Winona Arts Center - 2024-2025 Concert Series
Concerts are presented at the Winona Arts Center, 228 East 5th Street, Winona, MN.
Tickets are available in advance at Eventbrite and at Music Mart (Formerly Hardt's Music) or at the door. Coffeehouse and gallery are open 1 hour prior to concerts.
Music Mart now accepts credit/debit cards. If paying by check at Music Mart, please make your check out to Music Mart.
Ryan Picone Quartet
Saturday / April 26 / 7:00pm
$20 (+processing fees) in Advance / $25 at the Door
Tickets are available at Music Mart (formerly Hardt’s Music) and Eventbrite until April 26 at 4:00pm. Note: Music Mart now accepts credit cards and checks made out to Music Mart.
Buy tickets on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ryan-picone-quartet-tickets-1259124849319?aff=oddtdtcreator
Coffeehouse & gallery open at 6:00pm. Cash bar for wine & beer.
Performance at 7:00pm
Ryan Picone Quartet is a group that was put together to showcase the original compositions of Ryan Picone. The music has been written throughout different time periods in his life, and represents his connection to the music of Django Reinhardt. The band consists of Ryan Picone from The Red Hot Django Peppers, Ian Stenlund from The Mississippi Hot Club, Tessa Nichols Meade from the Cold City Heat, and Matt Blake from the Gentleman’s Anti Temperance League. This group is an all star group that brings together a new transfiguration of Jazz.
In 2023 the Ryan Picone Quartet released their debut album titled - I Awake dedicated to the legendary Django Reinhardt. The album has received great praise from the Django community including author Michael Dregni. In 2024 RPQ played their first Django Festival along side with musicians like Joscho Stephan and Sam Farthing.
Review by author; Michael Dregni. “Swinging, sensual, moody, rousing — Ryan Picone Quartet's music follows the trail of Django Reinhardt's Gypsy jazz. Listening to these tracks, you can almost smell the campfire smoke and see the nighttime lights of Paris burning on the horizon. Bon voyage!”
Swamp Poppas
Saturday / May 3 / 7:00pm
$20 (+processing fees) in Advance / $25 at the Door
Tickets are available at Music Mart (formerly Hardt’s Music) and Eventbrite until May 3 at 4:00pm. Note: Music Mart now accepts credit cards and checks made out to Music Mart.
Buy tickets on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swamp-poppas-tickets-1259129914469?aff=oddtdtcreator
Coffeehouse & gallery open at 6:00pm. Cash bar for wine & beer.
Performance at 7:00pm
Our final Spring concert will be a great evening of their blend of Cajun, Zydeco, blues, rock, country, and all around good time Louisiana Swamp Pop!
Swamp Pop is a mix of Louisiana Cajun, Zydeco, blues, rock, country; the influences over the years are many and the mix gives you a rockin good time. Check out the bios of these great musicians.
Jan Stroup is a guitarist and vocalist with 50 years of professional experience in the Midwest, playing rock, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. His notable bands include Fatt City and The Sevilles. “Dapper Jan” is also known for his dry wit and sartorial excellence.
Andy Vaaler plays piano, organ, accordion, and sings. His occasional raps have earned him the moniker “Plain White Rapper”. He has played with a wide variety of people in the Twin Cities area, with a musical background including blues, jazz standards, swing, rock, country and R&B. A protege of Dan Newton, Andy joined the Poppas in 2022 and has been delighting audiences ever since.
Max Ray plays saxophone and sings with the Poppas. Max is well known locally and nationally as a member of The Wallets, The Explodo Boys, The Suburbs, The New Standards, Willie Murphy and the Angel Headed Hipsters, Mister Rowles, The Fragrants, and Gondwana. He escaped Minneapolis, and resides on his farm near Shell Lake, Wisconsin, tending his menagerie of chickens, mules, horses, and dogs.
Joe Luoma on percussion, sound effects, and vocals, provides esoteric cultural observations about his native Iron Range. From his beginning with Wayne and the Avantis in 1965, he migrated to the Twin Cities and played with Cats Under the Stars (later the Paul Metsa Group), as well as the Jaguars, Tom’s Pirate Band, Dan Newton’s Jumbo Ya Ya, and Iron Range favorites Rangers on Mer Lot and “stupor group” the Evinrudes (which featured Joe on an outboard motor /smoke machine). Joe handles the fake band endorsements for “Simple Green” - (“It’s simple, it’s green”) and “Hamm’s” - (“From the land of sky-blue waters, Land of loped off pines and dead birch trees...”).
Tedd Halvorson on vocals and guitars is an original Swamp Poppa. Very original. And by guitars, we mean several, in different tunings for his signature slide guitar sounds. He’s known as a key player in Minnesota bands such as Lost Soul, the Sweaters, the Minneapolis Molines, and Molly and the Heymakers in the1980s; Fatt City, the Dearborns, and Busted Flat in the 1990s, and in Nazmo King, Hip Bone, and the Swamp Poppas since the early 2000s.
Lucinda Plaisance, vocals, grew up in a musical family in Winona, managing to thrive as a vocalist despite repeatedly skipping chorus class at Cotter HS. She sang in a couple rock and swing bands before going to “musical boot camp” as a member and soloist with Robert Robinson’s Twin Cities Gospel Choir for 16 years. Most recently, she sang harmonies with the Midnight Choir Social Club, and is a lead vocalist in the Americana/roots band The Lost Golden Toads. She’s loved singing the bluesy, Louisiana-influenced tunes of the Swamp Poppas since they began a decade ago.
Karl Smelker on bass and vocals, is the founder and cat-herder extraordinaire of the Swamp Poppas. He’s played professionally for over 50 years, logging 19 years with the Fabulous Minnesota Barking Ducks, before switching to Zydeco, Swamp Pop and Cajun with the Swamp Sextet, The Faux Playboys, Bone Tones, and New Riverside Ramblers.
Upcoming Concerts
2025
Sept 13: Opposable Thumbs
Oct 18: Patchouli & Terra Guitarra
Nov 1: LVDY Concert
Nov 8: Ditch Lilies
Dec 13: JSU Holiday Concert
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
