Dunegrassin @ Joe's Friendly Tavern

     If you ever have the opportunity to go to the Dunegrass Festival near the northwestern shore of Lower Michigan take the time to do it. Not only is the festival extremely chill, family friendly and fun but its settled from year to year in an area  arguably considered the most beautiful place in all of America.  In fact, recently The Sleeping Bear Dues National Lakeshore was voted as the most beautiful place in all of America according to Good Morning America.  Don’t believe me?  See for yourself here http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/best_places_USA/sleeping-bear-dunes-michigan-voted-good-morning-americas/story?id=14319616
Joe's Friendly Tavern

     While the last few years the festival has bounced around these parts a bit all of the country in this area is beautiful and even includes my favorite beach ever located in Empire.  This beach is absolutely picture perfect and makes you wonder if you are in Michigan or a tropical island some where. Another added bonus to the breathtaking country and awesome music fest (which ill get into after the Jump Off)  is the amazing burger I had at Joe’s Friendly Tavern in Empire. I heard that they had good burgers there but normally when I hear this from anybody I try not to get my hopes up because I am normally let down (I do consider myself a burger expert and will expand on this topic in much greater detail in the future).  Lets just say that this time at Joe’s Friendly Tavern I was not let down at all.  I ordered the olive burger medium rare on a pretzel bun (a growing trend that I am not mad at all when done right).  The burger was cooked perfectly and the pretzel bun was soft and flavorful.  I am really starting to dig these olive sauces of sliced green olives and mayo (not Miracle Whip) that I have been seeing on menus.  Its such a good combination on a burger that I think many people are often afraid of (don’t be).  I did prefer the sweet potato fries over the regular (which were brought instead of onion rings but didn’t really care because the burger was so good and the waiter was nice) and I also really enjoyed their fried zucchini slices.  I know there are many restaurants in this not so secret anymore gem of the country that I have not tried but it will be hard for me to go anywhere else when traveling up there.  Now onto the music!!
  I don’t know if its just swimming each day in Lake Michigan at Empire beach but you feel so good when you are at Dunegrass and this feeling of love and joy seems to come out in the music as well.  Each night at Dunegrass offered up a real special musical treat of mostly born and bred Michigan bands.  I don’t know if its just swimming each day in Lake Michigan at Empire beach but you feel so good when you are at Dunegrass and this feeling of love and joy seems to come out in the music as well.

The Ragbirds Live

I had seen The Ragbirds a few times before but it had been a while and I forgot how talented and fun they were.  If you have never seen the multi-instrumentalist Erin Zitle and her amazing band play then you are really missing out.  They really are a “world” band. While their sound is rooted in folk and celtic they mix in African rhythms from multiple percussion instruments and sounds from across the globe while Erin gracefully switches from the use of an accordion, mandolin, banjo and her go to violin.  Peep the live video and catch them on tour, they are not to be missed if you are a fan of any kind of beautiful music www.theragbirds.com.  
     While we were on our way to the main stage the opening sounds of a band drew us into the  Bell’s Road to Rootenanny beer garden quickly.  The band was called Function and lets just say we did not leave the tent once we entered.  We were completely caught off guard by this seven piece band from Kalamazoo.  They came out hard with some of the most soulful and funky grooves I have ever seen live.  Leader singer Andrew Schrock will give any R&B/Soul artist a run for their money, dude is on point.  The rest of the band is very talented as well with everyone chipping in to bring the band together very tightly.  Some tracks feature the percussionist rapping, some feature the trumpet player singing and rapping, and the keyboardist does a great job of adding back up flare on the mic while he seems to effortlessly blaze through the keys.  Any band that can flawlessly cover Morris Day and the Time as well as P-Funk set the bar high for live acts in my book.  Its safe to say  in the words of George Clinton that they “tore the roof off” of the beer garden.  See part of their live show below and don’t miss them on tour, I know I cant wait to see them again www.funktionmusic.com

Funktion Live

     I don’t want to cut my peoples Rootstand short as we were very lucky to see full sets from them all three nights but they will be hosting their own festival Rootenanny (see https://www.facebook.com/Rootenannyin for details) in late September and I am looking forward to giving you a full write up on their amazing music, their festival, and of course the delicious food I get into. I know I will at least be getting down on some of this every morning. Peace, eats and beats till next time.