For performers, things get tricky as midnight approaches on the final night of the year.
"It's a weird juggling," says Davina Lozier, whose band Davina & the Vagabonds will play its eighth consecutive New Year's Eve gig at the Dakota in Minneapolis. "Sometimes I have to cut a song short to be on time."
To make sure she doesn't miss the official welcoming of the new year, the big-voiced, big-fun singer/pianist consults an app: "I keep track on my phone and count down from 15 seconds."
Playing his 40th-something New Year's gig, Pat Hayes of Lamont Cranston also relies on a smartphone app. Well, one of his younger, more tech-savvy bandmates does. "We have a countdown, everybody sips their Champagne and we play 'Auld Lang Syne' — a blues version," said Hayes.
Playing their ninth consecutive year at the Doubletree Hilton in Bloomington, the Cranstons will be joined by two special guests: former members Bruce McCabe on keyboards and Larry McCabe on trombone. "When you've got Bruce, you always sound good," says Hayes, referring to the songwriter behind "Upper Mississippi Shakedown" and other Cranston favorites. The night will end with a jam featuring opening acts Scottie Miller and the Reverend Raven.
Hayes has performed on New Year's Eve everywhere from the old Prom Center in St. Paul (in tuxedos) to a Hell's Angels party in a hall on Lake Street in 1970. He was invited to sit in Monday with Dan Aykroyd's current incarnation of the Blues Brothers at Treasure Island Casino in Red Wing — the Cranstons actually inspired Aykroyd and John Belushi to create the group. But the logistics obviously make that impossible.
"It's a real bummer," Hayes said. "I played with them a year ago last fall. It was a lot of fun."
Lozier doesn't plan on any special guests at the Dakota but she has some special surprises — at least, for the second of two shows. She's trying out some new songs destined to be recorded in 2019.
