MUSIC AND MORE:
By JANE TURPIN MOORE Guest Contributor
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cross southern Minnesota, the gig is up. Actually, gigs are returning—a most welcome switch after COVID-19 hit an indefinite pause button and upset the area’s music-and-drinks culture. Here’s how a few area venues have met the pandemic challenge and are looking ahead. The Contented Cow, 302 Division St. South, Northfield “It’s been quite devastating for the music scene,” said Norman Butler, owner of the Contented Cow pub in downtown Northfield. “Organizing and scheduling bands has been very difficult, because when something [with health guidelines] changed or a band member tested positive for COVID, the gig was over. It’s been hard to come up with a reliable scheduling process.” Butler, who created a British pub setting at his business commonly known as “the Cow,” had been getting along quite nicely
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since opening in 1999. “We have craft beers and ciders, with 18 or 19 taps, and a full bar as well,” said Butler, naming the one domestic beer he carries: Michelob Golden Draft Light. “In our heyday, we had live music [rock ’n roll, jazz, blues and original music] every Friday and Saturday night, a weekly jam session with Scandinavian music and a Tuesday night acoustic jam session,” said Butler. “We’re open to the public all the time with no cover charge, and most of our bands are from the surrounding area.” Butler’s customer traffic was down 50% in January 2022 over a “normal January,” as he put it—and that was understandably discouraging. “I’m not by nature pessimistic, but it wears you down,” said Butler. Still, spring is on the horizon. Come April 1, Butler intends to reopen seven days a week (he shuttered the Cow on Mondays and Tuesdays during the winter) and is eagerly anticipating bringing music and customers to his two-level outdoor deck and stage over-
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looking the Cannon River as soon as the weather allows. “The outdoor season last summer was very good, but it all came to a crushing halt in the winter,” said Butler. “We had one [music] festival each month then, and I’ve had a lot of inquiries from bands that want to play this year. In another month I’ll start scheduling bands from mid-May to the end of September, but I’m trying to keep my powder dry until then.” Blue Moon Bar & Grill, 300 S. Webster St., Kasota Bret Haslip, proprietor of Kasota’s Blue Moon Bar & Grill for over six years, is ready to kick the pandemic to the curb. “COVID put a damper on things, but we survived and now we’re flourishing,” he said. In fact, despite Blue Moon’s location in a town of 700 and its need to draw customers from larger communities in the vicinity, business is booming. “We’ve seen an uptick from what we had pre-COVID,” said Haslip. “We’ve got the small-town flavor and are like a family here.” Haslip is doing his part to keep the good times rolling.
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