Labor Day is nearly upon us, and summer is on the wane. Send summer 2018 off in style with an afternoon-long mini-music fest on the deck at Boonedocks in the heart of Glen Arbor. Boonapalooza returns on Sunday, Sept. 2, with a lineup that includes: Cabin Fever; Luunappi; N3Z; Straydoggies; Uncle Z and Unusual Suspects.
I track down Joe Wilson at a sweet two-story house tucked in the woods in Leelanau County. It’s daytime, so Joe is the daycare dad of his seven-year-old son Oliver, a friendly 2nd grader. Joe’s wife Emily is out digging in the dirt somewhere in The County running her Green Thumb Landscapes business. A brilliant dobro player, Joe gigs most nights in one of the many bands it takes for a local to piece together a living as a musician up north. Sundays it’s The Hot Biscuits at Martha’s Table in Sutton’s Bay, Mondays it’s Cabin Fever at Boonedock’s in Glen Arbor, some Fridays it’s the Joe Wilson Trio at Union Street Station in Traverse City, some nights it’s at Hop Lot in Suttons Bay, or the Aurora Winery with E Minor. Joe has schlepped his axe and his gear in and out of pretty much every full- and part-time music venue across the north. How did he make the choice that required not just talent, but patience, determination, luck, and moxie?
When you greet Glen Arbor’s ubiquitous cottage remodeler, musician, and leader of the Cabin Fever Band, he holds out a polished rock. It is probably a Lake Superior agate with a brilliant center full of wispy clouds surrounded by concentric rings of layered complexity in a warm colorful glow. You soon realize that the character of Tom Fordyce is just the same.
Boone Dock’s in Glen Arbor features live music every weeknight on its popular outdoor deck. The schedule is as follows: Boondoggies every Sunday and Monday evening; Cabin Fever every Tuesday; New Third Coast every Wednesday and Friday; Uncle Z every Thursday; bands rotate Saturdays.
Gerry Shiffman reports that the next Empire Area Community Emergency Fund Concert will be held on Sunday, December 22, from 4-6 p.m. at the Empire Township Hall. The feature performers for this event will be Empire’s own “Cabin Fever String Band”.
One of this area’s most gentle and reliable characters, the musician-artist-builder and all-around excellent person, Tom Keen, passed away on March 16. Most of us remember him best as the ruddy, good-natured guitar player and singer with the Cabin Fever Bluegrass Band that has played for years on the big sun deck at Boonedock’s.