It was a birthday bash with a full, four band lineup over at Turf Club in Saint Paul, as Cole Diamond was celebrating with a new EP, and, in what was a first for me, a huge box of donuts that he was giving away to everyone to help celebrate. It was going to be a night of slide guitars, cowboy hats & boots, country drawl and more.

Up first on this four band evening was Turn Turn Turn. They have three albums, including the new in 2026, All Hat No Cattle. The quintet (vocals/guitar, bass/vocals, fiddle/tambourine, slide guitar, and drums) set the feel with their opener, Solid State. With Jillian Rae on fiddle (and occasional back up vocal), the band had a great western feel and on Manitowoc let that slide guitar take central position, and dear reader, I deeply love a good slide guitar. This was upbeat stuff and when the bassist took lead vocals on Hungry Ghosts, it was a nice added layer to their overall sound. You gotta love when the merch call out includes a trucker hat option, and that banter led immediately to a “break up song with drinking”. Turn Turn Turn had a bit of CSNY feel at times, with a pretty expansive sound and those layered vocals. Clemens was a tribute song for the late Slim Dunlap, written as part of an album to support Dunlap when he was sick, and evoked a certain nostalgia while not being treacly and had a great close with all the strings. Cities had a great Mexicali tone and let Rae fly on fiddle. Cutting a few planned songs, Turn Turn Turn closed with Serious, which had a classic country rock feel and was a fantastic choice for the band’s finish.

Lone Rock Bride crowded the stage as a sextet (vocals/guitar, guitar, fiddle/vocals, slide guitar, bass, and drums). Their self titled EP was released in 2024. Hunca had bright steel guitar and lead singer Emma Fisher on some deeper alto vocals, as we got the first dancers of the evening on the floor. This was a bit of controlled chaos, with a smoking rock style guitar solo to end it and pulling that country sound a little more towards that nexus of country & rock. Our fiddle player (in a Messi jersey) asked the crowd to say their favorite World Cup team on a “count of three” and responded with “I like them too” in an amusing side bar. Back to music, Poet was over to a full country swing and the harmony from the fiddle player was a good addition to Fisher’s leads. That rock guitar countered with the vastly overwhelming country sound from the rest of the band and gave this a musical tension that I really liked. Slowing things down with Waiting, we had more fiddle and steel guitar, with that latter instrument getting the focal solo. Eagles had a killer steel guitar intro and a bass motif that absolutely rolled. Finishing on Pinfinger, Lone Rock Bride went out on a bright Americana number (with a bit of Neko Case feel) and had kept the holiday mood in full swing.

Next was Cowboy Thoughts, a self-described “honky tonkin’ country band”. The quintet (vocals/guitar, guitar, steel guitar, bass, and drums) were that descriptor in the opener Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad. This was easily the most straight up country act of the evening, barely moving off that genre label. Good Company was preceded by a can of Hamm’s beer being passed around stage for each member to drink, as if they had never had it. Very strange, but what are you going to do? The actual song, “one about killing myself”, was straight morning drinking country territory and the steel guitar for this band was waaay more country sound than the earlier bands. Headliner Diamond was on stage to play cowbell and had a chunk of audience in an uproar. Diamond took to co-vocals on a cover of Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man and carried the joy of that one forward. Closing on the Nancy Sinatra cover of These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ had Cowboy Thoughts barely pulled out of the straight country for their brief end.

Headliner Cole Diamond (aka Ryan Otte) hit the stage with full band (vocals/guitar, guitar, steel guitar, bass, and drums). He’s got the delightfully named Trailer Park Troubador EP from 2024, and an early song Poverty Line was nearly pure country, with just a hint of rock coming through. People with Real Jobs was that perfect tongue in cheek satire, and had the steel guitar in full wah-wah mode. Yes, it was a birthday show, and Diamond put the plug in regarding those donuts (“We gotta eat the whole box!”). But it was also an EP release show, and “track one, side one” from Singles Only was Broke, which had a full country tilt to it and some great bass work. By the time we hit Build a Bridge, we had finally hit five or so couples dancing, and Diamond shot out a “thank you so much”, as they kept things moving. You’re My Love Song was maybe a bit much lyrically (“playing on repeat”), but worked as a mid-set number for the band, even with a late key change, reminiscent of 80’s numbers with a touch of cheeze. Shine a Light on Me was a fantastic version of the country vibe holding a deeper rock ethos and the steel guitar solo felt more electric guitar than pedal. Where Corn Don’t Grow had a great bass lick and let Diamond drawl those lyrics out. The empty donut box was brought to stage to a round of laughs and applause (multiple people around me expressed amused surprise that there wasn’t a quarter of one left, in the classic Midwest tradition). The band was on pace whether it was a pure country number or a more mixed rock number. A happy birthday sung to our host, we had Gone Country (an Alan Jackson cover) to close the main set. We had not one, but two different encores, which led us to another Alan Jackson cover and Cole Diamond had found that sweet spot of country Americana to close out the birthday bash.