawings, sumi-e paintings, fiber art, pottery, fused glass, jewelry, sculpture, watercolors and more are on view. Many are for sale, too. The Art Colony is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week. Check out the exhibit here.

Kelly Dupre has a new show of her linoleum block prints at the Coho Cafe in Tofte. She is currently working on a series of block prints for a new book, “The Best Part Of A Sauna.”

The Johnson Heritage Post is exhibiting fine furniture and photographs by Ely master Peter Pestalozzi and a selection of watercolors by Ilse Siebenschuh of the Twin Cities.

The joint exhibit at the Heritage Post continues through Nov. 18, when the Heritage Post closes for the season. ”

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery in Thunder Bay opens new exhibits this week including “Possible Worlds,”sculpture, by Sylvia Ziemann; “The Unbuilt Campus,” a study of the ‘ghost’ history of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and “A Space for Dissention: Works from the Permanent Collection.”

Sandi Pillsbury Gredzens submitted a painting to the Oil Color Art Show. See her entry here.

An open invitation to participate in the Holiday Art Underground Show at the Betsy Bowen Studio has gone out. Interested in participating? Email Staci Drouillard at lola@boreal.org. She will send you more info. The show will run from Dec. 1 through Dec. 24. Artwork must be delivered to the studio from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 19-21.

Also, Stephan Hoglund has extended an open invitation for an exhibit of photos taken with camera phones. He said he would accept all entries, print them and hang them in his studio. The show will open Nov. 23. For more info, call 218-370-1314.

Here’s a few things that are happening next Friday, Nov. 9.

Fiber artists from the Duluth Art Institute will be at the Grand Marais Public Library at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9, for a workshop on created a felted butterfly. It’s free and a family event. All invited.

Frank Moe and his dog team arrive at the Capital in St. Paul.

Also on Friday, Nov. 9, the long-anticipated premiere of “Sled Dogs to St. Paul: The Race for Clean Water,” a documentary by Kelly Schoenfelder and Patrick Knight, will be shown at What’s Upstairs, above Betsy Bowen’s Studio. There will be two screenings: at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The film follows the dogsled run of former Minnesota State Representative Frank Moe, who mushed his team of 10 sled dogs from Grand Marais to the Capitol in St. Paul in March, carrying with him nearly 13,000 petition signatures opposing sulfide mining.

Frank guides his team through fresh, deep snow, slogs through slush and rain, rudders across muddy farm fields, and finally navigates his sled over busy city streets in order to deliver the petitions to the governor’s office.

For more information, contact Frank Moe or Staci Drouillard, above, or go to www.sleddogstosaintpaul.com. Film clips are available on the website.

Hazel Belvo opens an exhibit at the St. Paul Academy Summit School Nov. 1 with a reception from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 2. The exhibit is entitled “Four Decades of Painting.” The exhibit continues through November.

Here’s the music schedule for this weekend:

Thursday, Nov. 1

Boyd Bump Blomberg, Harbor Light Supper Club, 7 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 2

North Shore Music Associations Blue Grass Master’s Weekend, Lutsen Resort, jamming sessions all evening

Bump Blomberg & Adam Moe, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 3

Blue Grass Master’s Weekend, workshops all day, concert at 8 p.m. with Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie.

The Muskrats, Harbor Light Supper Club, 7 p.m.

Trail’s End Band, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 4

Bump Blomberg, Gunflint Tavern, 6:30 p.m.

There are lots of interesting photos and images for this week.

First up is a photo by Stephan Hoglund (www.stephanhoglund photography) taken at dawn.

Venus and a weather front by Stephan Hoglund.

Here’s one of the paintings that will be in Hazel Belvo’s show in St. Paul.

“Emptying Out” by Hazel Belvo.

Travis Novitsky took this photo at a wildlife refuge in Grantsburg, Wis., recently.

Sandhill Cranes in the Fog by Travis Novitsky.

This beauty was taken by Mark Tessier earlier this fall. He has a Facebook page here.

Early Fall by Mark Tessier.

Paul Sundberg (www.paulsundbergphotography.com) caught this late fall shot recently.

Rosebush Creek/Fall River by Paul Sundberg.

Layne Kennedy (www.laynekennedy.com) was one of the photographers who participated in the Photo Exposure Lotto fundraiser at the Minneapolis Photo Center last week. The event provides scholarships for kids to learn from professionals. He donated this photo for the fundraiser. It was his favorite shot from his recent trip to Iceland.