Two old friends, Barb and Bill Townsend, attended our March 4th concert at Oakwood Village Auditorium. A decade ago Barb and Bill owned the Copper Grid Bar on Monroe Street near Camp Randall. Good friends of live music and musicians, they provided a venue for a variety of bands, skewing toward the acoustic side of things.  It became a bluegrass hot spot and even hosted some national and regional acts.

The Townsends were certainly friends of The Dang-Its, giving us some much needed gigs in the early days of the band. In 1999 Barb and Bill hosted a show reuniting the members of my first professional band, The Stone Oak Bluegrass Band. Unbeknownst to the musicians, Bill and Barb had commemorative t-shirts printed up, using Stone Oak’s press photo from 1980! (I still have my shirt and it’s in pristine condition.)

Barb and Bill sold the Grid years ago and are now residents in the Oakwood community. It’s always great to see them at our nearly annual shows there. After the show last Thursday, they pulled out a surprise. Their daughter had made them a quilt using a bunch of Bill’s favorite t-shirts. When they unfurled the quilt, there was the 11-year-old Stone Oak square with my picture from 30 years ago. Wow!

Pictured in the old photo, left to right: Tom Waselchuk, guitar; Sims Delaney-Potthoff, mandolin; Max Winkels, banjo and Mark Annett, bass.