Clay Street Unit Setlist

Nothing Else Matters
Drive
Where Have You Gone?
Why You Been Gone So Long(Mickey Newbury cover)
One Last Time
Let’s Get Stoned
Whitehouse Road (Tyler Childers cover)
Engine Trouble (The Last Revel cover)
Rollin’
Kids (MGMT cover)
Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
Threw It All Away
1200 Miles
— Encore —
I Know You Rider (traditional)

Johnny Kovarik Setlist

I’ll Stay Around
Boogie
Angeline
Rubens
Tell Me
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan cover)
Franklin’s Tower
Wrong Road
Life is a Train

Minnesotans like to think there’s such a rich and vibrant live music scene because of the people who established and built up many of the iconic venues (think Prince’s impact on First Avenue). And while there is a fair amount of truth to that, as Vu has pointed out, there’s also the more mundane logistics of geography. A large metro at the top & middle of the United States, with a major airport (the long defunct Northwest Airlines, purchased by and now a key hub for Delta Airlines), and at the nexus of both the north-south I-35 and the east-west I-90 makes a tour stop here fairly compelling. And if your band is from anywhere in the region, it makes for a nice place to have an early or late spot in the tour circuit. On a Saturday in Saint Paul, it turned out to be the latter as country & bluegrass band Clay Street Unit was finishing up their current tour with a stop at the Turf Club.

We had a game day change of opener, with Johnny Kovarik and Friends taking the stage to get things started. Kovarik has been part of multiple bands including the “jamgrass” group Buffalo Galaxy. The trio (vocals/guitar, banjo/vocals, and mandolin/vocals) were squarely in the bluegrass sound with the opener I’ll Stay Around, establishing the upbeat rhythms for the set. The banjo player took lead with a spoken style vocal on Boogie, and it was clear that fun was the main driver for the crew, with an extended mandolin solo showing plenty of skill. Transitioning straight into an instrumental, Johnny Kovarik and Friends were top notch on their instruments and made their last second appearance all the more impressive. Rubens reinforced the jam band feel, with a long running instrumental that let all three players shine. A cover of Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright had the mandolin player on lead vocals and the band continued to show some depth and there was impressive guitar work from Kovarik. When we got to a Grateful Dead cover, everything clicked in place around the performance style and jamgrass was truly correct. Closing on an original, Life Is a Train was a pretty great distillation of Johnny Kovarik and Friends, who had filled in admirably with a pretty fantastic set.

Clay Street Unit is a Denver based folk country & bluegrass band, though the term Western Americana is also a fair descriptor. Their album Sin & Squalor was released earlier here in 2026 and it’s silly without being stupid and serious without being maudlin. The band arrived as a sextet (vocals/guitar, fiddle, mandolin, steel pedal guitar, bass, and drums) and had a bright opener in Nothing Else Matters with Sam Walker’s country vocal style cutting through all of the instrumentation. A fiddle solo popped on Drive and the band already had the audience completely with them. We got the dual notice that this was the end of the seven week tour and their first time in the Twin Cities. This was a sneaky fun, with fast tempos and crashing instruments riding over some more dour lyrics. Mandolin and fiddle traded highlight solos throughout the evening and those chipper moments led to a full bluegrass tone on Why You Been Gone So Long. But just when you thought you had a complete handle on Clay Street Unit, we got a super funky interlude for the band introductions which was taken as seriously as any of the songs. Let’s Get Stoned was a party maker and had Walker in full drawl mode and steel pedal absolutely ripping. Engine Trouble was straight country and had dual harmonies behind the main vocals and kept that mandolin & fiddle combo flying. The sing along for Rollin’ was an easy enough set up and the St. Paul crowd was game. Kids was a great cover of the MGMT original and really lent itself to a country interpretation. Simple Man was a live debut of the Lynyrd Skinner song and took a second to get going, but Clay Street Unit had it under control. The main set closed on 1200 Miles, but they were back for a long version of the traditional blues number I Know You Rider. Clay Street Unit concluded their 90 minute set and the tour in high style.