By Jon Bream

While some people were absorbed Friday night by the Haiti telethon and Conan O'Brien's "Tonight Show" swan song, I hit the icy roads for an ad hoc Ladies Night.

The itinerary featured the Klondike Kate cabaret at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown St. Paul, Judy Collins at the Dakota Jazz Club and a Janis Joplin birthday tribute at the Cabooze. Here's the report. Since the early 1970s, the bawdy/kitschy Klondike Kate has been part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Ten saloon singers (not the Sinatra kind) were featured, doing such fun fare as "Whatever Lola Wants" and Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" recast as "Calendar Kate." The unquestioned highlight was Brittany Wells, Klondike Kate of '06, doing Patsy Cline's "She's Got You." She hammed and camped it up by demonstrating the lyrics. For instance, when she sang "I've got your picture" she pulled a folded photo of a Vulcan out of her brassiere. For the rest of the song, she pulled stuff out of her dress: "I've got your records" brought CDs one after another, later there came a Vulcan smudge crayon, a bungee cord and, the ultimate, a can of WD40. In the gold-rush days, they would have called this rip-roaringly hilarious, now it's just LMAO. Judy Collins' late show at the Dakota was very similar to her wonderful opening show there in April. However, when she sat down a t the piano for "The Winter," she pointed out, "I'm awfully talkative tonight. Too many words, not enough songs." Her personality was on full display, as she recounted stories and encounters in her life. Loved the stories about Stephen Stills, Joan Baez and Collins' dad. Could have done without her telling jokes uttered by Dolly Parton, Mae West and Dorothy Parker. Judy being Judy is enough. This time, she sang "Send in the Clowns," which she didn't do last time. It was special. The other highlight was "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," during which she was "very present" (ie., lost in her song) for the first time all night. A parade of women saluted Janis Joplin's 67th birthday at the Cabooze. Backed by an expanding and contracting but always crisp band, several blonde-ish Twin Cities singers in hippie garb performed songs associated with Janis. Without a doubt, the stand-out was Jill Mikelson, who had portrayed the rock icon in the Ordway's production of "Love, Janis." Not only did she have the best outfit (complete with oodles of silver bracelets), she had the right vocals for the bluesy ballad "Little Girl Blue" and a twangy "Me and Bobby McGhee."