Kara Nesvig

When you go to WE Fest during a thunderstorm watch, you will find yourself watching the looming clouds above the Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, Minn., and wondering when they're going to unleash a torrent of rain. You will watch a few minutes of a fledgling young buck country singer, Brantley Gilbert, as he wraps up his set. As you watch the hordes of people, young and old, and observe license plates from Montana and Iowa alike, you will agree with his song: Country must be country-wide. And everyone is gathered in the heart of lake country to celebrate.

Miranda Lambert presents herself as a country "bad girl," a chick with a pistol tucked away in her jeans, a flask of whiskey in the glove box of her car, and a broken heart seeking revenge against those good-for-nothing cowboys who've done her wrong. Where Taylor Swift simpers sweetly and Carrie Underwood yowls like a 2-D pop star in sparkly minidresses, denim-clad Lambert speaks her mind, tells us all to go to hell and then pleads for us to come back. She's a modern day Loretta Lynn, a country star in the old-school vein without the slick of pop polish. She may have shacked up and settled down with her own Conway Twitty—The Voice judge and fellow country star Blake Shelton—but those edges are always gonna be a little rough.

Let's just get this out of the way right now: I am, and have been for quite some time, a Marilyn Monroe superfan. I've read almost every biography, have watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Misfits about 7,000 times, may or may not have been slightly influenced to bleach my honey blonde hair to platinum because of her...I could go on and on. (I even had a cardboard Marilyn once upon a time.) I have very strong opinions on movie Marilyns (and worse, TV movie Marilyns), so to answer your question, the one I know is burning inside of you as it was for me: Yes, Michelle Williams does a very good job playing Monroe in My Week with Marilyn.

DETROIT LAKES, MINNESOTA—Day two of my WE Fest adventure began with former Hootie and the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker, who made a seamless transition from 90s favorite to country star; seriously, every other song on country radio seems to be by Rucker. The crowd was already raring to go by his early evening performance, judging from all the girls falling over into the dirt that I saw upon entrance to the Soo Pass. Rucker, in a purple t-shirt and baseball cap (not the kickers and cowboy hat his contemporaries favor), swept through his repertoire and included a couple Hootie jams too, much to the delight of his audience. But my favorite part? Rucker's rollicking cover of a Nesvig family favorite, Hank Williams Jr.'s "Family Tradition."