A half-dozen cool things in music, from two points of view:

Michael Zimmerman of Burnsville:

One of my favorite things to find in my newsfeed is old entertainment calendars from First Avenue and Duffy's invariably listing shows I went to or wished I had in my "bulletproof" early 20s. Also, it's striking how many of those seminal Minnesota artists are still accessible to us.

1 Brynn Arens, Aster Cafe. The Flipp singer just had a standout acoustic show. He also can be found on weekends on WDGY (another throwback) curating a phenomenal oldies show.

2 Wain "The Dreadlock Cowboy" McFarlane. The Ipso Facto frontman still plays on the regular in one of his various ensembles all over town. Put his show at chef Kevin Aho's standout Minneapolis restaurant Umbra on July 7 on your radar. No cover, great food.

3 Robert Wilkinson, Hook & Ladder. The Flamin' Oh's leader has retired from his "day gig" allowing us to see a lot more of his legacy gig. I do remember romance!

Jon Bream, Star Tribune critic:

1 Taste of Minnesota. After an eight-year absence, this food fest with music, crafts and wrestling made a welcome comeback. Taste is a good idea that needs much better execution. Customer health needs to be prioritized over vendor opportunities (let people bring in water, period). Sound systems need to be improved when a music stage is surrounded by glass buildings. Food and drink vendors need to be more plentiful and more efficient. Here's to next year!

2 "A to Z Weekend," 89.3 the Current. For the extra long July 4th weekend, listeners got to experience the wonderful depth, breadth and variety of the public radio station's vast library as about 1,700 songs were played alphabetically by title. Here's hoping the Current similarly loosens its daily playlist.

3 "Bob Dylan in Minnesota" by K G Miles. The London author turned to Minnesota Dylan acolytes Paul Metsa, Ed Newman, Marc Percansky and Matt Steichen to provide details about the bard in Duluth, Hibbing and Dinkytown for this slim paperback. This hodgepodge of mini tales, trivia and footnotes begs to be organized into a website for "Dylan in Minnesota 101." Percansky and Steichen will be at Barnes & Noble in Minneapolis at 1 p.m. Saturday.

to contribute: popmusic@startribune.com