Night Moves/The Black-Eyed Snakes/Mike Munson at Turf Club March 24

The Midwest Music Fest Showcase at Turf Club gave the audience a delectable taste of what to expect at the Fest in Winona, MN April 28 and 29. The showcase began with great old-time country and stomp blues of Winona's Mike Munson, singing classic, and classic sounding songs about traveling, trains, loss with emotive inflection over his highly skilled slide guitar and driving stomp rhythms.

Black-Eyed Snakes sinuous, sinewy music grabs you and shakes you to the core. Stirring up something primal in the soul, the near trance-inducing heavy repetitive rhythms makes you want to dance and grind. Percussion is at the forefront of The Black-Eyed Snakes music, with vocals and guitar by Alan Sparhawk, guitar by Bob Olson, a drum duo Brad Nelson and Bryan "Lefty" Johnson, replete with two kits, as well as shakers, tamborines and more. Alan Sparhawk (Low, Retribution Gospel Choir) repetitively and rebelliously sings, snarls and wretchedly howls into the dark night of the soul. Their swamp and boogie blues songs swirled with heavy psych, at other times funky '70s funk and soul, at others slow, heavy dirges such as "Don't Kick Me Out," were performed with punk propulsion and Sparhawk's distorted vocals and cathartic abandon.

Night Moves were fantastic to see again, performing new songs - releasing Pennied Days on Domino Records March 25. Their unique psych-country with a lush haunting sound, slow groove and primal pulse with achingly poignant lyrics and vocals pull the heartstrings. Their dreamy, shimmery psych pop with moving vocals transports you to another place and time. Night Moves sound Beatles-esque, with tinges of Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young and 70s California dessert sounds. As they played earlier songs such as one of their first, "Headlights" the audience sang along, swaying, dreamily enrapt. Their newer songs sound classic already.

Be sure to catch these bands at the Midwest Music Fest Showcase at in Winona, MN April 28 and 29!