Salute to Our Military

The excitement of planning this 21st Birthday Bash has been intense from the onset but now it feels like we just broke open the Big Pinata. Besides being our 21st Birthday for the Porcupine Press Publication with the focus being to honor vets and active military, we settled on the theme, "Salute to Our Military" and reached out and found the best band we could to headline this weekend event. Dan Lawson's history in music speaks for its self but many don't know why he is about excited as we are, that his band will be playing at the Bash, It is the mix of a biker event and a support to the military that will bring him to play, since he himself is a Disabled American Veteran. We have known Dan for years and when we contacted him about our event he could not wait to jump onboard.

MEET DAN LAWSON

Growing up in a small Maryland town at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Dan was always around great family musicians, his Uncle Roy Parks was guitarist with Country Music Great "Tex Ritter" that's where he got the "calling." Dan does not just play guitar, his guitar tells a story of passion and soul! Dan's music is a vast mix of Rock, Blues, Jazz, and Funk. He allows the music to speak for itself! Dan is also a frequent performer at all the Major Blues Festivals through out North America such as The Ottawa Blues Festival and the Mont-Tremblant Blues Festival in Montreal Canada. Dan also has performed at "The Legendry Buffalo Chip" in Sturgis, South Dakota with the likes of, Kid Rock, Joe Walsh, Lynyard Skynyrd, George Thorogood, Blue Oyster Cult, and Alice Cooper, Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Toby Keith, and Papa Roach. The Dan lawson Band is always a crowd favorite during Sturgis and Daytona Bike Weeks. Dan also performed the National Anthem for former Presidential candidate John McCain.

From an early age the heart of the blues was embedded in Dan. At the age of 16 and with tremendous talent, Dan would sneak into clubs in order to perform with Boston Blues greats such as James Montgomery and Weepin Willie to name a few. He has shared the stage with rock legands such as Mark Farner, John Mayall, Mark Mendoza of Twisted Sister, Matt "Guitar" Murphy formerly of the Blues Brothers, Mike "Tunes" Antunes of the Beaver Brown Band, Chris "Whipper" Layton of "Double Trouble", The 4 Tops, Jr. Walker's All-Stars, The Contours, Bad Company, Styx, R.E.O. Speedwagon, Charlie Farren, Danny Klien of the J. Geils band, Lou Gramm of Foreigner, Rick Derringer, John Waite, Jack Blades, Vanilla Fudge, Blue Oyster Cult, Molly Hatchett, John Cafferty, Edgar Winters, Eddie Money, ZZ Top, .38 Special, John Kay, Steppenwolf and Rodger, Charlie, mack and brain of Foghat.

Snow melted and we found the Fair Grounds

This Saturday will be our first walk through at the Alger County Fair Grounds to get a handle on what we have to work with and see what we will have to get. We also warned Char and Lila at the Greater Munising Bay Partnership for Commerce Development that we expect a lot of people will be coming for the Porcupine Press 21st Birthday Bash. They are preparing information packets on area camp sites and motels as well as attractions in the area. One of the nicest camping places right on the bay is called City of Munising Tourist Park Campground. If your planning on coming to the Bash and you want a super camp site, then you better give them a call at 906-387-2095 because they say they fill up fast. www.munisingtouristpark.com There are many other nice camp sites on inland lakes as well. There will be limited camping spots at or around the Fair Ground as well.

Besides the scenic ride just to get here for the Bash, there are near by spots of area entertainment as well. Christmas Casino, Pictured Rocks Boat Tour, Charter Fishing, many Water Falls and a lot more. There is no better time than right now to mark your calendar for the last weekend in August to take in all the best the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has to offer and help us party down for our 21st birthday and raise some money for veterans. Our band line up for the weekend is still pending so we are not ready to throw out and names yet. The vendor list keeps growing and bike builders are making their plans to be here.

Area Lions Club members will be hosting our beer tent, so the most important stuff is being taken care of. Oh ya, the girls at the top, those are the Chop Shop Girls who we contacted at the Daytona Bike Week and are coming to do a Bike Washing and will be doing a Kimmy Cruz Chop Shop Fashion Show.

The Last Resort Opening Soon

Spring means more road construction and here in the Porcupine Valley it is no different. With the lumber mill end of town in pretty good shape, the work crews have moved on over to the other end of town and have been working on the downtown business section with the major feature being the lighted water fountain in the park and main business parking area. The biggest business in town is The Last Resort that claims when it open soon, to be the best resort here in the surrounding mountains. The resort is expected to become a destination for guests from all over the world. First class chefs have arrived and are working on setting up the main kitchen and ordering supplies at this time. The piano bar is almost ready to open as soon as the piano comes in by train. Most guests we understand will be arriving by train and rather than being left off at the station some blocks away, a special parlor car will continue on to the underground special station right under the resort where an elevator will bring guest right up the the main lobby. If you arrive by car you can either park in the town lot and walk up to the resort of ride the special train car from the main station.