The second day of the 10,000 Lakes Festival at the Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, MN, dawned sunny and not as hot as the opener.  Festivalgoers crawled out of their tents relatively early to take showers and start their day with caffeine. A coffee vender was doing a brisk business.

If you aren't here, you're missing one of the best music festivals in the country. The 10,000 Lakes Festival at the Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, MN, has enough here for every musical taste and plenty of room for dancing and grooving with your friends.

Greetings All:

Grateful Web is currently putting together our review of the Wakarusa 2007 festival.  In the mean time, we invite you to check out some of the wonderful photos Amanda took on behalf of Grateful Web, including great band photos of Widespread, Yonder Mountain, Michael Franti, and tons of great festival-goer shots.   Her write-up will be coming soon…

Wakarusa 2007 photos!

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Donna Jean Thatcher (Godchaux MacKay) was born to sing, and over the course of time she's done so with people like Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, Boz Scaggs, and Jerry Garcia. Now she has a new band that she's quite certain is on a creative par with anything she's ever done. "This band is a perfect fit for me as a singer/songwriter," she said recently, "and I hope to be doing this for a long time to come.

Recently, Ivan Neville commented, "Derek Trucks is a happening deal. He's the best guitar player I've heard in years." And, he's absolutely right. It is praise such as that, coming from his musician peers, that has followed Derek Trucks' entire life.

Grateful Web recently caught up with Ivan Neville while he was in Maryland. The phone interview had to be postponed for two hours while Neville enjoyed some crab cakes, reputed to be the best in the country. "I'm in Baltimore " he said. "You've got to have crab cakes, and I want to give them my full attention." While his meal was digesting, he spoke about his new band, Dumpstaphunk......

British-born keys player Jon Cleary now makes New Orleans his home where he has immersed himself in a social structure that lives and breathes music. He offers a unique perspective on the cultures that produced New Orleans popular music.

"In New Orleans, music is such an important part of the culture here," says Cleary. It is what first attracts people, not only to visit, but to live there as he has done. "They fall in love with it because they love the culture," he says.  "Music is the soundtrack of your social life in New Orleans."

Jon Cleary's upbringing, amid a family of musicians in England, clearly put him on his lifepath. He was destined to be a musician. "There was never any question," he says. "That was all I really ever wanted to do."