Jack Ingram at the Venetian Festival

For 33 years now St. Joseph Michigan's Venetian festival has brought south west Michigan a wide variety of entertainment including live music and this year on Sunday July 17th Jack Ingram and the Beat Up Ford Band came up from Austin Texas to play country music. A few weeks before the show i found out that Kalamazoo's own the Bronk Brothers were opening for Jack so it was good to know i would have plenty of friends to talk to and the day would be filled with good music. I left here and drove the 45 minutes to St. Joseph and got there early since i had to text Kevin "Frenchie" Sciou

Jack's rockin guitar player when i got there to make sure i was cleared to shoot photos and had the proper pass so security wouldn't stop me. We have been stuck in a heat wave up here for a couple weeks now so it was great to spend some time on the beach and jump in the big lake. The concerts are held in the outdoor Shadowlands pavilion which is a beautiful structure in a beautiful setting right along the channel where the St. Joseph river meets Lake Michigan.

Venetian festival itself is basically a carnival atmosphere with food & beer sales and all the usual carnival rides.

The Bronk Brothers took opened the show around 4:30 and played songs off their "Here

For the Good Times" album and a few new songs and were well received by the crowd. About

45 minutes later Jack and his Beat Up Ford band which consists currently of Kevin

Sciou on lead guitar, John Michael

Goodman on bass and "Brother" Pete Coatney on drums took the stage as it was about as close to being hot like Texas as we have had up here. Jack opened with one of my favorite songs "Mustang Burn" off his album "Hey You" which he followed up with that song. He also played acoustic versions of "Biloxi" and one of my new favorites

"Jonesin for Haggard" that i hope he records soon. You can find that one here on You Tube. The band came back out for a few more songs before Jack took off his boots, balanced them worn out sole to sole stacked on the mic stand and invited the crowd up on stage

for "Barefoot and Crazy" and a little dancing on the shores of Lake Michigan. Click here for more photos.