Music: All-too-real blues at the Deep Blues Fest

They were at the Electric Fetus, Palmer's Bar and Seward Co-op on Sunday; Big V's and the Eagles Club on Monday; Eclipse Records and even Tatters Clothing on Tuesday. And the thing didn't even officially get started until Wednesday.

I'm talking about some of the 70-plus acts booked to play the third annual Deep Blues Festival, which kicks into high gear today and Saturday on the Cabooze's indoor/outdoor stages.

With performers coming from as far away as Italy and Australia, though, the fest's all-volunteer team took advantage of the early arrivals and spread them out around town earlier in the week to hype the event via free in-store sets and even street busking.

The fest all too clearly needed the hyping, too.

"I didn't start this thing to make any money, but I sure don't want to lose any more than I already have," said Deep Blues founder Chris Johnson.

Johnson said only about 120 tickets had been sold a week before the fest. That's after two previous years in which bad weather and a Lake Elmo location all but assured the event wouldn't break even.

This is the part where I urge and beg and guilt-trip all you lovers of gritty, adventurous and/or authentic music to please give this festival a try this year. It's not in the least bit condescending to say you really don't know what good a thing you're missing. By design, the Deep Blues performers are not well-known names, even among serious lovers of the blues.

There's a boatload of international acts, too, ranging from psychedelic British blues-rock band the High Plane Drifters to Australian psychobilly player the Kirk Special One-Man Band to punky Italian duo the Black Smokers. There's also a terrific cross-section of Twin Cities blues purveyors, including Spider John Koerner, Chooglin', A Night in the Box, Luther the Devil and Davina & the Vagabonds.

"The first year we did this, we had five or six bands," Johnson recalled. "This year, we started with a list of about 600, and about 200 of them wanted to come at their own expense, it meant that much to them. "

Johnson, 46, from Hudson, Wis., is hardly your typical concert promoter. He had scant experience in the music biz when he put together the first Deep Blues Fest, after selling an insurance agency and essentially going into early retirement. He started out with time and money to burn.

"I was just a fan who wants to see these acts perform," he said. "It's still all about that."

Johnson is convinced there are plenty more fans like him. Though ticket sales have been minimal, the fest attracted buyers in 15 other states and six other countries, he said. It was even recommended by both the Times in London and New York Times newspapers in their summer festivals sections.

Nashville beckons Becky A surprise to no one who knows how well her bluegrassy folk music stacks up to Nashville standards -- and perhaps even exceeds it -- Becky Schlegel is up and moving to the Tennessee capital along with her fellow picker/husband Heath Loy and their three young boys next week. The South Dakota transplant and "Prairie Home" regular has two last gigs as a Twin Cities resident Saturday at the 318 Cafe in Excelsior (5 and 8 p.m., $16).

"We thought about it for a long time and finally decided it was time to give it a try," she said.

The singer, 36, has been traveling to Music City, U.S.A., regularly for the past few years and issued her last CD, "For All the World," on a Nashville boutique label. Her ace guitar player and chief collaborator, Brian Fesler, moved down there several months ago to work as a Scientology reverend, and he will stay on as her sidekick. Schlegel hopes to fall in with Nashville's prevalent songwriters scene and doesn't have any aspiration to become a glitzy Nashville hat act. But, she quipped, "I'd be happy if one of those acts recorded one of my songs."

Random mix With the Internet buzz allegedly turning into Internet pirating already, Universal/Republic Records has bumped up the release date of Owl City's album "Ocean Eyes" to July 28 from the previously announced Sept. 1, and it even became available for download this past Tuesday. The disc got a big boost when iTunes chose the lead single "Fireflies" as its Single of the Week this week. However, the Owatonna-reared buzz kid (Adam Young) still doesn't have another local show booked until Sept. 26 at the Cabooze. ... Speaking of the Cabooze, it took Daughtry about 30 seconds to sell out his/their Aug. 9 show there. ...

Already tied to the Twin Cities via Ouija Radio and 20 Dollar Love, Crustacean Records -- based around Madison, Wis. -- will have an increased profile here soon as its co-founder Jake Shut is moving to Minneapolis. The label will celebrate its 15th anniversary at the Uptown Bar tonight with Things Fall Apart and Screaming Cyn Cyn & the Pons (9 p.m., $5), and again at the Turf Club on Saturday with 20 Dollar Love and the Skullcranes (9 p.m., $5). ... Ouija Radio frontwoman Christy Hunt has been out on the road for much of the spring and summer playing guitar in the Von Bondies, the Detroit band whose hit "C'Mon C'Mon" has been used in countless TV promos. Hunt remains dedicated to Ouija Radio and even has a new record nearly finished, but she did have to relinquish her duties as the booker at Stasiu's Place. ...

A shift that might be greeted as warily as Dylan at Newport 1965, Mason Jennings traded in his acoustic guitar for an electric six-string for his second album on Jack Johnson's Brushfire label, "Blood of Man," which is set to land Sept. 15. Jennings' set Thursday at the 10,000 Lakes Fest (same night as Wilco and Atmosphere) could be extra interesting.