Lanesboro Live

Lanesboro can be a little touristy during the Summer. I love that fact. It is responsible for the arts, theatre and great restaurants - or at least allows the artists to make enough money to survive. It probably helps that our cottage is on top of Church Hill and except for the handful of people who stay at the B&B next door, most tourists don't have any reason to make the climb up the steep hill.

There is professional theatre at the Commonweal, but for the locals there is the St. Mane, with Over the Back Fence - local variety programs, and Lanesboro Live, billed as "Conversation, Comedy & Cool Jams . . ."  Last night Paul Metsa came down from Nordeast to sing a few songs, read from his book, Blue Guitar Highway and generally bull-shit a little - for instance, a story of meeting Woody Guthrie's daughter and getting to hold the original copy of This Land is Your Land, then singing in the Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert. Pretty heady stuff for a smalltown folk singer. There were silly little skits, a local version of Jeopardy, where people were pulled out of the audience to answer questions ... or not. And I should mention the house band, which is great - a jazz combo, which I couldn't find on YouTube. After it was over, Metsa and bunch of the others went over to the Pedal Pusher to talk smart and drink beer. The following isn't from last night, but you get the idea.