Lynda Twardowski of MyNorth had a Q&A with Song of the Lakes – specifically percussionist Rick Jones – just before the band’s 25th anniversary show. It begins:
How did such a unique band come into being?
Way back in the beginning there were about 15 players, just a whole mess of like-minded people who loved singing about life on Lake Michigan. Originally it was just jam sessions, just people having parties, sitting around the campfire. Somebody’d start a riff, and we’d make up songs till the cows came home. Over the years it’s been the four of us [Jones, Mike Sullivan, and Lisa and Ingemar Johansson], playing and praising the good life lived on Lake Michigan’s shores.
Song of the Lakes has been called Celtic, Latin, rock, folk with a maritime flair, and on the band’s last album, Poets Say, we even heard the twang of a steel guitar and a chain-gang style song. How do you define Song of the Lakes?
I just think we’re just pretty good folk musicians.
Do folk musicians have groupies?
Yes, ours call themselves the Lakeheads.