Spider John Koerner gives us a reason to whiskey tonight and tomorrow

photo via Red House Records

​Seeing Spider John Koerner live is a lucky thing, something we get treated to more often than, say, we deserve. Memories or wishes of north woods hootenannies and smoke-filled parlors in the sixties as all those jubilantly drunk revelers stomp and squall towards sunrise. Something like: "Drinkin' and dancin' / All night long / Early in the morning / Yet it's still goin' strong." Something like that, maybe.

And so it is that Spider John is playing with some severely talented people tonight and tomorrow. Bully for us!

Tonight Spider John will be joined by his longtime co-conspirator and folk legend in his own right Tony Glover, kicking off the Mill City Museum's Mill City Live outdoor concert series. If, for some reason, there's no room in your cold cold heart for amazing folk (music or otherwise), you'd be well-served making this a must-show. It will change your mind.

Massive festivities are in order for tomorrow night. Koerner moves over to the Cedar Cultural Center for a Nero's Neptune triple CD-release bonanza. Koerner is having his 1972 record Music Is Just a Bunch of Notes and March 1963 repressed, as well as Charlie Parr's When The Devil Goes Blind, who, but of course, is also playing. Also taking place is a screening of Koerner's film The Secret of Sleep - it's the first time in forty years that it's been publicly shown, and a DVD is also bundled with Music Is Just a Bunch of Notes.

As a postscript I would like to say that Spider John and Willie Murphy's record Running, Jumping, Standing Still is one of my favorite records of all time and you should do anything in your power to hear it. That is all.

Spider John Koerner & Tony Glover
Mill City Museum, Thursday, July 8, 6-8PM
$5 (free for Minnesota Historical Society members)

Spider John Koerner, Charlie Parr
plus a screening of the film "The Secret of Sleep"
Cedar Cultural Center, Friday July 9, 7 PM
$12 advance/door
Tickets available at Treehouse Records and Cedar ticket outlets