Rendezvous Days & the Powwow, Music & More

Grand Portage’s Rendezvous Days and the Traditional Powwow is the place to be this weekend with lots to see and do. Rendezvous Days at the Grand Portage National Mounument features music, dancing, craft demonstrations and hands-on workshops as well as a large historical encampment of re-enactors who will be happy to share information about the fur-trading days with you.

The Monument’s Heritage Center is also open over the weekend with a variety of historical exhibits. The historic Depot on the Monument’s grounds is also a great place to visit with exhibitors and more to see. The Monument is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.  For a complete schedule of events, click here.

A visit to Grand Portage this weekend will also give you an opportunity to see the Grand Portage  Traditional Powwow, which is held at the powwow grounds just above the Monument in conjunction with Rendezvous Days. It is sponsored by the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. In past years, more than 350 dancers from the region, including Canada,  participated in the powwow as well as more than 10 drums. The powwow also features a variety of traditional Native craft booths as well as food, including Indian tacos.

Grand Entries are at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. There is also traditional dancing on Friday night.

The event is free. All invited.

And, to top it off, the Rock-A-Billy Revue will be at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino on Saturday night. The music starts at 9 p.m.

Actually, it’s a half-way crazy weekend for music, there is so much going on.

First off, WTIP’s The Roadhouse,  which airs on WTIP Community Radio on Fridays from  5-7 p.m.,  will be all music this week. Musicians in the studio on Friday include singer/songwriters James Moors & Kort McCumber, Bump & Barbara Jean and Charlie Roth as well as the Pete K Group. They’ll be talking about their music and playing up a storm.

Singer/songwriter Charlie Roth hasn’t played in a Cook County music venue yet, but was recently featured on MPR’s The Current and is up here on vacation. He brought his guitar with him and is excited about being on the show.

He lives near Sauk Rapids, but has also found an audience most recently in the Netherlands and in Northern Ireland where his album, “Broken Ground” received airplay. Charlie has tapped  his musical roots to record his latest work, “Tartan Cactus Heart.”  Here’s his Web site. Take a listen.

Everybody else on The Roadhouse is really going to be busy this weekend. James Moors & Kort McCumber, and Bump & Barbara Jean are going to be in concert at 8 p.m. at What’s Upstairs, above Betsy Bowen’s Studio Gallery, on Friday night after the radio show.

Bump & Barbara Jean and the acoustic blues duo, Bingham and Thorne, are playing at a variety of venues this weekend, as is the Pete K Group. See music schedule, below.

Timmy Haus has several gigs, too, and Eric Frost, Joe Paulik, Carnival Meltdown, Portage, Chris Silver, Jeff Ray, J Squared & the Makers and Maxi Childs Trio can also be heard this weekend. So, lots of music. Enjoy.

In other news, Barbara Jean will be performing on NPR’s Mountain Stage Radio Show this fall when they record two shows at North House Folk School in Grand Marais Sept. 13-14. She will be playing Thursday, Sept. 13, along with Trampled by Turtles, Low, Rhett Miller, and Peter Himmelman. Tickets for the concert and all the music that weekend are on sale now on the North House site. Click here to reserve your seat.

Betsy Bowen will be exhibiting at the Glensheen Festival of Fine Art and Craft this weekend. More than 70 artists will be on-site at the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The big band, Sentimental Journey, will play.

There are two good art shows to see this weekend, too.

This is the last weekend for the Society of Minnesota Sculptors show at the Johnson Heritage Post. The exhibit closes on Sunday. The Heritage Post is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and 1-4 p.m. Sundays.

Also, the Cross River Heritage Center is featuring work by four local artists this month. They include potter Ann Ward,  photographers David Brislance and Shell and Alan Foeckler and painter Sandra Pillsbury.

Also the Heritage Center is holding its annual Ice Cream Social on Saturday at 1 p.m. followed by a presentation by astronomer Bob King. Free. All invited.

The Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center on the Gunflint Trail is holding a Pie & Ice Cream Social on Saturday, too, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is a fundraiser for the Nature Center and the Gunflint Trail Historical Society. Authors John Hendricksson and Bob Olson (“Two Bucks and a Can of Gas”) will be selling and signing books.

Just to back-track a little, Elizabeth Reetz will give a presentation on bats in Minnesota at Chik-Wauk on Thursday, Aug. 9 at 3 p.m.

On Saturday at 5 p.m., Drury Lane Books will host a Writer’s Salon with author Stephen Wilbers who will talk about his book, “A Boundary Waters History.”

Speaking of books, the latest Kent William Krueger book “Trickster” will be released on Aug. 21  and copies will be at Birchbark Books & Gifts.The shop currently is showing metal refraction prints by Kathleen Gray-Anderson.

Great Gifts of Lutsen has just received beautiful new cards by watercolorist Jackie Kotlarek of Duluth.

Blue Moose has new vases and bowls by Lois Sharpe of North Carolina as well as new mugs by Pam & Mac.

Sivertson Gallery has just received new sculptural wall pieces by  Kelly Jean Ohl as well as some large bowls and rattles by the popular artist. The gallery also has handmade wooden bowls decorated with Native American beadwork by  John and Grace Chianelli of Prior Lake.

Registration for the Plein Air Painting Competition and Exhibition sponsored by the Grand Marais Art Colony opened today. To register, click here. 

Also, there are still openings in the “Katazome: Japanese Stencil Dye” workshop taught by Kit Eastman Aug. 18-19 at the Art Colony. For more info, click here.

And here’s the music schedule for this weekend:

 

Wednesday, Aug. 8

• Brett Berka & Friends, Harbor Light Supper Club & Bar, 7 p.m.
• Pete Kavanaugh, Birch Terrace Lounge, 7 p.m.

• Eric Frost, Moguls at Caribou Highlands, 7 p.m.
• Bingham & Thorne, Bluefin Grille, Tofte, 9 p.m.
• Timmy Haus, Gunflint Tavern, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 9

• Bump & Barbara Jean, Harbor Light, 6 p.m.
• Chris Silver, Raven’s Nest, Gunflint Tavern, 7 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 10

• Portage, American Legion, Grand Marais, 6 p.m.
• Bingham & Thorne, Harbor Light Supper Club & Bar, 6 p.m.
• Timmy Haus, Devil Track Resort Lounge, 7 p.m.
• Joe Paulik, Cascade Lodge Pub, 7:30 p.m.
• Moors & McCumber, Bump & Barbara Jean, What’s Upstairs, 8 p.m.
• Pete K Group, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 11

• Pete Kavanaugh & Eric Meyer, Birch Terrace Lounge Deck, 3 p.m.
• Timmy Haus, Devil Track Lounge, 5 p.m.
• J Squared & the Makers, Papa Charlie’s, Lutsen Mountains, 6 p.m.
• Carnival Meltdown, Harbor Light, 6 p.m.
• Bump & Barbara Jean, Cascade Lodge Pub, 7:30 p.m.
• Pete K Group, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.
• Timmy Haus, Papa Charlie’s, Lutsen Mountains, 9 p.m.
• Rock-A-Billy Revue,  Grand Portage Lodge & Casino, 9 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 12

• Pete K Group, Devil Track Resort, 5 p.m.
• Maxi Childs Trio, Harbor Light, 6 p.m.
• Jeff Ray, Gunflint Tavern, 9 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 14

• Pete Kavanaugh, Gunflint Tavern, 7 p.m.

We found a potpourri of interesting people photos and beautiful landscapes for you this week.

First, the people.

Here’s a shot of this year’s Citizen of the year, Deb Benedict, in the Fisherman’s Picnic Parade. Her driver is Ann Possis, who calls this photo “Driving Miss Diva.” Benedict is the executive director of WTIP Radio and her nom de plume is radio diva.

Here’s Paul Sundberg’s photo of The Splinters, who played for a street dance on Saturday night.

Here’s a great shot by Bruce Johnson.

Tim Young caught this gorgeous shot of Joe Paulik and Jessi Nicholson at the Picnic.

Here’s an evocative shot at the Grand Portage Monument by Layne Kennedy.

Kennedy also passed this one along… couldn’t resist publishing it. It’s of Philis Anderson and her horses.

Now, for the landscapes.

Clouds and storms were one of the topics this week. Here are a few examples.

Those clouds carried a lot of energy in them. Here’s Tim Bauer’s shot of a lightning bolt over Lake Superior. It was quite a show the other night.

Carl Foster had his camera out, too.

It was really balmy that night, and people were just sitting on the beach watching the show, which lasted for at least an hour. Wisconsin got the rain.

Here’s a change of pace. Nace Hagemann donated this photograph of the northern lights for a fundraiser for the Lake Superior Zoo, which was deluged by flooding during the recent record-breaking storm in Duluth. The fundraiser is on Saturday at the zoo and is called “Artists on the Loose.”

Back to earth and our beautiful Lake Superior, Here’s a Bryan Hansel shot.

 

And last, but not least,  Kathie Swader caught Lake Superior in a supreme mood.

Have a great weekend, everyone!