Saturday: Leo Kottke

Mike Paulus |

The big show at Menomonie’s Mabel Tainter Theater this weekend is Mr. Leo Kottke. Kottke's picking is forceful and percussive, with the thumb fully integrated into the patterns instead of standing apart as s bass line. When he bends a note, he does it with calibrated accuracy with clever, complicated reimaginings of American folk styles. His stage monologues represent an opposite disposition altogether, a free-associative roll one imagines as a possible result of his strong touring lifestyle. Oh, and he plays with the bassist from Phish a lot. And he’s had 37 albums since 1969. The show's 8-10pm. Details.

Also on Saturday: Free Community Yoga, Parade of Colors Fall Hike on the Ice Age Trail, 10th Annual Dunn County Artists Tour, Chippewa's Fall Harvest Festival, 2nd Annual Fall Roots Fest, Annual Booya & Fall Festival, Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre, A Semester at Sea, The Showoff-Show, and the rock of Kaptivating Kate + The New Labor + Cathode Rays + Passing Shadows.

And on Sunday: Blessing of the Animals, A Nice Family Gathering, and Gong Karaoke,

Art shows: Kaz Kuroki's exploding peacocks, The Four-Color World: Comics, Models & More, Walk Among the Spirits, and Madison Artists from the Leff Collection 1950-1990,