LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Rudyard Musicians Festival), Sault Michigan Weekend Concert Previews, And More!!

Let's kick off a busy weekend for concerts to preview at the SMS, and we'll start with an all-Sault Michigan/E.U.P. installment today! As best as I can gather, we'll tackle the Fringe North/Up The Arts shows with punk/hard rock acts later today, plus Tym Morrison and Soundcheck, with Darsombra to follow on Friday in a regular news post, though this is all subject to change. Now, here's what you should know to start things off, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT & related apology!

Local hard rock quartet Project 906 will return to the fourth annual Rudyard Musicians Festival at Rudyard Township Park (18725 South Mackinac Trail) THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, the lineup was quietly unveiled back in June, but 906 haven't actively plugged the festival online at all. Marking their fourth straight appearance at this annual fundraiser festival, with proceeds again going to Rudyard Area Schools' music & band programs, this year's Musicians Fest will see a smoked pork dinner, local concessions, and on-site camping as usual, so see the above links for full non-musical details! While not part of 906's open date search from earlier this year, fans can look forward to a later co-headlining set in year #4, with their set taking place at 10:00 PM. Surprisingly, Rudyard cover rock band Steelhead are not playing this year despite their promotional ties to the event, with Second Offense taking on the headlining slot at 11:00 PM in their third Musicians Fest set.

Classic rock band The Whole Shabang will play for the third straight year in the 9:00 PM slot, while, as usual, remaining acts are largely in the country/bluegrass vein. Fans can look for The North Country Band at 8:00 PM, Rob & Bob (Malaski) at 7:00 PM, Brian Harrison at 6:00 PM, The Flock at 5:00 PM, Denny Verrett at 4:00 PM, Rusted Spurs at 3:00 PM, Jimmy Williams at 2:00 PM, Joyride at 1:00 PM, and Kevin Blakeney opening at 12:00 PM. Aside from The Flock and Joyride, I believe every act this year has played a credited set in a past Musicians Fest, so if you like past lineups, you are in good hands! We'll let you know if anyone beyond Project 906 has hard rock songs up their sleeves. As usual, Musicians Fest IV is a $5 event at the door (kids 10 and under are FREE), and it's great to see another stacked roster of local musicians join forces in Rudyard on SATURDAY for a great cause! For a preview, here's a new video of Project 906!

This comes from their short notice set at this year's Sidewalk Sales on August 2nd, where they played outside of Crooked Music's brand new location, just across the road from their original Ashmun Street building. I profusely apologize for missing this show for coverage on the site, but 906 only put the show's event page up with six minutes to spare, and Crooked Music's Facebook page never credited the band by name in advance. We'd have covered it had we gotten a semblance of prior notice! You can tell that this was a big event given the Sidewalk Sales ties and Crooked Music's grand re-opening festivities that weekend, and congratulations to Zac and Christy and all the staff on the big move, short as it is! As for the video, this is of Project 906 covering Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" and The Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See", as live-streamed for the store's Facebook page.

Clearly in a 1970s kick at this point in the day, Project 906 handle these covers well and with good passion, though a zoom would have helped, and it's a shame that there wasn't more of a crowd turnout when Crooked Music's camera was rolling, especially with all the chairs laid out. Solid video overall, so give it a look below, don't miss Project 906 THIS SATURDAY NIGHT at the Rudyard Musicians Festival, and visit the above links for more details!



Finally, let's address the continuation of new local hard rock band Tarnished's run of early morning matinee gigs "every Thursday" at Biggby Coffee, as they'll be back for another go-around TODAY! After their Sugar Island Music Festival set this past weekend with the full band and electric instruments, this will see Alex & Josh back in their acoustic, drummer-less form at the Ashmun Street coffee shop, so if you want to see them break out more hard rocking covers for tips and coffee, and you're up for a morning concert, you know where to be! This 10:30 AM matinee has no age limits or cover charges as usual, and just for reference, Tarnished are not playing an Ashmun Alive! set today, as according to their Facebook page, they are hitting the road for Alex's current homebase of Mount Pleasant for a show there tonight. Of course, we wish Alex & Josh the best down south, so see above for more details, and here's Tarnished live last month!



That's all for now, but stay tuned for Sault Ontario weekend concert previews starting later today! Thanks everyone!