Update: Roseville's Mosquito Bluegrass Jam Sunday

Today the Central Park Frank Rog Amphitheatre will bring the sounds of the South to Roseville.  

The mini-festival, taking place from 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday will include the talents of many area performers, concessions by local Café Zia, a jam contest, and Mosquito-related activities by the Harriet Alexander Nature Center.

A smaller event in the local bluegrass community, it’s just another sign that the southern musical tradition is more popular in Minnesota than most think.

“What’s great about the event is first of all, bluegrass has a participatory impulse,” said emcee Phil Nusbaum, a local bluegrass radio host. “People who start liking it start playing it, even if it is just three or four chords on the guitar.”

In that tradition, the festivities begin with an open jam. This jam, headed up by professional guitar player Bill Cagley, allows musicians who may have never played together to create improvised music. The jam lasts two hours from 3:00-5:00pm and is open to the public.

Also performing are a dance act and two bands. The dance troupe, The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, is an Appalachian-style group. Its style of dance, affectionally called “country tap” by group member Sam Timmreck, is a high energy performance done to fiddle music.

 “After seeing us, perhaps people will be inspired to dance themselves during the other acts,” Timmreck said.

Those acts are local bluegrass band Sawtooth.  It is a younger band with a more traditional sound one, with their last album being a collection of old-time honky tonk music.  

The final act, The Barley Jacks with Brian Wicklund, plays traditional songs with a more modernistic slant. It’s not really bluegrass or old time music, but has extended instrumentals and interesting harmonies. 

Nusbaum said the community here has really grown since the 1950s when people played mostly in their own homes, and at parties. Now old time and bluegrass are showcased on shows like Prairie Home Companion and at concerts like this one.

“People may come just to check it out,” says Nusbaum, “But usually they stay around.”