Como Park neighbor Miss Becky and the Fat Six at the Dubliner. Photo by Dave Kapell
Head over to the Dubliner Pub, 2162 W. University Ave., for some music on the right night, and you just might hear one of your neighbors performing on the corner stage.
Miss Becky Kapell of Como Park and Charlie Lawson of St. Anthony Park have regular gigs as part of the pub’s monthly residencies.
St. Anthony Park neighbor Charlie Lawson
Lawson, a bluesman who got his start with Crazy Legs Blues Band in 1976, did stents with the Kingsnakes, the Wallets, the Chaconnes, and a 10-year run as Charles and Ed Play the Blues at the Viking Bar on the West Bank of Minneapolis.
Lawson plays with Charlie’s Combo on the last Saturday of each month, and that means he’s got the New Year’s Eve gig on Dec. 31.
“We are pulling out all the stops [that night],” Lawson said. “My featured artist is the punk Irish band Langer’s Ball. We’ll do back-to-back sets and join together at midnight.”
The night will also include “a great unannounced opening act,” surprise guests and Tom Mays, the pub’s trivia king, who will be in charge of silly hats and more.
Kapell, a Minnesota native who played with Ed & the Boats and several other bands in Portland, Ore., in the late 1980s and early 1990s, performs with her band, the Fat Six, the second Sunday of the month from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The band includes Paul Bergen (Erik Koskinen Band, Molly Maher and Her Disbelievers), Ray Barnard (Ray Barnard Band, the Copperheads) and Mikkel
Beckman (Corpse Reviver, Charlie Parr), who coordinates the Dubliner’s Thursday Acoustic Happy Hours and Green Line Sundays.
Kapell moved back to Minnesota in 1996 “and didn’t play any music after that because I worked full-time and was raising my kids.” In 2007, she picked up the guitar that sat in the corner of her living room and began teaching herself how to play it.
She played around with the few chords she knew and “melodies began to emerge and then somewhat magically, lyrics attached themselves to the melodies,” she said. She recorded 12 of those songs with old friends in Portland for her first record titled “For Now.”
Since the 2012 release of that record, she has continued to write songs and morph her style from folk to her true love, classic country. She is currently working on a recording to be released sometime in 2017.
You can see the Dubliner’s calendar of music and events at thedublinerpub.com.
Ken Christopherson
Is there any way I can get in contact with Charlie Lawson? He played with my father (Maynard Christopherson) in the Kingsnakes band, and I believe in Crazy Legs as well. It would be really cool to get together with him sometime to hear some stories! If someone could please contact me it would be great!