INDIANA PARLEY

Dan Quayle walked out of a John Mellencamp concert this weekend which was being held as part of the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in Stateline, Nevada.

The former Vice President might be interested to know that there was another musical event held in New Jersey this weekend that has some tie-in to him.

That is the Black Potatoe Music Festival which ran from last Thursday through Sunday. The Festival is now in its 10th year and is organized by the founders of the Black Potatoe music label.

How did it get its name?

Here is the explanation from Jim Beckerman at NorthJersey.com:

The Black Potatoe Music Festival in Clinton is a four-day celebration of roots music, named in honor of a root vegetable.

So far, so logical -- but what's with the extra "e" in potato?

[ ... ]

"We added the extra 'e' after Dan Quayle," says Black Potatoe founder Matt Angus, referring to the notorious incident in which the former vice president showed a classroom full of grade-schoolers how to spell America's favorite side dish.

"We said if Dan Quayle could be vice president of the United States, we could run a [festival]," Angus says.

But it's the music-industry bigwigs who really get his blood boiling -- the "pay-to-play" promoters who tell bands they need to sell 100 tickets to friends before they'll be allowed to open for a national act, or the festivals that aren't interested in musicians, however brilliant, unless they're signed to major labels.

That was the reason Angus, himself a musician, created the Black Potatoe Festival 10 years ago, as an offshoot of his Black Potatoe record label.

Editor's note: Know that Indiana Parley believes Mr. Quayle was unfairly maligned due to a misspelling on a card handed to him at a student spelling bee. His verbal miscue was not unlike that of other tired candidates. The difference is that then mainstream press gave it a disproportional amount of coverage compared to the coverage given the verbal missteps of other candidates.