The AiA crew took in two days of music on a rainy but magical weekend in southeast Minnesota.

Planning anything outdoors in the Midwest is a bit of a crapshoot. And watching the weather forecast leading up to the Mid West Music Fest—part one of a two-city festival, the second of which will take place September 16–17 in La Crosse, Wisconsin—there was a familiar feeling, a bit of dread mixed with a kind of a shrug.

Suffice it to say, we’re used to it. The past two festivals we’ve reviewed—Wisconsin’s Blue Ox Music Festival and Great River Folk Festival—both had significant weather-related challenges. But both events went on and succeeded in creating memorable experiences, weather be damned. We were determined to check out Mid West Music Fest for the first time, and for its first full in-person occurrence since the pandemic forced the 2020 edition to go virtual.

The multi-genre festival has plenty to offer fans of any music style and is a feast for folks that like to sample a diversity of sounds. Thanks to a slick app, I’d loaded up my phone with an array of regional Americana acts both familiar and new to me and was excited to experience this festival that takes place right in the heart of the picturesque city of Winona, Minnesota.

Still, the festival started off a bit of a bummer. The first act we’d plugged into our schedule, Minneapolis singer-songwriter Faith Boblett, hovered by the main outdoor stage in the cold drizzle (as did hopeful fans) until the decision was finally made to cancel her set.

Luckily for us, a number of acts would be indoors. In addition to its two outdoor stages, Mid West Music Fest takes place in bars and coffee shops—sometimes at an outdoor stage but often inside. So we wandered into the nearby Acoustic Café for an unscheduled treat.

GOOD NIGHT GOLD DUST

This Minnesota indie pop group is ordinarily an electronic four-piece band, but here Laura Schultz and Colin Scharf performed as an acoustic duo, giving their set a distinctly Americana feel that made me happy. But they managed to convey their pop leanings through vocal harmonizer pedals, soaring melodies and Scharf’s virtuosic solos that wowed the crowd even on an acoustic guitar.

I had to leave early to catch my next scheduled show, but Jaclyn was enjoying Good Night Gold Dust so much that she decided to stay for their full set and meet me later.

ILIKA WARD

I’ve encountered Jake Ilika as a solo act and through the EP he did with guitarist Mike Munson under the name Land at Last, so I was excited for this next set (at Blooming Grounds Café) even though I’d never seen Ilika Ward and didn’t know anything about the other half of the duo, Joel Ward. Ilika is a phenomenal finger-style guitarist with a warm, spine-tingling voice and a slightly country-tinged folk sound.

To my delight, Ward’s vocals and guitar melded perfectly with Ilika’s, and I was spellbound. Ward brings a bluesy soulful element that contributed to an eclectic set where they took turns singing lead and varying the style of the songs. I loved all their originals, but the highlight for me was a moody, slow-burning rendition of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” which really showcased both of their vocals and their harmonizing abilities.

BAD POSTURE CLUB

Then it was back to the Acoustic Café for a Twin Cities favorite of ours. This folk duo made up of Morgan Kavanagh and Maren Day combine ethereal harmonies and sweet, soft guitar and banjo instrumentation into a sound that’s somehow both soothing and haunting. On first listen, their songs seem like innocent slice-of-life vignettes. But when you focus in on their lyrics, you realize Bad Posture Club presents a surprisingly dark point of view about the world, exemplified by their jaunty mid-apocalyptic number “End Days.”

An audience favorite was an earlier song of theirs, “Waiting Around to Die,” that’s a lot funnier than the title suggests. The quirky lyrics about puppies, spaghetti, macadamia nuts and mean bosses elicited lots of chuckles from the crowd and sent me onto Bandcamp later that weekend to buy their first album, the aptly titled volume I.

BAD BAD HATS

Next, Jaclyn made a bee-line for the main stage to see Kerry Alexander (vocals and lead guitar), Chris Hoge (bass and vocals), and Connor Davison (drums) of Minneapolis-based indie rock band Bad Bad Hats. The band powered through gale storm winds and rain with joyful humor, clearly game for the challenge to play for energetic fans. Kerry’s humorous introductions to each song set the tone for the set, and the band’s time-worn chemistry infused each song—many new with a few older favorites sprinkled here and there—helped the audience forget the weather for just a little while even as it attempted to knock everyone down, including the band.

MAE SIMPSON

Some back-to-back sets had us jogging from venue to venue, but I lucked out and found myself with a half hour between acts I wanted to see, so while Jaclyn saw the Bad Bad Hats, I strolled down to Island City Brewing Company and relaxed with a hard seltzer while I watched Mae Simpson’s fans gather and her band set up and sound-check on the outdoor stage.

Having seen this act once before, I knew what to expect, and sure enough, their smoldering soul sound and charismatic, high-energy stage presence soon heated up the chilly drizzly night air and got the crowd dancing along and mouthing their lyrics. With her full band that includes electric guitar and several horns, Mae Simpson is a good-time act with almost a cult following. But I have to say, they’re the nicest cult following I’ve ever encountered, and the vibe was fun and positive. I left the first night of the festival smiling.

FREAQUE

When I was scrolling through the lineup looking for acts I was likely to enjoy, this name didn’t scream “Americana” to me; I figured it could be anything from a punk rock to a hip hop act, and I kept on scrolling. Luckily a friend saved me from my ignorant assumptions and told me to check it out, and Freaque gained a new fan on the second day of Mid West Music Fest.

The solo project of Gabriel Rodreick (who also sang in the possibly defunct funk band Treading North), Freaque delivers gritty, haunting blues-folk with lyrics both starkly unadorned and metaphorically twisty. Accompanied by upright bass and guitars, and occasionally keyboard (uniquely played one note at a time, sprinkled atmospherically over the other instruments), Rodreick’s soulful, slightly gravelly voice stunned the Acoustic Café crowd into silence.

LUKE CALLEN

I’ve seen Callen more times than I can count, so I knew I was in for a good show, but his set actually surprised me. He’s a versatile performer on acoustic and resonator guitar (plus harmonica) who’s equally strong solo or with a band. His music ranges in tempo and subject matter—from story songs to fiery protests to slow, moody ballads.

Although currently Minneapolis-based, Callen’s from La Crosse, Wisconsin—right across the river from Winona—and his familiarity with the area seemed to serve him well. His set at the Eagles Club that night was extremely savvy for a room that felt ready for a party. He and his band played a range of mid-tempo country rock originals that kept the energy high and gave plenty of room for crowd-pleasing electric guitar solos by Patrick Horigan (Pit Stop, Kansas Plates). The mix included some earlier songs I hadn’t heard in a while as well as new and unreleased tracks.

For a diehard fan like me it was a really fun stroll through his catalog; for the casual listener it was just really fun. I’ve never seen dozens of people dancing at a Callen show before; there were even a couple two-stepping!

HUMBIRD

We had planned to diverge from our Americana path to see a couple other bands, but the bigger acts had been moved indoors at Island City Brewing Company due to the weather, and the venue was packed to a degree we weren’t ready to handle! So we sat outside on soggy picnic benches and caught a bit of Graveyard Club and Poliça from there for a while, then trekked back to Eagles Club for one of the last shows of the night.

Minneapolis-based Humbird (aka Siri Undlin) was just coming off a nearly month-long tour when she hit the stage with her band at 11:30 p.m., but any slight weariness was offset by how tight and road-tested they were. Despite the late hour, the crowd grew at a steady pace, sitting at tables and on the floor, filling up the area that had been used for dancing just a couple hours before. Relaxed but attentive and appreciative, we soaked in Humbird’s gorgeous voice and enchanted backing band and floated home with her melodies ringing in our ears.

It was a magical end to a festival that had its bumps and hurdles but many memorable moments and discoveries. If you want to experience it for yourself, tickets for the September edition in La Crosse are on sale now!

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Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!

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